The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1867-05-28
Is LUXURY BENEFICIAL TO LABOR,

Those who possess fortunes are frequently
blamed for lavish expenditure extravagant and
vasteful. But this is mistakes for the more
spent in extravaganza by the wealthy, the better
for the community, and especially for mechanics
and laborers.'
The above common sentiment we found
expressed, substantially as above, in our cas-.
ual reading this morning, and lay it before
our readers, that we may suggest how very
erroneous it is, notwithstanding its almost
universal acceptance The first principles Of
political economy teach that productive labor
and productive capital are the kinds of CAPT
tai and labor that Der eft . community, and
while the terms cover very wide range,
they at the same time include many degrees
of productiveness.
Should a capitalist spend fifty thousand
dollars one year in employing laborers TO dig
up the earth and make o pyramid of it; and
as much more the next year to FIJI the exca-
walton by replacing the earth again, it might
in some sense be called productive capital
and productive labor, it may be. But now
suppose that the capitalist. instead of this
purposeless expenditure Of money, invests a
hundred thousand dollars judiciously In a
useful manufacturing enterprise. At the end
OF two years, this productive capital having
kept in motion, productive labor has increas,
ed the amount of capital in the business or
TO be applied to similar productive enterpris-
es, has not only supported the laborers EN-
ployed, but has at the same time added to the
oil
on,and thus added to the productive wealth,
and to the means Of employing and paying
for productive labor in the future TO repeat
the same process.
MHence, it would seem clear that the capira al
invested in manufacturing enterprise is far
more beneficial to the community than that
employed in removing earth from one poi
to another, and then moving it back again,
although the capital thus invested did give
employment TO laborers.
Now, the lavish expenditure and wasteful
luxury Of the rich may be somewhat more
beneficial IN some respects, as to the effects
produced by the capital Thus employed, than
that employed in the useless removal oil
earth, but it is far more injurious in other re
spects, and SO on the whole is not more bene,
fetal to the community OF laborers and
tradesmen as compared with capital invested
in industrial development.
suppose the surplus of capital, over thai
which ministers to comfort, invested in ex.
trayagant structures, and costly furniture, anC
equipage, as dead and wasting capital
were employed actively in agricultural, man
utacturing, and mining enterprises for the de
velopment of the resources, and the increase
OF the production, and consequently of ths
capital OF the community, the power of it,
beneficial effects in behalf of the aborers anc
trsdesmen would be felt from year to year
and would increase in a geometrical ratio
year after year. But invested in houses, in
equipage and in furniture, it is converted
from productive to dead or fixed capital, and
its beneficial effects to the laborer and the
mechanic is exhausted in the one act of con-
version.
Now, such is the real state Of the case 10 q
community where local laborers, mechanics,
and tradesnen provide all the materials oil
the wasteful extravagance and luxury OF
the wealthy, but in community like ours,
where all these materials are imported from
the B&st, or from Europe, the beneficial
effects of the extravaganza, on the laborers
and tradesmen of this community, are still
more in6nitesimal.