Karl Marxs Theory of Surplus Labour Essay -- Politics Political Essay

Karl Marx's Theory of Surplus Labour For Marx surplus labour is the extra labour produced by a worker for his employer, to be put towards capital accumulation. The worker must do this work to keep his job but otherwise gains nothing by it. By helping the accumulation of capital he contributes to the cycle of mechanization and division of labour, which allow for fewer workers to do more work, thus adding to the competition between workers, and lowering their wages. Yet despite how it will contribute to a lessening of his earnings, the worker has no choice but to contribute surplus labour. If a man had the means of production and could work for himself producing what he needed or what he could trade for what he needs, then a man could stop when he has what he needs. If a man does not own the means of production and therefore cannot sell the product of his own labour then he must sell his labour power to someone who owns the means of production. He will be paid a wage. Marx makes it very clear that the wage is paid not for the labour, but for the labour-power, that is, the use of the worker for whatever set amount of time. Marx writes: "Labour-power, then, is a commodity, no more, no less so than is the sugar. The first is measured by the clock, the other by the scales." (1847. Wage-Labour and Capital. pg 3. All subsequent references will be marked by page number only.) The wage that the worker is paid will be somewhere around the subsistence wage – that is the wage necessary to keep the worker returning to the job the next day. While the subsistence wage for an individual worker can be just what is needed to keep the job position filled (not necessarily by the same person) the subsistence wage overall has to be enough th... ...ot the nature of the mechanical inventions or means of production themselves prevent them from bringing happiness, but the nature in which they are used as capital. Not all mechanical inventions or means of production are capital. Capital is a commodity or collection of commodities that are expected to produce more wealth. As Marx writes "Capital does not consists in the fact that accumulated labour serves living labour as a means for new production. It consists in the fact that living labour serves accumulated labour as the means of preserving and multiplying its exchange value." (11) Capital relies on surplus-labour to preserve and multiply it, even while, as explained above, the profits from the increased capital are constantly diminishing. Work Cited Marx, Karl. 1849. Wage-Labour and Capital. In Economics 314/English 351 Reading Package. Camrose: Augustana