Wow, that was so very unnecessary it saddens me.
Capitalism is built upon the core foundation of exploitation of the workers, you only need to ask yourself 'How do owners and captains of industry get profit from their initial investment?'
I'm going to use Engel's example here, I've used it many times before. Some people get it straight away, some people fight tooth and claw to object to it and some people just can't wrap their heads round it.
A factory owner has one machine in his factory, with one worker (Accept that this is a mass simplification and don't challenge the logistics of this).
The price of the raw materials is 20 marks for a days work, this gives him 28 marks worth of finished goods, out of this 28 marks he takes home three marks of profit. Where do these three marks come from?
The price of maintanence on his machine is 2 marks, and the wage of the worker is 3 marks. This means that paying all expenses, the total cost to turn the raw materials into a profit is 25 marks, leaving the owner with three marks of profit.
The owner could not have gotten these three marks through the market, the strength of an economy revolves around the transition of value, not how much value is inside the system. The amount of value inside the system cannot change. It is stable. Economy works in a cyclic process with 100% of value going round in a circle from invester to consumer to invester. The extra three marks of added value that the factory owner takes as profit does not magically appear in the system. It appears inside the factory itself. So where does it come from?
Work is a form of value, it is sold by the workers (In Karl Marx's day, the working force would almost literally sell their labour value to factory owners on a day by day basis. This is obviously not a conceivable objection to Capitalism now as labour value is bought and sold on long term bases.) and bought by owners of industry who lend the worker tools with which to make token value with. Workers do not own the raw materials of their work, these belong to the capitalists (Capital=Money, 'Men of money'. Workers do not own the process of their work, this is bought and paid for in token value (Read what it says on any note or coin next time you have a chance) and belongs to the capitalists. Workers do not even own the product of their work, because that of course belongs to the capitalists.
The answer to the riddle 'Where do the extra three marks come from' by the way if you were wondering is 'The worker's labour value'. The three marks (Or whatever equivalent you need mention) is skimmed off the top of the money the worker should receive from his work. That is what is meant when we talk of Capitalism as 'Exploitation of the Working Class' because it is. And if you're fine with being exploited because life is good, then there are millions of people in Asia, Africa, South America, Eastern Europe and even some regions of North America that are still woefully explotied and are for all intents and purposes the new 19th century Working Class. Working and dying under far worse conditions than Karl Marx (Who by the way, lived in abject poverty all his life, saw several of his children die of malnutrition and disease right before his eyes and never earnt a single penny off any of his writings) ever saw in his life.
These comments are well and truly my own. I have never visited a Socialist forum, subscribed to a Socialist newsletter or had any contact with any Socialist friends in my entire life. These are merely the fruits of my own research into Capitalism, Socialism, Marxism and Smithian economics. Obviously many aspects of Marxism are just not pertinent or acceptable or are just plain wrong. I have not included those, Karl Marx was not a God, he made some mistakes, some bad arguments and could not forsee the rise of a consumer culture.
__________________
:
|
“I always believe the movies I've made are smarter than the way they are perceived by sort of mass culture and by the critics,” Snyder said, a statement he immediately followed by saying, “Also, ‘It looks like a video game.’
|
|
