Wage Labour and Capital
Wage labor and capital is a first time in 1849 published writing of Karl Marx.
Publication history
The text is based on lectures by Friedrich Engels, Marx held in 1847 in the German Workers' Association in Brussels. Was first published in the fragmentary text in the form of five editorials in the issued by Marx New Rheinische Zeitung between 5 and 11 April 1849. Due to the political situation, the release of the series had to be interrupted, a continuation of the manuscript was in the estate of Marx not be found. The published in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung text later appeared in various, largely unchanged individual prints, such as 1884 in Zurich. 1891 in Berlin, a revised version of Angel ( for example, the term "work" is replaced by " worker " ) with a preface in an edition of 10,000 copies published. The Marxists Internet Archive Scripture in 16 languages is available. In the online catalog of the German National Library, there are about 140 publications of writing from 1891 to 2002.
Content
1 Article 5 April
Marx begins the article with the comment that has been criticized from different sides that the economic conditions which are to form the basis of national and class struggles, have not been adequately presented. The series of articles is now generally understood that represent economic conditions which justified as the " existence of the bourgeoisie and its class rule " " the slavery of the workers ". It is to be presented in three major sections:
The first question is, according to Marx, what the salary was, and how he would be determined. According to Marx, the labor wage is the sum of money " paid by the capitalist for a particular work or a particular task delivery. " With the money which the capitalist buys labor power, " such Example with two marks, he could have bought 2 pounds of sugar, or some other commodity at a specified Belauf. " Labor power is a commodity, according to Marx, " no more, no less than the sugar. The first is measured with the clock, the other with the balance. "Work force replace the workers in a certain ratio " against the goods of capitalists, against the money ".
Thus, the labor force is a commodity that its owner, the wage laborer, sold to capital. It now raises the question, why did he sell his labor power? According to Marx, the answer is simple: " To live. " The worker sells his life activity " to a third party in order to secure the necessary food. His life work for him is only a means, in order to exist. He works to live " Marx ends with the determination.:
Article 2 of 6 April
Find it a competition between the sellers of the same product instead, which push the price of the goods, and find it a competition between the buyers place which raise the price. Similarly, a competition between sellers and buyers would take place, the result of which is determined by the competition in the groups. "The industry performs two army masses against each other in the field, of which each in their own ranks are between their troops again delivers a battle. The mass army, under whose troops held the slightest fight, carries them to victory over the opposing. "
When the supply of a commodity is weaker than their demand, only " little or no competition takes place among the sellers. In the same ratio as this competition decreases, the competition is growing among buyers. Result: More or less considerable rise in commodity prices. It is known that the reverse takes place more often with the opposite result. Significant excess of supply over demand: desperate competition among the sellers; Lack of buyers: get rid of at rock bottom prices of the goods ".
If the price is now determined by the ratio of supply and demand, whereby the ratio of supply and demand is determined?
Obtained in exchange of a commodity an amount of goods returned, their production cost less, so one has commonly "lost". Obtained in exchange for a commodity an amount of other goods back, their production has cost more, so you have "won". The rise or fall of the profit, we can calculate accordingly, " according to the degree in which the exchange value of a commodity below or above zero - the cost of production -. Stands "
If the price of a commodity, so is the price of all " other goods which are still standing on their old prices," like in proportion.
" The determination of price by the cost of production " is, according to Marx, " the same as the determination of price by the labor time required to produce a commodity, because the production costs consist of raw materials 1 and wear of instruments, that is, from industrial products, whose production has cost a certain amount of working days, thus representing a certain amount of work, and second from the immediate work whose dimension is precisely the time. "
According to Marx, regulate the same laws which regulate the price of goods in general, even the wages of labor. Wages move according to the ratio of supply and demand, " depending on the competition between the buyers of labor power, the capitalist, and the sellers of labor power, the workers designed. The fluctuations in commodity prices generally correspond to the fluctuations of wages. Within these fluctuations but the price of labor will be determined by the cost of production by the working time that is required to make this commodity, labor power to bring forth. " Production costs of labor are those" costs that are erheischt to the worker as to get workers and to train him for the workers. "
The less training time required a work, the lower are the costs of production of the worker, the lower his wages. In industries in which almost no training is required and ", the mere physical existence of the worker, the information necessary for its manufacturing production costs are limited almost exclusively to the goods that are required to keep him able-bodied life. The price of his work will therefore be determined by the price of the necessaries of life, " the " existence and reproduction costs of the worker "or the " minimum wages ".
Article 3 of 7 April
In production, people act according to Marx, " not only to the nature but also on one another, " they relate to each other in certain circumstances. According to the nature of the means of production social relations will be different.
