advanced in the purchase of an individual labor power, V being the total amount of variable capital, P being the value of an average labor-power, and a' / a represents the degree of exploitation (surplus labor/necessary labor). Marx lets it be known that under this law, that the mass of surplus-value is not constant in nature, but that a decrease in one factor can be made up by an increase in another factor, such as variable capital dropping but the exploitation of the labor-power increasing to make up for this change. Marx's second law deals with the limitation of compensating for lacking factors. He says that the "compensation for a decrease in the number
SY0-101 Exam of workers employed cannot be overcome What we see is the natural tendency of capital automatically reducing the number of workers employed by the capitalist. It is important to note the average working day in terms of compensating for fluctuating factors, because it sets an absolute limit on such compensations. Marx's third law states that "The rate of surplus-value and the value of labor time, being given, it is self-evident that the greater the variable capital, the greater would be the mass of the value produced and of the surplus-value". These two factors explained are completely dependent on the mass of labor performed by the worker, or better yet how heavily the worker is exploited. Marx states that this law, or the numerical value of the factors involved here, are determined by how much variable capital is advanced from the capitalist. He further suggests that we now know the capitalist divides his capital into two parts; one part on the means of production (a constant factor) and the other on the living
CISSP Exam labor-power, which is heavily exploited and forms his variable capital. Marx then goes onto discuss what can decrease the value of labor-power. First, remember that the value of labor-power is “the labor-time necessary to produce labor-power”. With this in mind, Marx says that the value of labor-power can be decreased if there is an increase in the productivity of labor. But productivity of labor cannot be increased without there first being a change in the mode of production, i.e. there must be innovations in both the technical and social conditions of the process of labor. And when the value of labor-power falls alongside an increase in the productivity of labor, commodities become cheaper. Along with this, Marx states that, as the productivity of labor increases, so, too, does the relative surplus-value; on the other hand, when there is a decrease in the productivity of labor, the relative surplus-value decreases as well. In other words, there is a direct proportion between the two things. The perpetual drive of capital according to Marx is to increase
SSCP Exam the productivity of labor, so that commodities can become cheaper. Through this process, the worker himself becomes cheaper. The reader is reminded that the capitalist is not interested in the absolute value of a commodity; instead, he is concerned with the surplus-value that is there in it, a value that is recognized through the sale of that commodity. Marx concludes that, through the increase of the productivity of labor, the aim of capitalist production “is the shortening of that part of the working day in which the worker must work for himself, and the lengthening, thereby, of the other part of the day, in which he is free to work for nothing for the capitalist