| This question <528|560> overall <550|552> MsMarx: <438|1>. |
| Term Paper 299: Essay about Chapter Twenty-Five |
| [551] MsMarx and VanHalen: Term Paper This paper is a summary of each section of Chapter 25, The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation. In this chapter, Marx examines the concept of accumulation in the context of continuous technical revolution, and he looks at the effects on the working class. |
| Section 1. A growing demand for labor-power accompanies accumulation if the composition of capital remains the same. |
| First, Marx establishes an essential set of concepts. The value-composition of capital is the ratio of constant to variable capital, c/v, measured, in values. The technical composition of capital is its counterpart in terms of use-values, the mass of means of production relative to the living labor employed. The technical composition cannot be measured quantitatively, since means of production and labor are qualitatively different things; one cannot be divided by the other. Marx then defines the organic composition of capital, which is “the value-composition of capital, in so far as it is determined by its technical composition and mirrors the changes of the latter.” Changes in the organic composition show how the value-composition would have changed had the values of the individual commodities used as means of production, and the value of labor-power, remained constant. |
| The average composition of capital is the composition (value or organic) of the total social capital of a country. If accumulation takes place with no technical change, and with all three measures of the composition of capital remaining constant, there will be an equal proportional increase in constant and variable capital, and therefore in the demand for labor-power. This outstrips the growth of the laboring population, so the demand for labor will exceed the supply and wages will rise. To put it mathematically, the rate of accumulation is the independent, not the dependent, variable; the rate of wages the dependent, not the independent variable. |
| Section 2. A relative diminution of the variable part of capital occurs in the course of the further progress of accumulation and of the concentration accompanying it. |
| So far, the composition of capital has been held constant. However, as the productivity of labor rises, so does the technical and therefore the organic composition of capital. Marx asserts that the value-composition of capital rises, but it is slower than the organic composition, which mirrors the technical composition. |
| As accumulation proceeds, individual capitals grow. Growth of units of capital by simple accumulation of surplus-value is called concentration of capital, which is “only another name for reproduction on an extended scale.” Centralization of capital refers to the regrouping of existing capital into fewer units, through takeovers, mergers, or the buying up of the assets of bankrupt firms. Competition promotes centralization, since large capitals have lower costs and drive out smaller ones. Accumulation promotes concentration and centralization, which in turn promotes increased efficiency, raises the productivity of labor, and increases the rate of surplus-value, accelerating accumulation even further. Along with this, the organic composition of capital rises. |
| Section 3. The progressive production of a relative surplus population or industrial reserve army. |
| As the composition of capital rises, the demand for labor-power falls relatively, since a larger part of capital goes to buy means of production and less to employ workers. “The labouring population therefore produces...the means by which itself is made relatively superfluous, is turned into a relative surplus-population; and it does this to an always increasing extent.” It is this presence of the relative surplus-population that holds wages (the price of labor-power) down to the value of labor-power. |
| There are three factors at work in producing a relative surplus-population: the increasing composition of capital (which reduces the demand for labor power), the accumulation of capital (which increases the demand), and the growth in the size of the working class (which increases the supply of labor-power). |
| An industrial reserve army or relative surplus-population, which is a mass of unemployed labor-power, is essential to capitalism, according to Marx. “The mass of social wealth...thrusts iself frantically into old branches of production, whose market suddenly expands, or into newly formed brances...In all such cases there must be the possiblity of throwing great masses of men suddenly on the decisive points..Over-population supplies these masses.” The population is excessive in relativity to the employment that capital provides. The working day is lengthened and the intensity of work is stepped up. “The condemnation of one part of the working-class to enforced idleness by the over-work of the other part, and the converse, becomes a means of enriching the individual capitalists, and accelerates at the same time the production of the industrial reserve army.” |
| Marx next deals with opposing theories. He ridicules Malthusian demographic explanations of wages and population, in which high wages raise birth rates and the supply of labor-power. He says that the industrial cycle only lasts seven to ten years in total, while demographic reactions take much longer. Marx also critizes the theory of compensation. |
| Section 4. Different forms of existence of the relative surplus population, the general law of capitalist accumulation. |
| The reserve army of labor can be divided into different parts. The floating surplus-population consists of unemployed workers who have previously worked for capital and who are already in the industrial centers. The industrial cycle alternately throws great masses of workers into the reserve army, and then draws them into employment again. |
| In rural areas, the development of capitalist agriculture has created massive underemployment, the latent surplus-population. This ensures that new workers for urban industry are always available. The stagnant reserve army consists of those who are employed very rarely and irregularly, and who get low wages when they are employed. They provide the labor force for sweated handicrafts and domestic industry. At the lowest level are masses of paupers who are desperately poor. |
| The absolute general law of capitalist accumulation says that “The greater the social wealth...the greater is the industrial reserve army...The more extensive...the industrial reserve army, the greater is offical pauperism.” The pressure of competition for jobs keeps wages down and gives the capitalist the bargaining power to lengthen the working day and intensify labor. Marx also reminds us of the destructive effects of mechanization on freedom and on working conditions. He then concludes, that “in proportion as capital accumulates, the lot of the labourer, be his payment high or low, must grow worse.” |
| Section 5. Illustrations of the general law of capitalist accumulation. |
| In the final section of Chapter 25, Marx presents a number of cases to back up the conclusions stated above, including the British agriculturalist and the nomadic population. |
| Hans: Very good. I see some similarities with Pinky's [528]. You adopted Pinky's wrong definition of organic composition. |
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