| This question <49|63> overall <54|56> Leftyjace: <1395|90>. |
| Question 96: The value of the product is determined by the socially necessary labor-time. What are the implications of this for a capitalist supervising his employees? |
| [55] Leftyjace: The determination of the value of the product by socially necessary labor time has many implications for a capitalist supervising his employees. These implications are fomented by the “necessary” attribute of the socially necessary labor-time in contrast with the traditional method of paying an employee a fixed wage over a fixed time period. I agree with the argument offered by Ames in [39], but will put forward an additional set of implications. |
| The supervisor must concern himself with the efficiency of the employee. As stated by Marx, “Each of these individual labor-powers is the same human labor-power as any other, to the extent that it has the character of the average labor-power of society and takes effect as such, and therefore requires, for producing a commodity, no more labor-time than is necessary on an average, no more than is socially necessary.” The desire for profit in capitalism leads employers to focus on whether or not employees are producing an adequate amount of a commodity per unit of labor time. There are many reasons for this. Since the cost of producing a commodity includes wages, a supervisor must ensure his employees are efficient so as to keep costs down for the purposes of increased profitability. |
| If, as a supervisor, a capitalist observes an employee not operating at an average rate of production, he will feel compelled to do what he can to improve the situation. His efforts will lead him to train, counsel, reprimand, and/or eventually terminate the employee and replace him with another, more efficient employee. |
| Since the question did not state whether the capitalist was the owner of the firm there is also the possibility of the supervisor himself being supervised by others who hold their own level of expectations concerning performance and efficiency. If the employees under the supervisor's purview are not able to produce commodities at the rate desired by his own supervisors, he may seek to make changes for the purpose of ensuring his own job security. |
| Since a capitalist is concerned with maximizing profit, and since a supervisor is concerned with the performance of his employees, I feel there are few, if any, aspects of the capitalist supervisor's job that are not affected by the implications mentioned here and in [39]. |
| Hans: In response to a remark you made in your first paragraph I sent out message [63]: socially necessary labor-time is not an alternative scheme for wage payments. |
| But in the rest of your answer it does not seem that you have this misconception. You correctly say that an employee who is not performing at the “socially necessary” level of speed and dexterity will eventually lose his job. Things are different with independent producers: if a shoe maker or baker takes twice as much time as normal for making his shoes or baking his bread, he will have half the income of an average baker, but he does not necessarily lose his profession over this. |
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