Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface to the Second Edition
- Introduction
- Part I The Development of the Capitalist Mode of Production
- Part II The Capitalist Mode of Production
- Part III The Underdevelopment of the Capitalist Mode of Production
- Part IV The Value Theory of Labour
- Conclusion to Part IV
- Conclusion
- Appendix: On Social Classes
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
16 - The Degree of Exploitation of Labour by Capital in Capital, Vol. I, Ch. 9, Section 1; Ch. 6–7
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 April 2021
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface to the Second Edition
- Introduction
- Part I The Development of the Capitalist Mode of Production
- Part II The Capitalist Mode of Production
- Part III The Underdevelopment of the Capitalist Mode of Production
- Part IV The Value Theory of Labour
- Conclusion to Part IV
- Conclusion
- Appendix: On Social Classes
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In the previous chapter, we saw that when worn-out constant capital is replaced, or as Marx insists produced anew, during the process of production, the rate of surplus value will always be greater, and usually very much greater, than the rate of profit. If we accept that the rate of surplus value is an exact measure of the degree of exploitation of labour, it would seem to follow that Marx is claiming that the degree of exploitation of labour is likely to be very much greater than its apparent measure; the rate of profit. It therefore comes as something of a shock to discover that while Marx equates the rate of surplus value with the degree of exploitation of labour, and does in fact expect the degree of exploitation to be greater than its apparent level, he also claims that the labourer is paid the full value of his or her labour-power when he or she is paid the bare minimum, or subsistence, cost of reproducing him-or herself. How then is this paradox to be resolved?
The apparent contradiction between these two claims has to do with the very important distinction Marx makes between two quite separate concepts: labour (the amount of work that one may perform in a given time, e.g. during one day), and labour-power (one's capacity or ability to work). Since there is no necessary correlation between the amount of time it takes to reproduce one's labour-power (one's capacity to work) and the amount of time one may be asked to work over and above this (the amount of labour one may be asked to perform), there is also no necessary connection between paying a labourer the full value of the cost of reproducing him-or herself as a labourer for a given period of time (the value of his or her labour-power) and paying the same labourer the full value of the amount of labour that he or she may perform during a given period of time (the value of his or her labour).
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- Karl Marx's 'Capital': A Guide to Volumes I-III , pp. 133 - 141Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2021