Mises: wage eraners and employers. What conflict?
And then there is one very important fact to keep in mind. When, as we did in the preceding observations, one distinguishes between the concerns of the capitalists and those of the people employed in the plants owned by the capitalists, one must not forget that this is a simplification that does not correctly describe the real state of present-day American affairs. For the typical American wage earner is not penniless: he is a saver and investor. He owns saving accounts, United States savings bonds and other bonds, and first of all insurance policies. But he is also a stock holder. At the end of the last year [1961], the accumulated personal savings reached $338 billion. A considerable part of this sum is lent to business by the banks, savings banks, and insurance companies. Thus the average American household owns well over $6,000 that are invested in American business.
The typical family stake in the flourishing of the nation’s business enterprises consists not only in the fact that these firms and corporations are employing the head of the family; there is a second fact that counts for them, to wit, that the principle and interest of their savings are safe only as far as the American free enterprise is in good shape and prospering.
It is a myth that there prevails a conflict between the interests of the corporations and firms and those of the people employed by them. In fact, good profits and high real wages go hand in hand.
