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until Part Three . Clearly, each of these two dimensions of the distribution of wealth—the “factorial”
     distribution in which labor and capital are treated as “factors of production,” viewed
     in the abstract as homogeneous entities, and the “individual” distribution, which
     takes account of inequalities of income from labor and capital at the individual level—is
     in practice fundamentally important. It is impossible to achieve a satisfactory understanding
     of the distributional problem without analyzing both. 3
    In any case, the Marikana miners were striking not only against what they took to
     be Lonmin’s excessive profits but also against the apparently fabulous salary awarded
     to the mine’s manager and the difference between his compensation and theirs. 4 Indeed, if capital ownership were equally distributed and each worker received an
     equal share of profits in addition to his or her wages, virtually no one would be
     interested in the division of earnings between profits and wages. If the capital-labor
     split gives rise to so many conflicts, it is due first and foremost to the extreme
     concentration of the ownership of capital. Inequality of wealth—and of the consequent
     income from capital—is in fact always much greater than inequality of income from
     labor. I will analyze this phenomenon and its causes in Part Three . For now, I will take the inequality of income from labor and capital as given and
     focus on the global division of national income between capital and labor.
    To be clear, my purpose here is not to plead the case of workers against owners but
     rather to gain as clear as possible a view of reality. Symbolically, the inequality
     of capital and labor is an issue that arouses strong emotions. It clashes with widely
     held ideas of what is and is not just, and it is hardly surprising if this sometimes
     leads to physical violence. For those who own nothing but their labor power and who
     often live in humble conditions (not to say wretched conditions in the case of eighteenth-century
     peasants or the Marikana miners), it is difficult to accept that the owners of capital—some
     of whom have inherited at least part of their wealth—are able to appropriate so much
     of the wealth produced by their labor. Capital’s share can be quite large: often as
     much as one-quarter of total output and sometimes as high as one-half in capital-intensive
     sectors such as mining, or even more where local monopolies allow the owners of capital
     to demand an even larger share.
    Of course, everyone can also understand that if all the company’s earnings from its
     output went to paying wages and nothing to profits, it would probably be difficult
     to attract the capital needed to finance new investments, at least as our economies
     are currently organized (to be sure, one can imagine other forms of organization).
     Furthermore, it is not necessarily just to deny any remuneration to those who choose
     to save more than others—assuming, of course, that differences in saving are an important
     reason for the inequality of wealth. Bear in mind, too, that a portion of what is
     called “the income of capital” may be remuneration for “entrepreneurial” labor, and
     this should no doubt be treated as we treat other forms of labor. This classic argument
     deserves closer scrutiny. Taking all these elements into account, what is the “right”
     split between capital and labor? Can we be sure that an economy based on the “free
     market” and private property always and everywhere leads to an optimal division, as
     if by magic? In an ideal society, how would one arrange the division between capital
     and labor? How should one think about the problem?
The Capital-Labor Split in the Long Run: Not So Stable
    If this study is to make even modest progress on these questions and at least clarify
     the terms of a debate that appears to be endless, it will be useful to begin by establishing