| This question <26|26> overall <27|29> Hans: <25|30>. |
| Question 77: Why is labor measured here by labor-time, and not by counting how many movements were made, or by the drops of sweat of the laborer, or by the discomfort of the laborer? |
| [28] Hans: Measuring and intensifying labor. Toma writes in [26]: |
| When one labors in the factory it is the labor itself that is the most important aspect to the employer. |
| Is this true? Isn't the product more important? What about an employee who puts out the product without much labor and is idle most of the time; as long as the employer does not notice how much extra time the employee has everything will be ok, won't it? |
| According to Marx the labor is what determines the value of the product. |
| Yes, here is the catch. Assume your employer has a competitor who doesn't allow his employees to have so much idle time and therefore gets the same job done with lower labor costs. Then your employer may go out of business. Therefore a capitalist employer not only must see to it that the job gets done but also that his employees don't have too much idle time. In socialism or in state-owned enterprises etc. the supervisor has much less incentive to squeeze as much labor as possible out of his employees. |
| Later Toma writes: |
| The labor is measured by labor-time because it is that labor-time that determines the value of the commodity. |
| In other words, since the value of the commodity, i.e., the price at which the capitalist can sell his product, is determined by labor content of the average product, the individual employer must see to it that his employees do not waste labor. He cannot afford it because the price of the product does not contain reimbursement for this wasted labor. Concerns about the comfort of the laborer fall by the wayside in such as system. |
| It is also not economically feasible in such a system to have an employee spend extra time in order to make an especially high quality product. This concern is very vivid in my mind as I am typing this. As a teacher I am not supposed to spend as much time and thought on the homework of one student as I am doing here. I certainly don't get paid for it, I am doing this on my own time. |
| Ah well, I have my own reasons why I am doing it. It is to my benefit if more people wake up to the realities of the capitalist system. Not just my own benefit; we all owe it to the generations coming after us to do what we can to get rid of this murderous and ultimately suicidal economic system. |
| Finally I have to reiterate something I said several times in past classes, most clearly in [2002fa:25]. The point of question 77 is not how an employer has to check up on his employees, but the point of this question is whether labor time is the right measurement of the value of the product in the first place. Toma's answer misunderstood the question, as did the majority of answers you will find in the archives. One of the few answers which didn't misunderstand the question is Cassius's [2002fa:150-3]. |
|
|
|||||