Also the capital is a social relation of production. "It's a bourgeois relation of production, a production ratio of bourgeois society. The ... capital consists not only of food, instruments of labor and raw materials, not only of material products; there is just as much of exchange values . All products, which it consists are commodities. Capital is therefore not only a sum of material products, it is a sum of commodities, of exchange values , of social variables. "
For a sum of commodities, of exchange values to capital, they must be an "autonomous social power ", that is, as " power of a part of society" to receive and multiply by the " exchange for living labor-power. The existence of a class which owns nothing but the ability to work is a necessary prerequisite of capital. The rule of the accumulated, past, materialized labor in the direct, living labor makes the accumulated labor into capital. "
The worker alienates in exchange for food its productive activity to the capitalists, the workers ' accumulated labor is a greater value than it previously possessed. " He had his productive activity, according to Marx " lost for himself. " The worker produces capital he produces values that "foster anew to command his labor and means of creating the same new values. "
Article 4 of 8 April
According to Marx, arise our needs and pleasures of society; " We measure therefore in society; we do not measure the objects of their satisfaction. Because they are of a social nature, they are of a relative nature. "
Although the enjoyments of the worker have risen in capitalism, " is the social satisfaction that they give, like in comparison with the increased pleasures of the capitalist, which are inaccessible to the worker, in comparison with the level of development of society in general. "
The money price of labor is not covered by Marx with the real wages together, " that is, the sum of goods that is actually given in exchange for wages. " Neither " the nominal wages, ie the amount of money for which the worker sold out to the capitalists, yet real wages, that is, the sum of goods he can buy for this money, exhaust the relations contained in wages. Wages are mainly still determined by its relation to earnings, the profit of the capitalist -. Proportionate, relative wages " Real wages press" the price of labor relative to the prices of other goods from, relative wages, however, the price of the immediate work in relation to the prices of accumulated labor. "
According to Marx, are wages and profit in reverse interrelated, the " exchange value of capital, profit, rises in the same proportion in which the exchange value of labor, the daily wage falls, and vice versa. "
According to Marx, one might argue, "that the capitalist can gain from beneficial exchange of its products with other capitalists, by the rising of the demand for his goods ... that the profit of the capitalist can therefore multiply by the overreaching third capitalists, regardless of the rise and fall of wages, the exchange value of labor, or the profit of the capitalist could also rise by improving working tools, new application of natural forces, etc. " According to Marx, the result remains the same, " although it is brought about in reverse way. The capitalist has bought ... with the same amount of labor a larger sum of exchange values without having therefore paid work later. "
In addition, Marx reminds that " is determined by their cost of production the average price of every commodity, the proportion in which they exchanged for other goods. The Übervorteilungen within the capitalist class, therefore balance out necessary. The increasing improvement of machinery, the new application of natural forces in the service of production empower in a given working hours, with the same amount of labor and capital a greater mass of products, but not to create a larger mass of exchange values . When I use the spinner again can provide as much spun in an hour as their invention, for example 100 pounds instead of 50, so I get this for 100 pounds no more goods in exchange for back earlier than 50 because the production costs have fallen by half, or because I can deliver twice the product at the same cost. " net income of the capitalist class, whether in one country or all over the world market, " is always only the amount by which the accumulated labor in the large and has been propagated by all living labor. This amount grows stronger in the proportion in which the labor increases capital, that is, in the proportion in which the profit against the wages rise. "
According to Marx, it now recognizes that " ... the interests of capital and the interests of wage labor are opposite within the relation of capital and wage labor straightway. " A rapid increase of capital is equal to a rapid increase of profit, which in turn can only increase rapidly, when the exchange value of labor, relative wages also decreases rapidly. " The relative wages may fall, although the real wages rise at the same time with the nominal wages, with the monetary value of the work, but just not in the same proportion increases as the profit. In contrast, improving for example in good working hours, wages by 5 percent, the profit by 30 percent, so has the proportionate, not increased relative wages, but declined. "
Article 5 of 11 April
Because he does not follow the assertion of bourgeois economists that a growth of productive capital (ie the re-invested into the production process capital) raises wages because, as he says, the ( historically emerged from the cities bourgeoisie ) bourgeoisie is informed and to well reckon, " to share the prejudices of the feudal lords, who is resplendent with the glory of his servants " (p. 35), simply because their living conditions force them - even the class enemy is met with understanding - Marx throws in this last article just this now closer to be examined question: " How does the growth of productive capital affect wages? " (p. 36).
