Marxist Economic Theory: Labor, Value, and Capitalism
**Appreciation of Labor and Capital**
In a capitalist system, the worker’s labor produces commodities. This labor is exchanged for money, creating a cycle where the capitalist pays the proletariat a salary, and the proletariat sells their labor to receive it. The capitalist purchases the worker’s labor, pays their salary, and appropriates the goods produced. Consequently, the worker’s output belongs to the capitalist. The capitalist then sells these goods at a significantly higher price than the worker’s production cost. The difference between the capitalist’s earnings from sales and the worker’s wages constitutes the **surplus value**. This surplus is the source of the capitalist’s profit and the worker’s exploitation. Through this mechanism, the capitalist continuously accumulates wealth, while the worker subsists on a minimal income.
The worker’s salary is considered “powerless currency,” enabling only survival and continued labor. In contrast, the capitalist’s capital is “powerful currency” that multiplies, allowing for more than mere survival.
**Labor and Alienation**
Labor is the force a human being applies to produce. In the capitalist system, the proletariat does not work to fulfill their physical and spiritual needs but to earn a survival wage. Work within capitalist enterprises is experienced as alienated labor, not as an activity of self-realization. Humans are inherently active, and work should be a space for development and perfection. However, the proletariat primarily gains money from their job, leaving little time for anything beyond sleeping and eating. Any remaining time might be spent in social settings or religious institutions (which Marx considered “the opium of the people”). They also procreate to ensure a future labor force. Marx viewed human nature as finding fulfillment in work. Thus, his philosophy advocates for transforming alienated labor, where work is merely a means to an end, into a rewarding and free labor experience.
**Infrastructure and Superstructure**
A society’s infrastructure is its economic system. This forms the basis of social relationships, determining equality and inequality among members. The superstructure encompasses a society’s social and political institutions, including religious beliefs and ideologies.
According to Marx, the economy dictates social relations, beliefs, and ideologies. Therefore, societal change requires restructuring the economy. He believed that true freedom would be achieved by abolishing private property within the economy, rather than focusing on religion. Religion is part of the superstructure, and abolishing it first would not fundamentally alter anything, as the underlying economic structure would remain intact. Achieving freedom necessitates replacing capitalist production with a communal system based on common ownership and transforming various societal structures.
**Understanding Value in Capitalism**
Capitalism is an economic system where things possess exchange value rather than use value. Exchange value is equivalent to money – what is bought and sold, exchanged for currency. Use value refers to an item’s utility, its ability to fulfill a need.
An object’s usefulness is its use value, while its price is its exchange value. The exchange value depends on two variables: the human effort applied in production and the time spent producing it. Consequently, items produced with less effort and time, like a dress, will have a lower value, while those requiring more effort and time, like a house, will be more expensive.
When considering objects from their use value perspective – their function and the need they fulfill – we observe specific items and concrete labor, such as sewing or masonry. The difference between these objects is evident; sewing a dress is not the same as creating blueprints for a house.
Conversely, when viewing objects from their exchange value perspective – their price – we see not specific items but quantities of labor and time. Capitalism prioritizes the exchange value of objects over their use value, leading to several consequences:
- Workers are viewed as labor forces rather than individuals.
- Work is performed for monetary gain, not to meet needs.
- Useless objects are produced.
- Objects that serve a purpose are designed with planned obsolescence to maintain sales.