Liberty and Property.pdf - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

Liberty and Property 17the factories produced cheap goods for themany. All the early factories turned out wasdesigned to serve the masses, the same stratathat worked in the factories. They servedthem either by supplying them directly orindirectly by exporting and thus providingfor them foreign food and raw materials.This principle of marketing was the signatureof early capitalism as it is of present-daycapitalism. The employees themselves arethe customers consuming the much greaterpart of all goods produced. They are the sovereigncustomers who are “always right.”Their buying or abstention from buyingdetermines what has to be produced, in whatquantity, and of what quality. In buying whatsuits them best they make some enterprisesprofit and expand and make other enterpriseslose money and shrink. Thereby theyare continually shifting control of the factorsof production into the hands of those businessmenwho are most successful in fillingtheir wants. Under capitalism private propertyof the factors of production is a socialfunction. The entrepreneurs, capitalists, and