From whence does
wealth derive?
Creating
material wealth is fashioning a product that is, in some way, more usable than the form it took beforehand.
To extract
iron from the earth is to make it more usable than it would be if it remained. The
miners create wealth.
The
steelworker takes the iron, along with other elements, and fashions a more usable
alloy. The
chromium, iron,
nickel, etc. are more usable than they were in raw form. The steelworkers create wealth.
The
engineer works with his brain and devises a scheme to extract the ore or create the alloy. The engineer is indirectly involved in the creation of wealth.
Where does the
shareholder fit in? He only supplies the fantastic machines that extract and shape the ore. He didn't design or build them; he used his capital and bought them. Nor can it be fairly said that the shareholder coordinates the creation of wealth, because the creators are fully capable of
self-governance. He rents the aforementioned creators of wealth, who must join in this relationship because they do not themselves control and cannot afford the tools of their livelihood. (In this case the specialized brain worker, the engineer, is powerless without others that can implement his ideas.) He takes the wealth that is created, doles out a small portion to those who created it, and keeps the rest for himself.
Isn't this, too, redistribution of wealth?
(Of course this is a gross
oversimplification. I just want to give you
something to think about.)