Part 5: Absolute and Relative Surplus Value
Chap 16: Absolute and Relative Surplus-Value
In so far as the labor process is purely individual, the same worker unites in himself all the functions that are later separated. He alone supervises his activity. The solitary man operates on nature by calling his own muscles into play under the control of his brain. But as the division of labor takes place, these are separated and develop into hostile antagonism.
Capitalist production isn’t just the production of commodities, it is, by is very essence, the production of surplus value. The worker produces not for himself, but for capital. To be a productive worker isn’t a piece of luck, but of misfortune.
The prolongation of the working day beyond the point at which the worker has produced an exact equivalent for the value of his labor-power, and the appropriation of that surplus labor by capital, is what constitutes absolute surplus value. This turns exclusively on the length of the working day.
The production of relative surplus-value revolutionizes the technical processes of labor and the groupings into which society is divided. Relative surplus-value takes place when capitalism is fully developed and has conquered all the branches of production. It basically looks like capitalism’s drive to decrease necessary work time, in order to increase surplus value.
Chap 17: Changes of Magnitude in the Price of Labor-Power and in Surplus-Value
1. The Length of the Working Day and the Intensity of Labor Constant; the Productivity of Labor Variable
2. The Length of the Working Day and the Productivity of Labor Constant; the Intensity of Labor Variable
3. The Productivity and the Intensity of Labor Constant; the Work Day Length Variable
4. Simultaneous Variations in the Duration, Productivity and Intensity of Labor
The value of labor-power is determined by the value of the means of subsistence habitually required by the average worker. The quantity of the means of subsistence can be treated as a constant magnitude. What changes is the value of this quantity. Assuming commodities are sold at their value, and the price of labor-power occasionally rises above its value, but never sinks below it, the relative magnitudes of surplus value and the price of labor power are determined by the first three circumstances outlined above. So the three factors are the length of the working day, the intensity of the labor, and the productivity of the labor.
In the first scenario, the length of the working day and the intensity of the labor are constant, but the productivity of labor varies. A working day of a given length always creates the same amount of value, regardless of the productivity of labor. The value created remains the same, it is just spread over more or less commodities. Secondly, the value of labor-power and surplus value vary in opposite directions. If the surplus value goes up, the labor-power value goes down by the same rate.
Increase or decrease in surplus value is always the consequence, and never the cause, of the corresponding level of the value of labor power. How much the price of labor-power falls depends on the struggle between capitalist and worker, but increasing productivity can mean both capitalist and worker get more.
The second scenario is when the length of the working day and the productivity are constant, but the intensity of the labor is variable. Increased intensity means increased expenditure of labor in a given amount of time. There is more output and more value produced, but no change in the value per unit, since there is a rise in labor cost.
The third scenario is when productivity and intensity are constant, but the work day length increases.
If the work day is shortened, the value of labor power remains the same and surplus value is reduced, and inversely, if the length of the work day is increased, surplus value increases. Both price of labor power and surplus value can increase, but depends on the struggle between capital and workers.
The fourth scenario is coverage of two combinations that can occur when all three are variable.
The first is diminishing productivity with simultaneous lengthening of the work day. Lengthening the work day will compensate for the diminished productivity.
The second covers the case where the work day can be shortened if an increase in intensity and productivity occurs.
Chap 18: Different Formulae for the Rate of Surplus-Value
These I’m going to leave untouched. Marx gives several possible formulas for arriving at the rate of surplus value, which, to be honest, the math doesn’t interest me very much.