| This question <595|599> overall <595|597> Brumbys: <578|617-2>. |
| Term Paper 299: Essay about Chapter Twenty-Five |
| [596] Brumbys and MUCHO: Termpaper for chapter 25 SECTION 1 |
| In section one, ‘Growing Demand for Labour-power Accompanies Accumulation if the Composition of capital Remains the same’, Marx explains the growth of capital on the working class. By doing this, he uses two concepts: the value composition of capital and the technical composition of capital and the technical composition of capital. The value composition of capital. The value composition of capital is the ration of constant to variable capital; (c/v), measured in values. Technical composition of capital is the mass of means of production relative to the employed labor in use value terms. Marx explains that the average of a composition from each production gives us the composition of the total social capital of a country. Labor-power plays an important role in a capital growth, therefore, if there is growth in capital then there is an automatic growth in labor-power. |
| Capitalism occurs because the poor (laborer) is dependent upon the product in the capitalist system. Therefore, there will always be a separation between the rich and the poor. With this system, the richer gets richer, and poor gets poorer. So basically, Marx is saying that in calculating the average composition of capital, the total social capital of the entire country must be used. |
| SECTION 2 |
| In this section, there are three main issues. They are; Constant of capital, Centralization, and Credit system. Among the three issues, the book mainly focuses on Constant of capital. |
| Constant of capital is represented by value of the means of production. The variable of the capital is payment made for labor. Means of production such as machines and technology increase then a labor portion of capital is diminished because labor become more productive. The reason is simple: with the increasing productivity of labor, the mass of the means of production consumed by labor increases, but their value in comparison with their mass diminishes. Accumulation of capital or wealth becomes the means of new accumulation or wealth. |
| Centralization is attraction of capital. The larger capitals beat the smaller. Because, the battle of competition is fought by the cheapening of commodities. The cheapness of commodities depends on, all other circumstances remaining the same, on the productivity of labor, and this depends in turn on the scale of production. |
| Credit system becomes a new and terrible weapon in the battle of competition and is finally transformed into an enormous social mechanism for the centralization of capital. However, credit system is one of the big factor that supports today's economic system. |
| SECTION 3 |
| In the section three, Marx discusses that as the composition of capital rises, the demand for labor-power falls relatively, since a larger part of capital is invested into the means of production than into employment of workers. This seems very logical. Because, capitalists prefer to invest more into the means of production such as machines and technologies than labor-power to be more productive and efficient. This factor leads to the presence of relative surplus-population which holds wages down to the value of labor-power. |
| Marx disagrees with Malthus' theory on demographic explanation of wages and population. He explains an industrial cycle only lasts seven to ten years in total, while demographic reaction takes much longer than an industrial cycle. He also argues the theory of compensation which he is absolutely against it. |
| SECTION 4 |
| In this section, Marx explains the employed and unemployed in the population. |
| By doing this, he breaks the population into four. One, floating surplus workers is when an individual gets laid off and then rehired. These individuals may have a hard time finding a job due to the age. So they end up as floating surplus workers. Two, latent surplus population, these individuals are in a constant movement finding work in the urban or manufacturing industries. These workers usually get paid very little and live in poverty. Three, there is stagnant population these are people who are not consistent with their employment. Because of high technology, they are being replaced, therefore this leads them to pauperism. Four, paupers, are divided into three: those workers who are able to work but choose not to. The second are orphans and third are those who cannot keep up with the constant job changing. These four different types of surplus population creates the wealth of capitalists. The rich live off the poor by exploiting of the workers. Therefore, these four types of surplus population reveal the different outcomes of the capitalist exploitation of labor. |
| Hans: I would have liked it better if you had gone to the original text, instead of taking over formulations from the other termpapers [566], [551], [585]. |
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