Land and Leisure

Marx' concept of Means of Production includes not only the machinery involved in a manufacturing process, but the building in which the machinery is located, and the land on which the building stands.  So, the semantic awkwardness of the term 'means of production' in the cases of the latter two facilitates for him the general formulation--Exploitation is enabled by the distinction between the owner of the Means of Production and the Laborer using the Means of Production--that includes not only the relation between manufacturer and waged machine operator, but also that between plantation owner and slave.  This hierarchy of Exploitation implicitly inverts the status of Land as the basis of all Wealth, and that of Rent as the fundamental source of all Profit, i. e. starting with the renting of Land for use of its raw materials, for a place to do business, etc.  Hence, transcending mere Leisure as the pinnacle of Capitalist success is Leisure that is also profitable--embodied by the Land-owner.