This question <62|66> overall <63|65> Hans: <63|66>.

Question 53: The value of a commodity does not increase if it is made by a slow or inept laborer. Explain carefully why not. Whose decision is it to do things this way? How is it enforced?

[64] Hans: Mechanisms of Capitalist Exploitation   Dragonfly's [53] gives an accurate description of one of the most important economic mechanisms in capitalism today: how it happens that the workers have to do all the work and the capitalists get all the money.

I would just like to add one paragraph, in order to make the connections perhaps a little clearer. In today's technology, a worker working with his own tools is hopelessly outdated. Today mass production is socially necessary. In a society of mass production, the workers should collectively have control over the factories which are so-to-say their tools. But in modern capitalism they do not. Control over the factories is monopolized by a small elite group in society, who, due to this control, can cream off most of the wealth produced in these factories.

Of course, this is not an answer to Question 53. In Question 53, I was also looking for an economic mechanism, but a much simpler one. Dragonfly's [53] may give you an idea what an economic mechanism is.

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