Fascist-era economists defined profit as capital’s own productivity, not worker exploitation

Evidence

De Stefani off ered a similar explanation to his students: “Capitalism is the phenomenon of a class that lives on the specifi c productivity of capital, it depends on the right of property and heredity, not on a subtraction at the expense of the workers.” It was, he specifi ed, “a result of savings and conservation, useful actually to the very working classes” (De Stefani 1919, 164). — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1127

Categorization

• DEFINE: Captures the marginal-productivity justification of profit that still underpins mainstream economics today.
• XREF: connects to: Fascist economists justified capitalist profit as savings reward, not worker exploitation. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 220; Profit does not reward capital but results from labour’s dual nature — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 75; Mainstream economists defended capital’s returns as productivity rather than exploitation. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 219 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Fascist economists justified capitalist profit as savings reward, not worker exploitation. #exemplifies (0.95) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 220
• Profit does not reward capital but results from labour’s dual nature #contradicts (0.90) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 75
• Mainstream economists defended capital’s returns as productivity rather than exploitation. #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 219
• Pure economists recast capital as private saving rather than extracted unpaid labor #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 225
• The four economists’ models made capital rather than labor the economic engine #exemplifies (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1124