| This question <529|537> overall <534|536> Dave: <518|33>; Deborah: <520|694>. |
| Term Paper 602: Essay about Chapter Sixteen: Absolute and Relative Surplus Value |
| [535] Dave and Deborah: Surplus Value drives capitalism's growth. Chapter sixteen delves into the labor process and expands upon how surplus value arises in a capitalist society. This chapter reviews how individuals come together in the production process, how capitalism will eventually become the norm in every society that it encounters, and labor surplus on the individual level will build societies. Finally, Marx refutes the views of classical economists that capitalism was ever present in society. This chapter shows the rise of capitalism in societies and the conditions that help to foster its growth. |
| Initially laborers began as their own supervisors: “When an individual appropriates natural objects for his own livelihood, he alone supervises his own activity.” Eventually, as societies grow, labor begins to become more specialized and socialized; laborers come together in the creation of products, often taking over a specific step in the production process. “The product is transformed from the direct product of the individual producer into a social product, the joint product of a collective labourer, i.e. a combination of workers, each of whom stands at a different distance from the actual manipulation of the object of labor.” Marx goes on to say that “It is sufficient for him to be an organ of a collective laborer, and to perform any one of its subordinate functions.” As these laborers begin to work together in increasing numbers, and a class of capitalists (owners) form over the means of production, the drive for increasing surplus value begins. Because capitalists profit from the amount of surplus labor that is produced, surplus-value becomes the driving force. “Capitalist production is not merely the production of commodities, it is, by its very essence, the production of surplus-values,” and later, “the only worker who is productive is one who produces surplus value for the capitalist.” Marx points out that this drive for surplus value is not industry specific and in fact occurs in every sphere of industry. |
| Hans: According to chapter Thirteen, capitalism is not the consequence of a co-operative labor process, but on the contrary its reason. In order to make more profits, capitalists hired many workers at the same time, and then these workers started to co-operate under the capitalist's supervision. |
| [535] Dave and Deborah: After describing how capitalists profit from the surplus value produced by workers, Marx describes what surplus value is -- in its absolute and relative forms. Absolute surplus-value is the prolongation of the working day beyond the point at which the worker would have produced the exact equivalent for the value of his labor-power. This forms the general foundation of the capitalist system and is the starting point for relative surplus-value. Marx presupposes that the working day is split into two parts -- necessary labor and surplus labor (recall chapter 12). In order to increase surplus labor, the portion of the day containing necessary labor must be shortened. Marx tells us here that the production of relative surplus value completely revolutionizes the technical processes of labor. Here Marx also points out that this process also changes how society is structured and how classes form. We begin to see classes divided into the workers and the capitalists who own the means of production and profit from the surplus. |
| Marx continues to build on the creation of surplus value in capitalism by describing how labor is eventually subsumed under capital. This incorporation of labor under capital becomes the course of things and will spread from one society to another. “Once capitalist mode of production has become the established and universal mode of production, the difference between absolute and relative surplus value makes itself felt whenever there is a question of raising the rate of surplus value.” The alternatives for increasing the rate of surplus value is to increase the length of the working day in absolute terms or to change the productivity or intensity of labor. |
| Once the role of surplus value has been determined in capitalism, Marx expands on the growth of said capitalist societies. Marx points out that only after a certain level of productivity has been attained, workers will not have free time at their disposal and without this free time there is no surplus labor which in turn would lead to no capitalists. “It is only when men have worked their way out of their initial animal condition, when therefore their labor has been to some extent socialized, that a situation arises in which the surplus labor of one person becomes a condition of existence for another.” It is at this point that Marx begins to describe how capitalism has not always “been” (as some classical economists would say) but was formed and grew with the socialization of men. “The existing productivity of labor, from which it proceeds as its basis, is a gift, not of nature, but of a history embracing thousands of centuries.” |
| Hans: This miminum level of productivity is the prerequisite not only of capitalism but of any form of exploitation. (And Marx hopes that further increases in productivity allow the societies to finally rid themselves of exploitation.) |
| [535] Dave and Deborah: As society grows and changes, the natural bounty surrounding men remains important. Initially it is the “natural wealth in means of subsistence,” the natural resources, that men can command that lead to surplus labor. As society progresses it is the “natural wealth in instruments of labor,” the population or amount of surplus labor available, becomes the most important aspect of production. It is pointed out that the lower the subsistence requirements and the great levels of natural resources available, the smaller amount of labor time that is necessary for the maintenance and reproduction of the producer. “The gigantic building projects owed less the size of the population than to the large proportion of it that was freely disposable.” Later Marx writes, “The less his [the worker's] necessary labor time, the more surplus labor he can provide... the smaller the portion of it required for the production of the necessary means of subsistence, the greater the portion available for other work.” |
| Marx begins to wrap up his discussion of relative surplus value and how it assists the growth of capitalism by describing how favorable natural conditions provide the possibility, but not the reality, of surplus labor, surplus value, and surplus product. “It is the necessity of bringing a natural force under the control of society that plays the most decisive role in the history of industry.” It is the combination of what nature offers and what man does with it that helps production and capitalism to grow -- it is the ability of man to change his surroundings. Marx points out to us that the conditions that affect surplus labor are natural limits and that they determine the point at which labor for others can begin. |
| Marx ends this chapter by refuting the writings of Mill and Ricardo and their views on the formation of capitalism. Specifically refuted is the idea that capitalism has always existed and always will. |
| This chapter shows how surplus value is the driving force of capitalist production. It is the combination of natural resources and the innovation of men that increase production and help spread capitalism. Marx points out that capitalism is a social organization and has become more organized over the centuries. |
| Hans: Your term paper understands better than the others that the topic of this chapter was the character of the production process which creates surplus-value for the capitalists, the role played by technology and nature in this. |
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