Chapters 16-24

Discussion

chapter 16

- one can now be a productive labour without individually engaging in the physical act of creation by being part of the collective labourer. however, productive labour is only productive insofar as contributes to production of surplus labour, so to be a productive labourer is a misfortune.
- the two types of surplus value are inter-related - you cannot have relative surplus value without absolute, and once a particular change becomes universal, the relative surplus value vanishes. in practice, the difference presents itself as an extension of labour (absolute) and intensification of labour (relative).
- productiveness of labour depends initially on how much time is left over as spare time after the labour necessary to sustain oneself and ones family - so other things being constant, surplus labour varies with the physical conditions of labour, especially the fertility of the soil. the same labour satisfies in different countries different wants. once capital is the dominant form however, the historically developed social and natural productiveness appear to be the productiveness of capital.

chapter 17

- the value of labour power (LP) is determined by the value of the necessaries of life, the expense of developing the LP, and its natural diversity (differences between men women and children). we're not considering the later two factors for the moment. we also assume: 1) commodities sold at their price; 2) the price of LP is occasionally above but never below its value. then the relative magnitudes of surplus value and price of LP are determined by: 1) the length of the working day - extensive magnitude of labour; 2) normal intensity - intensive magnitude of labour; 3) productiveness of labour. we consider the main combinations of these.
- length of working day & intensity of labour constant, productiveness of labour variable: 1) a day of given length always produces the same value, regardless of variations in productivity (and so mass of product); 2) surplus value and value of labour power vary in opposite directions, the former varying in the same direction as productivity, though they don't vary in the same proportion - this depends on their original magnitudes; 3) an increase or diminution in surplus value is always consequent on and never the cause of the corresponding change in the value of LP. the limit to this change is given by the new value of LP but doesn't have to change as much -so it is possible to have a rise in productivity, a fall in the price of LP but still have the labourer receiving a greater amount of the means of subsistence.
- working day and constant productiveness of labour constant, intensity of labour variable: more products but each has same value as before (unlike previous case) so value produced varies. the price of LP may rise but if it doesn't compensate for the increased wear and tear on the labourer then it can still be a fall in value. if intensity is increased the same everywhere then its effect is not felt except on the international level (where the increase won't be the same).
- productiveness and intensity of labour constant, length of working day variable: 1) working day creates greater or lesser amount of value in proportion to its length; 2) every change in relation between magnitude of surplus value and value of LP arises from change in absolute magnitude of surplus labour and so of surplus value; 3) absolute value of LP can change only in consequence of the reaction exercised by the prolongation of surplus labour on wear and tear of LP, and so is the effect, not the cause of any change in the magnitude of surplus value. a) shortening of working day - value of LP is unchanged, surplus value reduced. b) lengthening of working day - value of LP unchanged but falls relatively, surplus value rises absolutely and relatively. price of LP and surplus value may simultaneously increase in equal or unequal quantities. beyond a certain point the wear and tear of LP is not compensated and the price of LP & degree of exploitation cease to be commensurable.
- simultaneous variations in all 3 factors: lots of possible combinations, all deducible from the above. consider two important cases.
- diminishing productivity of labour & lengthening of working day: absolute magnitude of surplus value may continue unaltered while relative magnitude diminishes; relative magnitude may be unchanged and absolute magnitude increase; or both may increase.
- increasing intense & productiveness of labour with shortening working day: both increases shorten necessary labour time. more productiveness increases, the shorter the day can be, the shorter the day, the more intense the labour can be. productiveness increases with economy of the means of production and useless labour. the capitalist mode of production enforces economy in individual businesses but through competition squanders LP and social means of production and creates superfluous employments.
- the intensity and productivity of labour given, spare time is greater the more labour is even divided. in capitalist society spare time is acquired for one class by converting whole life-time of the masses in labour time.

