Is there any reason why I should want more capitalists?

[Microphage]

It looks like all you really need is one capitalist in your entire country. As long as you have a single capitalist, he collects most of the profits from all your factories and will use that money to invest in more factories. (If you have zero capitalists, the profits are simply lost.)

Encouraging capitalists through national focus or increasing literacy gets you more capitalists, but what good does that do? It just means that your factory profits are going to be divided among more people, but it doesn't add to the total money available.

Yes, I know about the tiny increase in productivity for having capitalists in a state where factories exist, but the bonus from clerks and craftsmen is higher than that, so I'd rather have those people be clerks or craftsmen.

I feel like I must be missing something, so I hope somebody can explain it to me.

 

[sdrasmu12]

Actually you would want a single capitalist per state cause I think some wage mechanics bug out without them, but other than that you're right. Mainly you just want more than 1 so that you never go to 0 for an odd reason

It's an odd mechanic but probably not in the Top 10 of weird V2 issues

 

[TheDungen]

I thought that the money was split between capitalists and landowners and the more capitalists you have compared to landowners the more of the money stays in the loop but I could be wrong.

 

[KevinG]

I thought that the money was split between capitalists and landowners and the more capitalists you have compared to landowners the more of the money stays in the loop but I could be wrong.

Aristocrats don't get anything from factory profits, all of it goes to capitalists. Capitalists also only earn from factories in their state, so you want to have 1 capitalist per state.

 

[TheDungen]

Well that seems like something they should fix then. Though i guess I would have to wait for vic3.

 

[Thrake]

Yes, I know about the tiny increase in productivity for having capitalists in a state where factories exist, but the bonus from clerks and craftsmen is higher than that, so I'd rather have those people be clerks or craftsmen.

I feel like I must be missing something, so I hope somebody can explain it to me.

Capitalists have higher needs, especially of late game goods like cars and oil, allowing to sell more. This is combined with the fact that they increase the share that your workers have to further increase their ability to fulfil their own needs. Personnaly I find that the bottleneck is more my ability to sell than my ability to produce, even profitable factories end up with unsold goods, producing more won't help as much as selling more and producing slightly cheaper.

 

[Woifee]

I feel really powerful if i have mire Capitalists then USA or UK.

I like to have them.

 

[Kovax]

As Thrake points out, it's their buying power that makes them useful in the later stages of the game. Some items will only be purchased by your rich pops, so having enough capitalists to consume the output of your factories helps keep your craftsmen employed. Other than that, after they've built your railroads and most of your industries, they're not good for much else.