| This question <577|581> overall <578|580> Jake: <444|41>. |
| Term Paper 299: Essay about Chapter Twenty-Five |
| [579] Jake: term paper For my term paper I chose to look at section one of chapter 25. This chapter begins with Marx clarifying the differences in capital. “As value, it is determined by the the proportion in which it is divided into constant capital, or the value of the means of production, and variable capital, or the value of labour-power, the sum total of wages. As material, as it functions in the process of production, all capital is divided into means of production and living labour-power. This latter composition is determined by the relationship between the mass of the means of production employed on the one hand, and the mass of labour necessary for their employment on the other.” Marx goes on to say that one is value composition and the other technical composition. |
| Capital grows by the returning of the profits to the original capital source. For capital to truly grow the surplus of growth must be retransformed into additional labor. When capital grows without the labor side changing the result will be an increase in the wages because of demand for workers being larger than supply. |
| The chapter discusses a quote from Mandeville. He goes on to make the point that the rich are only rich because of the poor. He makes the point that the poor do all the work for the rich. He then makes the point that the poor must be kept at a level that they need the rich to survive, but also the rich keep them at a level that they continue to have there labor available. He makes the point that too much money can make a man lazy, where as too little can make a man desperate. Mandevilles makes the point that the surest wealth in a country can be considered the laborious work force. This wealth then can be trapped if the society can keep the workers both ignorant as well as poor. This being the case because “knowledge both enlarges and multiplies our desires, and the fewer things a man wishes for, the more easily his necessities may be supplied.” |
| Marx goes on to point out that Mandeville has neglected to realize that the accumulation of capital process also increases the mass of the laboring poor. By giving the laborer wages, its possible to lull the employee into being content. This is when the exploitation process begins. The worker is able to buy necessities that may bring some satisfaction, and possibly save a little, this little satisfaction is just a fraction of the efforts given to capitalist by the worker. Marx somewhat compares this to the little satisfaction a slave might receive with a room and board. |
| The capitalist gain comes from the workers unpaid labor. This is what the capitalist thrive on. If the worker was to be fully compensated for his labor, capitalism would not exist. Capitalism will not let this process happen. “The relation between capital, accumulation and the rate of wages is nothing other than the relation between the unpaid labour which has been transformed into capital and the additional paid labour necessary to set in motion this additional capital. What then becomes important is the relation of the unpaid labor and the paid labor of the working class. Wages will rise when the capitalist has a sharp increase in the accumulation of capital, this being the case because of the need for more labor. The opposite effect occurs also, as the accumulation of capital slows down, revenue that is capitalized drops causing the need for additional labor to diminish. Thus causing wages to drop. The capitalist nature then can be responsible for every rise and drop in wages. Because of the nature of capitalism: ‘just as man is governed, in religion, by the products of his own brain, so, in capitalist production, he is governed by the products of his own hand.’” |
| Hans: You picked out some good key quotes, but the argument with which you connected these quotes is not quite precise enough. |
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