chapter 18

- varies bourgeois formulae for the rate of surplus value and problems therewith. demystification of the expressions paid and unpaid labour.
- capital is command over unpaid labour. all forms of surplus value are materialisation of unpaid labour,

chapter 19

- labour is the substance of value but has no value, hence price of labour really means the price of LP for a definite length of time.
- when supply and demand balance, get natural price and supply and demand explains nothing.
- daily price of LP is calculated on a certain length of the worker's life, of which a certain part is the working day. this is the price for the whole working day, not just the necessary part, so the transformation of the value and price of LP into the wage form obscures all distinction between necessary and surplus labour, paid and unpaid labour - it all appears to be paid (unlike in slavery where even the paid labour appears unpaid).
- the labourer is paid after the labour has been performed, so money acts as means of payment. the use-value consumed is labour itself, not LP.
- in slavery individual differences in capacity for labour affect the seller - the slave owner. in capitalism, they also affect the seller - the labourer themselves.

chapter 20 - time wages

- the sale of LP for a definite period of time once converted into wages is time wages. laws for price and value of LP become laws of wages. the distinction between exchange value of LP and the sum of the necessaries of life now appear as nominal vs. real wages.
- given amount of labour, wages vary with price of labour. given price of labour, wages vary with amount of labour.
- hourly wages are calculated on a "normal" working day, depriving the ratio for the price of labour of meaning since it was based on a day of fixed length and allows greater exploitation.
- daily value of LP greater the longer it is employed. this is sometimes recognised in the form of better paid overtime, though the compensation is almost always inadequate and often the "normal" time is worse paid to force the acceptance of overtime.
- competition between labourers cause the price of labour to fall and length of working day to increase. competition between capitalists the drives down the price of the product enforcing the low paid hard work that allowed the lowering of the prices in the first place.

chapter 21 - piece wages

- piece wages are a converted form of time wages. the price for each piece is calculated on the product of an average worker in an average day, dividing the daily value of labour by the number of products rather than the hours of the working day as with time wages.
- the quality of the labour is then controlled by the work itself, as it allows easy and exact intensification of work.
- various parasites spring up as mediators between the capitalist and the labourer.
- for the capitalist, individual differences between workers balance out, but for the labourers it gives greater scope to individuality and leads to greater competition between workers.

chapter 22 - regional differences in wages.

- when comparing wages in different countries all factors previously mentioned that affect the value of LP must be taken into account. wages must be reduced to the average and translated into piece wages to measure productivity and intensity.
- within countries, it is the national average labour that counts, but on the international market it is the universal average.
- more intense labour -> more value -> more money. more productive nations count as more intense if competition doesn't force the lowering of their prices to their value.
- money has less value in more developed countries, as commodities have unequal international values, so nominal wages can be higher without real wages being higher. the relative price of labour compared to surplus value and the value of the product is higher in less developed countries.

part 7 - accumulation of capital.

for now we are assuming circulation to be normal, no problems in the market, no problems of effective demand. circulation is to be examined in volume 2. we are also assuming that the surplus is not split up - this will be examined in vol 3. and also assuming a closed system - no colonies, colonial trade etc.

chapter 23

- since society cannot stop producing, the process of production is also one of reproduction - part of the product must re-enter the production process as fresh means of production. so the conditions of production are also those of reproduction. simple reproduction means that no more and no less wealth is produced constantly - no expansion.
- in capitalist production and so reproduction, labour is the only means of self-expansion of capital, of reproducing the value advanced as capital. the surplus value thus produced acquires the form of a revenue flowing out of capital. if it is all used for the personal consumption of the capitalist we have simple reproduction.
- as the worker is paid after labour has been performed, he receives equivalent of what already produced, so he produces not just surplus value but also the fund out of which he is paid. from a class point of view this is a company store type situation. labour creates variable capital, it is no longer simply value advanced by the capitalist, it is a form of circulation going through worker's body.
- this process must have had a beginning - the capitalist must have started with some money. regardless of how he got it, the value of the capital advanced divided by the surplus value annually consumed, gives the number of years or reproduction periods at the end of which the capital originally advanced has been consumed by the capitalist and has disappeared. eventually all capital is accumulated capital.
- the conditions of capitalist production - capitalist with means of production and labourer without - are constantly recreated by the process. the worker produces the capitalist and vice versa.
- the worker consumes productively (at work) and individually (at home), respectively so that the capitalist may live and the worker may live. from a class point of view with production in motion, individual consumption produces the worker, the most indispensable means of production for the capitalist, so all consumption is productive. the labourer becomes but an appendage of capital even outside production. though capitalists want individual consumption reduced to a bare minimum.