Before Marx goes to the actual answer to the question, he first examined her condition, the growth of the productive, civic capital. This can in three ways: increased " through greater division of labor, by the application and improvement of new machines through more advantageous and massenhaftere exploitation of the forces of nature" (p. 36). This growth, this increase of capital causes now ( initially ) an increase in competition among the capitalists, the means of production haves after it has been increased pressure on the individual capitalists, because, as he now produce the same production cost more and offer so cheaper can, he must also sell this surplus of products, it has become " the need of the paragraph for him extended " (p. 36) and " difficult conditions of exploitation of his capital " (p. 38) have occurred. In addition, the competitive pressure causes among capitalists that not only the individual production benefit reserves - will sooner or later
As before the introduction of new and more efficient means of production compete Producers / suppliers now so again with the same features of its production force, only that " they are now forced [ are '] to deliver twice the product under the old price" ( p. 37). And that the entire world market dominant dynamics does not stop after this one-time circulation just described, with each technological innovation potent new machines will be introduced, with every scientific breakthrough, the forces of nature are efficiently exploited and always shared as a consequence the work anew.
In the same measure in which the instrument of production is getting more expensive ( purchase of new and ever newer machines ), the price of the goods is always cheaper, so to replace the production costs - subject to the economic actors but the " law, which within the fluctuations of trade eras the price of goods necessary to their production cost offsets " and have absolutely to follow him - " a massenhafterer sale is now necessary "(p. 38).
After this clarification of what happened on the part of the capitalists - the growth of productive capital - Marx can finally proceed to do the real question - its effect on wages - to answer, but not without questioning before the same question, albeit varied, again: " but how do these circumstances, which are inseparable from the growth of productive capital, to the determination of wages on" ( p. 39). Contrary to him so disputed civil claim of the positive correlation between these two factors stated Marx ( now ) an increase in the competition among the workers at three levels, as the effect of a reduction of wages occurs: first, " to make [, { d} ie workers '] competition by a sold cheaper than the other; [ then ] make [ it '] to competition by a work by 5, 10, 20 done "(p. 39), so an individual worker alone the workload and has to endure the pressure of competition, the earlier five, ten or twenty workers had to endure together, because he now does the work of these workers number and therefore as many displaced with his employment, but without getting the Multiple question on base salary; and thirdly, the work easier as a result of the division of labor such that
Marx concludes that " [i ] n the same measure, therefore, the work unsatisfactory, disgusting is in the same proportion the burden the competition and wages from " and that " [j ] e more he works [ the workers ], so he receives less pay, " said especially" the machine " significant share of this (p. 39). There the image of the " industrial war " (p. 40) is troubled that on two fronts - the capitalists and the workers - will be played in this " war has the peculiar, that the battles are won in it less by recruiting than abdication by the army of workers. The generals, capitalists compete with each other, who can dismiss most industry - soldiers. "(P. 40)
While saying the bourgeois economists, opposes the Marx does not mean that the displaced from the newly introduced machinery workers would find new ( adequate ) jobs, as this will obviously correspond to the untruth, but they claim that this is " for other components of the working class eg were true for the part of the young generation of workers, who already stood ready to enter the sunken industry "(p. 40). If this is true, what Marx but denies - much more he thinks to be seen comforting words, addressed by the bourgeois economy to the capitalists, their class would that of wage workers disappear by the machine, also should perish - but then would the pay for this new work be lower. " [ T] he modern industry [ brings '] it is always a simpler, more orderly employment under the foist composite, higher. " (P. 40) - is paid less - as shown above. Even the argument that were to increase due to the higher use of machinery " the employment of workers in the manufacture of machines " (p. 40), Marx may invalidate by stating that " for fabricating machines [ ... ] highly artistic [ ... ] Machine [ ...] [ are ] applied against [ which ] may in the machinery factories employed workers [ ... ] only the location of most artless machines play "(p. 41).
" Exploit motion [ ... ] already vorhandne gigantic means of production on a larger scale " Through this (p. 41 ), the small manufacturer, who can keep up with it not destroyed; as a result of his bankruptcy he must " throw themselves on the industry [ ...] and [ helps '] so that the candidates for the proletariat multiply " (p. 41): "To the forest of straight into the air and longing for work arms will always. dense, and the arms themselves are becoming leaner "(p. 41) also, take correlating with the extent of the mass of products, the " need for expanded markets "(p. 42) the crisis - " the industrial earthquake "(p. 41) - to:
After clarification and representation of all these issues now Marx can finally pull the summary that " [j ] e more productive capital grows, the more it stretches the division of labor and the application of machinery from. The more the division of labor and the application of machinery expands, the more the competition expands among the workers from, the more you pay contracts "(p. 41 ), and this fifth article of April 11, 1849 dominant question of the mutual relationship of growth of productive capital on the one hand and the amount of wages on the other hand may finally be answered as follows:
Effect
Alfred Müller takes a number of arguments for the law of the tendency of the rate of profit to the text.