foreign what is the strange commanding power that lies within the thought of Karl Marx in part one we looked at how Marx analyzes the history of human society as a process of dialectical struggle at the point of production we left off by highlighting how Capital mixes together Commodities like means of production and labor power to produce more Commodities that sell for Surplus value in this video we're going to continue our discussion on Surplus value by taking a closer look at the production process and focusing on the exploitation of alienated labor in Marx's magnum opus Capital
volume 1 he begins by noting that under capitalism Commodities have a form of value that contain a dual characteristic all Commodities have a use value that is every commodity has a concrete usefulness in satisfying a human need when consumed but all Commodities also have an exchange value meaning that every commodity can be theoretically exchanged for any other commodity money in particular capitalists have no regard for the use value of Commodities but are simply concerned with the exchange value of the commodity a capitalist who owns a chain of bakeries for example could be intolerant to gluten
and it wouldn't matter because he does not consume the bread he produces but produces it with the sole purpose of selling it this condition where goods are produced for their exchange value is the basis of what Marx called commodity fetishism Marx highlights how labor power is also commodified and comes to take on a dual characteristic as a commodity as well labor is useful in combining itself with nature to produce use values or commodities but it also has an exchange value because it can be sold in circulation for a wage the bourgeoisie who owns Capital purchases
or rents the labor power of the proletariat in the form of wage labor the proletariat class does not own capital and therefore has nothing to sell in circulation except for its labor power the wage labor system is therefore premised on the proletarian class separating or alienating its labor power from its own autonomous control it is commodified and sold to a capitalist who takes over control of all the conditions of their labor the process of selling or alienating one's labor to a capitalist is what Marx referred to as alienated labor Marx argued that alienated labor alienates
the worker from four fundamental aspects of what it means to be human number one it alienates the worker from the product of their creation labor is realized in its objectification into material form the human species is the only species where individuals do not solely produce for themselves but create Technologies inventions and culture that implicate shape and change all of humanity but through the process of alienation Capital expropriates the product of labor from the laborer the products that embody the workers labor becomes something separate from or alien to the worker the more the laborer produces the
more they become alienated from the material world they themselves create workers may even go hungry in the wealthiest of societies that throw surplus food into the trash number two it alienates the workers from the labor process for the worker the labor process is no longer a means of social production producing for the whole of society the whole of human needs or the whole of human culture the worker is no longer a free creative social creature but becomes coerced into labor to secure individual means of subsistence labor becomes external to the worker it belongs to a
capitalist who decides everything about the labor process what to make how to make it where to make it when the worker can start when the worker must stop when the worker must return to work when the worker can eat when the worker can talk when how much how often and how long they will be paid when they will be laid off when they will be fired and so on in short the Ingenuity and creativity of the labor process could be Humanity's greatest realization of itself but it comes under the sway and control of capital number
three it alienates the worker from themselves and their species being Marx understood that human beings emerged from the natural world like all living beings were therefore part of nature but what makes humans distinct from all other animals is the capacity to consciously and willfully manipulate nature humans are the only creatures that have the ability to create abstract models of production consciously organize social labor and then materialize an abstract model through the labor process these conscious creative social and productive aspects of humanity are what Define humans as a species when humans use these capacities to produce
from nature they change nature and in doing so change their own nature As Natural creatures this metabolic interaction between humans and nature is the natural state of being for the human species what Marx called species being but Capital robs the worker of their creative capacities robs the worker of their social labor and robs the worker of their social bonds thereby disrupting the basic needs of the species sinking the worker to the level of a commodity and alienating the worker from their species being number four IT alienates workers from each other and Humanity as conscious creative
social creatures humans naturally relate to each other through productive relations but under the capitalist mode of production where productive relations form class relations between Bourgeois property owners and propertyless proletarians the relations of humanity become antagonistic and hostile this antagonism occurs through the entire realm of circulation as every buyer seeks a lower price while every seller seeks a higher price of whatever commodity is being exchanged social antagonisms are also created within classes in the form of competition the Bourgeois class competes for Surplus value while the proletarian class competes for wages in short the totality of social
relations is facilitated and produced through the interests of capital it is important to note that alienation is not merely an individual Affliction like depression or anxiety nor is it an inclination or feeling that one has towards the circumstances surrounding their labor alienated labor is a structural condition and process that shapes and gives a unique characteristic to labor under the capitalist mode of production just as slave labor is the form labor takes under slavery alienated labor is the form that labor takes under capitalism to more closely understand the capitalist production process let's take a look at
a relatively benign example of a small capitalist in the business of baking bread the labor process can be understood through the following equation embodied labor plus living labor equals total labor embodied labor represents the Commodities the capitalist brings to the production process ingredients tools Machinery a building and so on if the capitalist is in the business of producing and selling bread he will purchase flour pots yeast an oven a dough mixer Etc these materials tools and machines are also known as embodied labor because they were produced and therefore embody previous human labor someone made these
things before they arrived in the capitalist Bakery in addition to embodied labor the capitalists will also purchase human labor power or living labor from circulation like any other commodity labor is commodified exchanged alienated and thrown into circulation for a capitalist to purchase the capitalist manager will inspect resumes conduct interviews and offer a wage price for the recruitment of Labor power the employee or living labor is then mixed with the embodied labor through the production process the worker mixes the ingredients works the dough Cooks the bread packages it up and in the end living labor mixes
