Karl Marx. Capital (№ 232697)

But few have captured this handful and turned it into an instrument of appropriation of the products of labor, constantly from year to year, renewable overwhelming mass of people. This explains the extreme importance of such instruments for these few... About a third of the annual national product now is taken away from producers in the form of public taxes and unproductively consumed by people who do not give any equivalent, i.e. anything that would have the equivalent value for manufacturers. the Crowd looks in amazement at the accumulated mass, especially if they are concentrated in a few hands. But the annually produced masses, like the eternal, incalculable waves of a mighty stream, roll by and are lost forever in the ocean of consumption. And yet, it is everlasting consumption determines not only the enjoyment, but the existence of the entire human race.