In order to explain the conversion of money into capital, Marx offers an example of yarn production. A 12-hour workday produces 20 lbs of yarn valued at a total of 30s. 24s of value are the result of constant capital (20 lbs of cotton at 20s, and 4s for repair of the machine). The remaining 6s includes the variable capital (the worker’s wage) and the surplus value (profit). The workers wage is 3s and 3s of surplus are produced, equaling a % 100 rate of exploitation (3s/3s). This exploitation occurs not only during the process of spinning the yarn, but during the production of
70-649 Exam all its constituents (i.e. picking the cotton, building the spindle etc.) In section 3 of chapter 9, Marx condemns the economic analysis of cotton mills conducted by Professor Nassau W. Senior in his pamphlet “Letters on the Factory Act, as it affects the cotton manufacture.” The pamphlet suggest that the entirety of the surplus value is produced during the last hour of a 12 hour workday, with the remainder contributing to the wage of the worker. Marx disputes Senior’s analysis on the grounds that Senior failed to separate constant and variable capital, instead including the mill and machinery as one factor and the wages and raw material as a second factor. This failure to discern between variable and constant capital was considered by Marx to be a crucial blunder. Marx also notes that the value produced during each hour is likely to be equal, and if 11 hours were contributing to wages, with 1 hour producing net profit, that proportion should be reflected in the ratio of wages paid to profits. Senior’s calculations do not take into account the value embedded in the constant capital and takes for granted their contribution of value to the finished product, instead of acknowledging that the method of transferring that value is through the use of labor-power. Surplus Produce Surplus-produce refers to the portion of the product that represents surplus-value. Like the ratio of surplus value to variable
VCP-310 Exam capital, the relative quantity of surplus production is determined by the ratio of surplus-produce to the part of the total product in which necessary labor time is incorporated. The sum of necessary and surplus labor constitutes the working day. Under the Capitalist system, Marx says that a working day can never be reduced to necessary labor time only. This would not profit the capitalist. Marx then describes the two factors that limit the maximum length of the working day. First, there are physical limits to labor power. A worker can only work for so long before he must rest, eat, sleep, etc. In addition to physical limitations, there are moral obstacles that limit the working day. “The worker needs time in which to satisfy his intellectual and social requirements, and the extent and the number of these requirements is conditioned by the general level of civilization.” The capitalist seeks to create the most surplus value he can by extending the working day to absorb the greatest possible amount of surplus labor. In other words, the capitalist is like any other buyer of commodities; he wants to extract the maximum use value of his commodity, which in this case is labor power. The worker who sells his labor power must be able to reproduce it every day in order to resell it. If the working day is extended too far, the capitalist may extract a greater quantity of labor power than the worker is able to restore before his next shift begins. This will cause deterioration in the health of the worker. Marx goes on to describe
VCP-101V Exam how the process of overwork leads to the worker being unfairly compensated for his labor power in his daily wages. He gives this example: If the average length of time a worker can live and do a reasonable amount of work is 30 years, the value of his labor power for which he is paid from day to day is: 1 /( 365 x 30) or 1 / 10,950 of its total value. If worked too hard and the value of his labor power is consumed in 10 years, he is still paid the same amount. That is 1 / 10,950 of his labor power daily instead of 1 / 3650. Therefore he is only paid 1 / 3 the value of his labor power daily, and is robbed of 2 / 3. Marx concludes this section saying that the establishment of a norm for the working day presents its self as a struggle between collective capital (class of capitalists) and collective labor