with embodied labor to produce total labor in the form of bread this is the material process of production but now let's take a closer look at the immaterial process of production the valorization process let's say that the value of embodied labor in the production process is one dollar in other words it costs the capitalist Baker one dollar worth of flour yeast machine usage and so on after the worker has finished mixing their labor with this one dollar worth of material they turn around and sell the final product for three dollars now if the bread sold
for three dollars and was produced with one dollar worth of embodied labor how much value is living labor adding to Total labor the answer is two dollars the worker has mixed one dollar worth of materials with two dollars worth of Labor to produce a three dollar loaf of bread now at this point the capitalist Baker is faced with a problem if the laborer is adding two dollars worth of value to the creation of the bread how much should the laborer be compensated while it might be clear to some that if the laborer is adding two
dollars worth of value perhaps they should be compensated two dollars worth of value for their work however if the laborer is compensated the entire two dollars of value they produce that would leave nothing left over for the capitalist except for the one dollar he started with here it's important to remember that the capitalist Baker is not in business in order to feed people he is in business to generate Surplus value without which there is no point in selling bread but since he cannot extract value from the portion added by embodied labor he must find a
way to extract it from living labor at the end of the production process the capitalist is left with total labor he takes a portion of this to replenish his embodied labor and then gives his worker only a portion of the value created by living labor he keeps the rest for himself as Surplus value in other words the capitalist divides the value created by living labor into two parts the wages the laborer receives and the remainder which he keeps for himself in the form of surplus value if the laborer who added two dollars of value to
the bread is only compensated one dollar then the capitalist receives one dollar in Surplus value in fact the less the capitalist Baker is forced to pay his workers the more he can keep for himself in the form of surplus value if he can lower wages to 50 cents rather than one dollar he will gain a greater surplus of a dollar fifty therefore the capitalist Baker maximizes his Surplus value by paying his workers the bare minimum that the prevailing circumstances will permit this process of the capitalist expropriating the value produced by labor is what Marx referred
to as exploitation Mark saw that each individual capitalist was under extraordinary pressure to generate as much Surplus value as possible by exploiting their workers to the utmost he understood that exploitation was therefore not simply created through capitalist greed but by an Impulse to contend with other capitalists under what he called the coercive laws of competition under these coercive laws of competition if a capitalist Baker decided to eliminate or even lessen the exploitation of Labor eventually competitors who continue to exploit their labor will win out in the competition they will be able to hire more employees
purchase more materials open new shops lower their prices raise their quality and Inch by Inch by Inch take over the bread Market therefore Surplus value that is generated is reinvested back into the production process in the form of capital as a means to generate greater amounts of surplus value which in turn becomes a larger magnitude of capital that is reinvested back into the production process to generate even more Surplus value and so on and so on this expanding cycle of surplus value being reinvested as capital to generate ever-increasing magnitudes of surplus value is what Marx
referred to as capital accumulation the overall tendency for every capitalist to grow Beyond its competitors generates a cycle of expanded reproduction in short every capitalist Enterprise must not only reproduce the production process but expand the production process or else be overtaken by larger competitors there are two ways that the capitalist can manipulate labor to increase Surplus value he can manipulate labor time and generate absolute Surplus value or he can manipulate labor Power by increasing the productivity of a given period and thereby increase the amount of relative Surplus value let's use an example to take a
closer look at the difference between absolute and relative Surplus value in the production process as we have seen the value that is produced by the laborer is divided into two parts wages and surplus value therefore labor time is also divided into two parts time that the laborer produces value in the form of wages what Marx called necessary labor and the time the laborer spends in the production of surplus value what Marx called Surplus labor the capitalist can increase the production of surplus value by adding time to the workday work week work year or work life
adding labor time means that the current rate of exploitation is maintained but is simply prolonged if a worker produces 100 worth of bread in 10 hours and is paid 50 for their labor this means that the worker was producing the value of their wages in five of those hours and producing Surplus value for the other five now if the capitalist decides to increase the workday to 12 hours the worker is now producing 120 dollars worth of value and taking a wage of sixty dollars Marx therefore referred to labor time in terms of absolute Surplus value
to highlight how the ratio between necessary labor and surplus labor remains constant or absolute with the increase or decrease in labor time on the other hand the capitalist also seeks to optimize relative Surplus value by producing more Goods within the same amount of Labor time for example if the capitalist Baker introduces more efficient Machinery into the production process he may demand that workers produce more output in the same amount of time for the same rate of pay now let's say under these conditions that labor is producing 160 dollars worth of bread in 12 hours but
the wage does not increase and remains at sixty dollars now the worker is producing the value of their wages in four and a half hours and producing Surplus value for the remaining seven and a half hours when the workday produces more Goods without any increase in pay the ratio or division between necessary labor and surplus labor becomes increasingly disproportionate Marx referred to this as relative Surplus value because the intensification of exploitation generates a greater magnitude of surplus labor relative to necessary labor there are only so many hours in a day that the capitalist can fill
with labor time but there are plenty of opportunities to increase relative Surplus value by introducing Machinery to the production process a capitalist Baker who purchases an upgraded dough mixer will be able to produce more than the one who uses the slower older less efficient technology capitalists who do not employ machines are eventually battered down by the coercive laws of competition and larger capitalists take them over therefore upgrading the machines or Technologies at the point of production is a necessity rather than a choice but as machines are introduced into the production process a greater and greater
amount of embodied labor is allocated towards maintenance and upgrades while simultaneously the amount of living labor required in the production process diminishes as technology slowly comes to replace labor Capital develops irreconcilable contradictions that cannot be resolved under the prevailing relations of production as we will see in part 3 two significant contradictions emerge from this process and give rise to capitalist crises a falling rate of profit and overproduction these will be the topics of the next video which take a broad look at Marx's crisis Theory [Music] thanks for watching this video if you enjoy this kind
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