ABSTRACT
Simon Gray scathingly attacked Smith, whose theory on unproductive labour–he states–has damaged the aristocracy, together with the professionals and the bourgeoisie. Smith's theory has put the masses in the hands of the demagogues. Gray also criticised the distinction between labours that produce necessaries and labours that produce luxuries. Such a division, he says, serves to hide the unsustainable distinction between productive and unproductive labour. Longfield maintained that we cannot speak of workers' productive consumption. Human consumption is always unproductive, because it destroys the wealth consumed. The subsistence wage level led Senior and J. S. Mill to theorise the wage fund doctrine. According to these authors, the annual fund devoted in advance to wages cannot be enlarged in the same year. According to Patten, James Mill fiercely attacked landowners, whom he considered parasitic, on the basis of Ricardo's defence of profit. However, once the bourgeoisie had marginalised the aristocracy, his support of profit went to the detriment of wages.
