Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels Sociology 100 The labor theory of value

Essays HARD COPY due in class, Friday, October 28 5-7 pages Prompts posted at course website: adamgomez.wordpress.com/teaching/soci100

Essays Your paper must have: A thesis statement One to three sentences, in the first paragraph Clearer is better. Thesis should be argumentative: “In this paper I will discuss the causes of the Civil War.” -- NOT a thesis statement. “Slavery was the primary cause of the Civil War.” -- Acceptable. “The primary cause of the Civil War was slavery, which produced economic, political, and moral conflicts between North and South that ultimately could not be resolved by peaceful means.” -- Better.

Essays Page numbers Paragraphs. 5 page minimum, less will count against grade Paragraphs. Seriously, you have to have paragraphs. Also, no swearing or text abbreviations. For heaven’s sake, people. Citations Ok to cite lecture. Refer to it by lecture number (for example, lecture #3 for today) MUST cite & quote the texts appropriate to your chosen prompt. Page numbers, sections, articles, issue numbers, etc. Use embedded citations, like this (Federalist, #84).

Essays Standard margins, font size, line spacing, etc. Your TAs were undergraduates once, I know about Courier New and big margins. While grammar is not a major element in your grades, it does matter. If your I don’t understand what you’re saying, I don’t understand what you’re saying. Papers MUST be submitted to turnitin.com Details from your TAs

Capital Capital Vol. 1: 1867 Vol. 2: 1885 Vol. 3: 1894 Marx dies, 1883 Vol. 2: 1885 Vol. 3: 1894 Vol. 4 in the works at time of Marx’s death The sociology of capital itself, intended to be summation of Marx’s life’s work Russian censors: Capital “purely scientific”, non-political

Value Use-value Exchange value Real value (labor theory of value) “Use-values become a reality only by use or consumption” (303) Exchange value Value of sale or trade, made real in exchange (304) Real value (labor theory of value) “That which determines the magnitude of the value of any article is the amount of labour socially necessary for its production.” (306) The greater the productivity of labor, the less labor time invested in a commodity (307) Underlies other forms of value

Commodity fetishism Commodities do not exist in isolation, as things-in-themselves (320) This is a fantastical notion, a “fetish” They are products of a social relationship and organization, and embody the accumulated human labor value needed to produce them A table: Lumberjack Training, equipment Transport Equipment, fuel Lumberyard Training, equipment, fuel Carpenter

Commodity Fetishism Products themselves become commodities: the value of the coat is that not only of the labor of the tailor, but the weaver, cloth-maker, the maker of the loom, the maker of its parts, etc. (348-353) Recall: “Capital is a collective product, and only by the united action of many members, nay, in the last resort, only by the united action of all members of society, can it be set in motion. Capital is, therefore, not personal, it is a social power.” (485)

Commodity fetishism Money obscures this: “When I state that coats or boots stand in relation to linen, because it is the universal incarnation of human labor, the absurdity of the statement is self-evident. Yet, when the producers of coats and boots compare those articles [...] with gold and silver, they express the relationship between their own private labour and the collective labour of society in the same absurd form.” (324) Money only another commodity, that is, a crystallized form of value, based in labor-time

Two Modes of Exchange “The first distinction that we notice between money that is money only, and money that is capital, is nothing more than a difference in their form of circulation.” (329) Money as money: Commodity  Money  Commodity Money spent, gone, activity ends (330) Money as capital: Money  Commodity  Money Money paid only an advance against future gains, cycle repeats as soon as it ends, never ends (331)

Labor-power To extract surplus value (profit) from a commodity (ex: lumber), the capitalist “must be so lucky as to find [...] in the market, a commodity, whose use value [is] a source of value, whose actual consumption [...] is itself an embodiment of labour, and consequently, a creation of value.” Labour-power is this. (336) “Labour-power” is “the aggregate of those mental and physical capabilities existing in a human being, which he exercises whenever he produces a use-value of any description.” (336)

Labor-power This requires that the laborer be in a position in which he can’t sell the products of his labor-power, but be compelled to sell “as a commodity that very labour-power, which exists only in his living self.” (337) A condition that emerges only in certain historical circumstances, not “natural” (338) Must be sold “on credit”, work before pay (342) Under conditions of industrial capitalism, a person finds that “his very labour-power refuses its services unless it has been sold to capital.” (398) The individual requires industrial capital (machinery, factories) to be productive. Not possible to exercise labor-power apart from capital

Labor-power As with all commodities, labor-power’s value is determined “by the labour-time necessary for the production, and consequently the reproduction, of this special article.” (339) Under industrial conditions, the worker needs only to master only a few simple tasks, receives minimal training & education (399) Thus, workers need only enough to survive at a minimal level, and because they are mortal, produce children who will also sell their labor power (339-340)

Labor-power The peculiar quality of labor-power as a commodity is that it is “a source not only of value, but of more value than it has itself.” (357) Worker sells 1 day of labor-power to capitalist Worker’s daily sustenance costs a half-day of work Worked for a whole day, but paid only enough to sustain himself Works for free in second half of day If a person needs $10 to survive for a day, that is what they will be paid, though their work produces $20 of value For Marx, this is essentially theft

Labor-power Industrial capitalism forms a vast “disposable industrial reserve army” of laborers (423) Constantly seeks new ways to make labor-time more productive Mass of unemployed useful in two ways: They stand ready to be employed in times of economic boom, fired in bad times They compete with the employed, causing employed laborers to accept higher levels of exploitation (more work, less pay) Labor-time thus becomes more productive, and means that owners of capital need not hire more workers (425-427)

“Accumulation of wealth at one pole is, therefore, at the same time an accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation, at the opposite pole, i.e., on the side of the class that produces its own product in the form of capital.” (431)