chapter 24

- employing surplus value as capital is to accumulate capital, but to do so requires extending production, and so more means of production, which themselves must already be made in order to be bought and put to use. surplus value can only be converted into capital because the surplus product whose value it is consists of the material elements of new capital - means of production and, if work is not increasing intensively or extensively, means of subsistence for more workers.
- ownership of past unpaid labour becomes the sole condition for the appropriation of living unpaid labour on a constantly increasing scale - the laws of property become changed into their opposite, laws for capitalist appropriation.
- it is now only an apparent exchange of equivalents since the capital exchanged for LP is but a portion of the product of others' labour appropriated without equivalent, and this capital must be replaced by its producer plus a surplus. the original capital becomes a vanishing quantity compared to the directly accumulated capital.
- surplus value is used both for the personal consumption of the capitalist (revenue) and as new capital. the ratio of these parts determines the magnitude of accumulation, and this division is a deliberate act of the capitalist.
- as capital personified he forces humanity to produce for productions sake and forces the development of society's productive forces. the development of capitalist production requires a constantly increasing amount of capital to be laid out, and the laws of competition make the laws of capitalist production felt as external coercive laws. it forces extension to preserve.
- the capitalist gets rich not in proportion to his own labour and "abstinence" but in proportion to the squeezing of labour out of others and the enforcing of abstinence from life's enjoyments on the labourer.
- expenditure and accumulation can both grow together, neither restricting the other.
- given the division of surplus value into revenue and capital, the magnitude of accumulation depends on the magnitude of surplus value, so it is determined by the same things as the mass of surplus value.
- the forcible reduction of wages below their value transforms (within certain limits) the labourer's necessary consumption fund in a fund for the accumulation of capital. if the cost of labour were zero, the labourer could not be forced to work, so it is only a mathematical limit that capitalists aim for.
- augmenting the tension of LP allows augmentation of surplus value without the same increase of capital, especially in extractive and agricultural industries. in manufacturing industries, only raw materials must be increases, and they are supplied by the previous two.
- by incorporating land and labour power within itself, capital acquires a power of expansion beyond the limits apparently fixed by its own magnitude.
- the division of surplus value can remain the same but if surplus value increases, consumption can increase without decreasing accumulation, or if products become cheaper, the same revenue can buy more products.
- similarly, the same or even less capital can be embodied in more machinery, so it accelerates accumulation. the scale of reproduction extends materially, and production of surplus value increases faster than the value of additional capital.
- as instruments of labour are reproduced in improved forms, the improvements act on new capital and the existing capital (when replacing old machinery rather than expanding).
- thanks to science, more raw materials are discovered along with new uses for old ones and for the waste products of existing processes - raw material without any need for additional capital. so science also gives capital extra powers of expansion.
- labour in new machines allows the preservation of old value of raw materials and stimulates the production of more of the same - labour keeps up an always increasing capital, value reproduced in a form ever new.
- as capital increases, the difference between that employed (machines etc.) and that consumed (raw materials, wear & tear, etc.) increases (the value of the former increases and so its "gratuitous" service increases).
- give the degree of exploitation of LP, the mass of surplus value is determined by the number of workers simultaneously exploited.
- so capitalists can live better whilst showing more "abstinence".
- the labourer has no right to interfere in the division of social wealth (capital) into means of enjoyment for non-labourers and means of production. only in favourable and exceptional cases does the labourer have the power to enlarge the "labour fund" at the expense of the wealthy's "revenue".