Chapter III

THE ROOT ERROR OF THE MARXIAN THEORY.
ITS OMISSION OF DIRECTIVE ABILITY.
ABILITY AND LABOUR DEFINED

The theory of Marx analysed. It is true as applied to primitive
communities, where the amount of wealth produced is very small,
but it utterly fails to account for the increased wealth of the
modern world.

Labour, as Marx conceived of it, can indeed increase in
productivity in two ways, but to a small degree only, neither of
which explains the vast increase of wealth during the past
hundred and fifty years.

The cause of this is the development of a class which, not
labouring itself, concentrates exceptional knowledge and energy
on the task of directing the labour of others, as an author does
when, by means of his manuscript, he directs the labour of
compositors.

Formal definition of the parts played respectively by the
faculties of the labouring and those of the directing classes.