| This question <695|695> overall <702|704> Gilmour: <647|95>. graded B+ |
| Question 743: Does the surplus-population arise from capital's inability to keep pace with the growth of the population? |
| [703] Gilmour: As Marx has stated, “Surplus-population arises from capitalism itself.” |
| Hans: This is a quote from Amy [695], not from Marx. |
| [703] Gilmour: We see an ever increasing change in production. As Hans stated in [2007SP:1395], “the capitalist do not introduce machinery in order to create an excess supply of labor...capitalists introduce that technology which is most profitable for them.” The capitalist are competing with each other in order to advance their own cause. The capitalist is in it to increase their own profit. Hans also summarized in the annotations that the surplus population arises for four main reasons. |
| (1) Increase in centralization leads to increase in the scale of production and technical progress. This can go on even if capital itself does not grow. |
| (2) Technical innovation in new capitals also forces the old capitals to introduce the new technology. |
| (3) Organic composition increases in more industries |
| (4) Intermediate pauses become shorter. |
| Hans: Everything you are saying indicates that capitalism generates the surplus-population through its own activity, even though the surplus-population is usually not the purpose of this activity. This is quite different than saying, as in the question, that the population grows too fast and capitalism cannot keep up. (You should have said something like this yourself.) |
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