Eli Siegel: Labor as Wealth

Posted by admin on Saturday, October 15, 2011

Eli Siegel Money Quotation saying if nobody does the work to create wealth, then no wealth is created. Therefore workers have the highest value in cash creation. Eli Siegel said:
 

 

“The most important thing in industry is the person who does the industry, which is the worker … Labor is the only source of wealth” — Eli Siegel

 

 

In this quote, Eli Siegel is emphasizing the crucial role and importance of workers/labor in generating wealth through industry. By stating that “the most important thing in industry is the person who does the industry, which is the worker”, Siegel is arguing that the individual laborers are the key factor in industrial production, more so than machinery, capital or management.

He then drives this point home by declaring unequivocally that “Labor is the only source of wealth”, meaning that wealth originates from and depends on the work of human beings.

The best interpretation of this quote is that Siegel sees workers as the true drivers and creators of economic value, wealth and prosperity in industry, not other inputs like technology or financial assets. He is attributing primacy and agency to labor over other industrial components.