| This question <573|579> overall <576|578> Femme: <574|207-1>. |
| Term Paper 299: Essay about Chapter Twenty-Five |
| [577] Femme, Kalle, Pizza, and Positive: Chapter 25 Section 1 Chapter 25: The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation Section I. A Growing Demand For Labour-Power Accompanies Accumulation If The Composition of Capital Remains The Same |
| Our goal in this essay is to summarize Section One of Chapter Twenty-Five. Section one looks at the growth of capital, its composition and the changes it undergoes in the process of accumulation. The composition of capital is looked at in two ways; as value and as material. The value is determined by the proportion that's divided into constant capital, or the value of the means of production and variable capital, or the value of labour-power that is the sum of total wages. As material, all capital is divided into means of production and living labour-power. This is further categorized into two parts; one, the value-composition which is determined by the relation between the mass of the means of production employed and two, the technical composition of capital that is the mass labour necessary for their employement. The value-composition of capital is determined by its technical composition on the organic composition. |
| The growth of capital implies growth of its variable constituents or the part invested in labour-power. This is due to the fact that surplus-value that has been transformed into additional capital has to always be re-transformed into additional labour-fund or variable capital. If one assumes that all factors are constant, naturally the composition of capital remains constant, or the mass of labour-power is the same. Now if capital increases, than the demand for labour-power and the fund for the subsistence of the workers increases by the same increment. But capital produces a surplus-value per year where a percentage is added to the original capital. As this capital increases and there is opening of new markets, a percentage of the surplus-value/product, is divided into capital and revenue which results in an accumulation of capital that exceeds the growth in the labour-power; the demand for labour increases, the supply decreases, the result is an increase in wages. This only results if all factors other than capital remain constant. |
| In the capital relation when reproduction constantly reproduces itself; you get the presence of capitalist at one end and the wage laborers on the opposing end. The reproduction of labour-power, according to Marx, is enslaved to the capitalist because the laborers must sell themselves and their labor for the capitalist to reproduce and for the laborers to reproduce. This is part of the capital as its means of valorization. The laborer makes a profit for the capitalist, the more labourer a capitalist has, the larger profit margin he can attain. So the accumulation of capital is the accumulation of the laborer. |
| As capital accumulation increases under the assumptions that have been made, this increases the exploitation and domination of the laborer. It's true that as wages increase the labourer can delve into purchases that increases their enjoyment but this only makes the labourer more dependent on the capitalist. Also one must look at the essential factor that the worker will always provide a percentage of the labor that he does not get paid for. Under the capitalist system, labour-power is not purchased for the personal satisfaction of the buyer by its service or through the product. The goal of the buyer is the valorization of his capital, production of capital that contains more labour than what he paid for. Labour-power reproduces its own value as capital by selling itself so that means of production is maintained and it provides a source of additional capital in the shape of unpaid labour. The unpaid labor that is built into the nature of wages. Even when there is an increase in wages and a decrease in price of labour the result is a reduction in the amount of unpaid labour supplied, not an abolishment of unpaid labour. |
| So what are the alternatives ? 1. A rise in the price of labour resulting from accumulation of capital as long as the increase in the price of labour does not interfere with the progress of accumulation. According to Adam Smith this can work; due to his theory that a great stock with a smaller profit margin will increase at a more rapid pace than small stock with a larger profit margin. Therefore a reduction in the amount of unpaid labour will not interfere with the progress of accumulation. 2. The capital accumulation slows down as a result of an increase in the price of labour-power, because profits decrease. The decrease in the amount of capital causes the price of unpaid labour-power to be in excess. |
| Capital production is based on the ‘Natural Law of Population’ which says : the relationship between capital, accumulation and the rate of wages is the relation between the unpaid labour that has been turned into capital and the additional paid labour that is needed to set in motion additional capital. It is the relation of paid and un-paid labour within a working population. For example if the number of unpaid labour accumulated by the capitalist increases so fast that the capitalist needs surplus-labour, than wages increase and the unpaid labourer decreases. But if surplus-labour is not supplied as needed, accumulation decreases, a smaller part of revenue is capitalized and you get a slow increase in wages. The rise of wages is limited within the foundation of the capitalist system leaving the laborer to be governed by the products made with his own hands. |
| Hans: Higher wages do not make the laborer dependent on the capitalist because he enjoys himself more. |
| Your essay is ok, but the explanations were not quite crisp and clear enough. |
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