| This question <330-13|330-31> overall <330-15|330-20> Talon: <229|330-46>. |
| Term Paper 902: Essay about Chapter Six |
| [330-16] Talon, Eagle, and Pao: The Sale and Purchase of Labor-Power As three college seniors, we are preparing to enter the labor market. Being economics majors who are familiar with the exploitation of the proletariat, we intend to be educated marketers of our labor-power. We will use our knowledge to consider the appropriate information and, thereafter, in using that information to select jobs. |
| First, as functioning humans, we all possess labor-power. Because our labor power is considered a commodity, we can offer it for sale on the open market. We can offer it for sale because we are not slaves and do not owe our labor capacity to any other individual or company. As an example, if we were incarcerated, the state would put us to work making license plates. The state would pay us a minimum amount of money to buy soap, smokes and apple juice. Nevertheless, because the State is controlling the blood, sweat and hard work we put into making plates, we would not be considered free laborers by Marx. We would be slaves to our own labor-power. |
| Second, we must decide how much money we will need to meet our needs and the needs of our families. By needs, we are referring only to subsistence. These natural needs, meaning food, clothing and shelter, could be obtained either by purchase on the open market with money or by exchange. We should not consider what it would take to keep up with the Joneses, but instead how much food, clothing and shelter we will require to live. There are also social needs. Social needs help a laborer to maintain physical and mental health from one day to the next. These means of subsistence are based on the social element of labor that Marx is trying to teach us. They become the relaxation time of reading, playing ball with the children or mowing the lawn. Because some of these needs are consumed daily, weekly and even yearly, an individual should create a formula to calculate the precise monetary amount needed to get these items. This formula will show the total social labor needed to fill the want list. We can then equate a minimum limit of labor value to an amount of money. This amount of money can give us, as individuals, the commodities to renew our life-processes. |
| Third, we have our individual college educations. For this education we have given a great deal of time. Our studying and learning should be added to the total formula mentioned above to obtain a total value of labor-power. Now that we have defined our total labor-power, it's time to enter the open market. |
| Because we have set a value to our labor-power-our commodity-we can take it to market and exchange it with an owner of money. What we will receive for our commodity is an amount of money. This money will come from the capital of the money owners. The money owners will pay us for this commodity only because, in a capitalistic society, it is customary to pay for wages during a fixed period in the contract. From this paying of money by the money owners, the process of selling our labor-power has been completed. |
| The owner of the money, the capitalist; and we, the owners of the commodity labor, can honestly say that we have received what we wanted. The owner of money and the possessor of labor only pay heed to themselves, and as a result, we will all work together for the mutual advantage of each other. This explains the strength of the sale and purchase of labor-power. |
| Armed with this information, we are ready to proceed. Our search for employment has led us to four prospective purchasers of our labor-power: |
| Company 1: This company wants to take away our freedom to sell our labor power by asking one or more of us to sign a contract for five years. This would exploit our labor-power on the social level and alienate us against the company, which would be using us. We would be better off making license plates for the State of Utah. At least our subsistence would be met. That is, we would have a place to live and food to eat. |
| Company 2: This company will only pay the minimum wage, but with a promise of future increases, plus medical benefits and a car allowance. If the minimum wage will meet our natural needs of subsistence and the medical benefits and car allowance will meet our social needs of replenishment, then perhaps one of us should take this offer. However, who has calculated the minimum wage? Does the company want to pay us on our necessary labor-value or on the relative surplus value of our labor? |
| Company 3: This company has generously asked us to tell them what we think we should be paid. But because there needs to be a selfish character of buying and selling labor-power, this company may take advantage of us. We may say that we want $30,000 a year and they may agree, knowing that they would have paid $40,000 a year. |
| Company 4: This firm wishes to pay one of us a commission for dealing books on economics to school children. Perhaps this is the company. One of us will get paid for the labor we put into selling books and the company will receive the profits of our labor capacity. In other words, our needs of subsistence, both natural and social, will be met. The company's needs of sales and profits will also be met and we both will have realized our selfish goals. |
| We have only touched the surface of Marx's main points on labor-power. But if all laborers would consider these points, perhaps the selfish character of the sale and purchase of labor-power would be beneficial to the social well-being of every human being. |
| Hans: You are trying to instrumentalize what you learned from Marx for being better able to function in the capitalist system. Perhaps you will find other uses of this knowledge later---and then, perhaps you are among those lucky enough never to feel a need for such alternative uses. |
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