How did capitalists make their profit?

Answer 1

The term 'capitalist' can be used emotively both in a derogatory and in a complimentary way, or it can be given its original English meaning, which is still its main definition: 'capitalist', in the financial sense, came to English from the late Latin 'capitale', meaning property, stock, or wealth, particularly accumulated wealth.

In today's English usage and leaving aside whether we approve or disapprove of people making money, especially lots of money, the word 'capitalist' still just describes a person who makes and accumulates money, particularly one who uses the money they make to make more money.

So, let's say you have a good little camera but all the cases for compact cameras are pretty boring and could be more useful. They could hold your phone as well, for example, without needing to be much bigger. You might sell your old camera and a few other things, and use the money to buy materials to make really nice camera cases, which you sell for a bit more than they cost you to make: that's your profit. Once people start buying your camera cases, you're on the road to capitalism.

When you've made some real money you could go on a great trip and spend the rest of the money on all kinds of fun and good things, or you could put some of your profits in a bank account where it earns interest and use the rest to buy more stuff to make more camera cases, or more styles.

When you're selling heaps of your improved camera cases, you might put more profits in that account to earn more interest, and use the rest to open a store and perhaps buy some cameras to sell with your cases.

Not too far in the future you might open several camera stores selling other products, as well. Later you might start selling franchises on your stores.

Then you could perhaps get out of the camera business and start putting your profits - the money that's been earning lots of interest all this time - into other ways to make a profit: real estate, maybe, or the stockmarket, or stores selling a whole new range of travel accessories, but improved, the way you did with your camera cases.

Now you're what people really think of as a capitalist. Now might seem a good time to retire to your mansion, relax, and enjoy the rest of your life, but by now you're probably having so much fun making money that you'd go nuts just lying around the pool surrounded by beautiful people and wonderful food and drinks. Maybe.

And though you're fitting the common concept now of what a real capitalist is, you were a capitalist right back at the start when you started using your profits to sell more of those camera cases.

So that's how capitalists make their profit.

PS, if you start making those improved compact camera cases, let me know.