Das Kapital (1867) - Marx Flashcards
The Communist Manifesto (1848) and Das Kapital (1867)
What is capital?
- Capital represents the wealth of value for the purpose of generating more wealth through the capitalist mode of production
- Capital relies on wage-labour (workers sell their labour in exchange for wages) of the proletariats, and wage-labour exploits the working class
- Capital represents the flow or process of exchange of money
What is a commodity?
- An external object (natural, manmade, or an idea) that is embedded with use-value (the subjective, intrinsic utility of the object to satisfy our needs) and exchange-value (the value based on the amount of time and energy spent making the product)
- The object is produced to be used for exchange in the market and for consumption
use-value has value only because abstract human labour is objectified or materialised in it
for exchange-value, all commodities are merely definite quantities of congealed labour-time
How do we get exchange-value?
- Commodities get their value through the exchange of labour for the product
- we enumerate this exchange through money
What is the difference between commodity and money?
- Commodity: an object that is produced to be used for exchange in the market and for consumption
- Money: a specific commodity that facilitates the exchange of value in a capitalistic economy; it stores exchange value to be used to circulate value between commodities; has no inherent use-value
What is commodity fetishism?
we focus on the commodity and the exchange-value, but we neglect the labour invested into the product because of alienation from the production and we only focus on the profit (or the extraction of the surplus-value)
What is profit, actually?
- Profit is the surplus-value that the capitalists use the labour-power purchased to extract surplus value from the worker
- Profit actually derives from the buying and selling of labour-power, which is the nature of the exchange between the capitalists and the proletariats
NOTE: Capital and profit are not the same!
How does money turn into capital?
- transformation of money into capital involves a cyclical process of the initial exchange of commodities for money, purchase of labour-power by the capitalists, and the production of surplus value through the labour process
- but the goal of the capitalist is not to merely exchange commodities for money but to increase the amount of money earned. The capitalist uses the money obtained from the sale of the initial commodity to purchase another commodity with the intention of selling it at a profit
- represented by the money commodity purchase formula: M-C-M’, with M’ representing the money more than the initial amount
What is labour-power?
Labor power is the capacity of workers to perform labor, and it is treated as a commodity in the labor market. The capitalist employs workers to produce goods or services, adding value to the original commodity. Labour power is often a commodity purchased by the capitalists
What is surplus value and how is it created?
Surplus value is the difference between the amount assigned to the cost of product and the amount assigned to the production cost.
The workers produce more value during their labor time than the value equivalent to their wages. The additional value, which represents the unpaid labor of the workers, is called surplus value. The creation of surplus value is essential for the expansion of capital.
What is the relationship between productivity of labour and the value of a commodity when productivity increases?
the more productive the labour, the less labour-time invested in making the product, the less its value
What determines the productivity of labour?
- workers’ degree of skill
- level of development in science and technological application
- social organisation of the process of production
- extent and effectiveness of the means of production
- conditions found in the natural environment
