>You could argue that they don't contribute anything personally (though I disagree, but let's go with your assumption). That's a mistake on my part. My comment

>You could argue that they don't contribute anything personally (though I disagree, but let's go with your assumption). That's a mistake on my part. My comment was directed more towards people like the author of the OP who are rich and do no work. That being said rich people cannot contribute anything more to the economy other than what they can produce with their own physical and mental labor. This is a fundamental limit, that is set by the laws of the physical world. Yet, paradoxically, the wealth of the super rich skyrockets past this limit. This is because the capital they deploy into the world isn't generated by them. It's generated by the labor of the corporations they own. A corporation is composed of employees and this is the true origin of capital. The money rich people deploy and churn into the economy is capital "owned" by rich people the same way landlords "own", "redeploy" and charge rent on land; If you disagree, note that in the english language land and corporations are both referred to as capital.