| This question <610|669> overall <660|664> Melanie: <642|53>. graded A |
| Question 715: Why is it more beneficial for capital to keep the working class in a state of “easy and liberal dependence” than to exert the maximum of surplus-value from them? |
| [662] Melanie: Cozy Workers. We must remember that profits for the capitalist rely on laborers. Without laborers there can be no profits. Eden states, “Persons of independent fortune owe their superior advantages by no means to any superior ability of their own, but almost entirely to the industry of others.” I would correct Eden here by saying, “but entirely to the industry of others” omitting the “almost”. But how does the capitalist keep the laborer industrious? |
| Avatar [2005fa:1595] reminds us of an old saying which applies perfectly to this question: “You can shear a sheep many times, but you can only skin him once.” Mandeville further explains this by saying, “The only thing then that can render the laboring man industrious, is a moderate quantity of money, for as too little will, according as his temper is, either dispirit or make him desperate.” I don't agree with MichaelM [610] who says, “The capitalist will do what is necessary to keep the worker satisfied, whether through pay, vacation, benefits, working conditions.” I don't think laborers received much vacation and benefits during Marx's time. We only have them now because of the victories of the working class over the past century. I also don't think it is always the case, or even mostly the case when MichaelM [610] says, “If they (the capitalist) do not do enough, the worker will leave.” I think most often the worker will just not be as productive. |
| The capitalist wants his laborers to feel satisfied and even grateful for the wage they receive. It would not be smart for the capitalist to pay his workers so little that they begin to wonder whether or not they are receiving just compensation for the value they are producing. Keeping the worker in a state of “easy and liberal dependence” is yet another method the capitalist uses to keep the exploitation of his workers secret and hidden from plain view. |
| If the capitalist were to exert the maximum of surplus-value from the worker, this will reduce the productivity of the worker over the short and long run. In the short run, the worker will become angry and discouraged, and will not strive to please his capitalist employer. In the long run, the worker will become less physically able to perform his labors. He will also not have enough resources to raise children i.e. the next generation of laborers, which the capitalist desperately needs to continue the expansion of his profits. Thus, the advantage of the capitalist to keep the worker in a state of “easy and liberal dependence” is not only to keep laborers industrious, but also to ensure a constant supply of laborers down the road. |
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