Marx's Political Economy: Surplus Value and Commodity Production

These flashcards cover essential vocabulary and concepts from Marx's economic theory, particularly related to surplus value, commodities, and exploitation.

Surplus Value

The value added to a commodity by labor that exceeds the cost of labor-power.

Commodity

A good or service produced for exchange rather than for direct use.

Use Value

The usefulness of a commodity, referring to its capacity to satisfy a human need.

Exchange Value

The value of a commodity expressed in terms of other commodities.

Value

The measure of the social labor-time necessary to produce a commodity.

Dialectical Method

A philosophical framework that emphasizes the interaction of contradictions and their resolution.

Historical Materialism

A Marxist approach that examines the development of societies through the lens of economic and material conditions.

Labour Theory of Value

The theory that the value of a commodity is determined by the socially necessary labor time required to produce it.

Abstract Labour

The concept of labor considered independently of its具体形式; labor that generates value.

Concrete Labour

The specific form of work performed to produce a particular commodity.

Exploitation

A relationship in which the welfare of one group is dependent on the decline in welfare of another, typically through appropriation of labor.

Capitalist Mode of Production

An economic system characterized by private ownership of the means of production and wage labor.

Private Entity

An individual or organization owned by private individuals, not by the state.

Reserve Army of Labour

A surplus of workers in the labor market that can be drawn upon during times of economic need.

Socially Necessary Labour-Time

The amount of labor time required to produce a commodity under normal conditions of production.

Non-Market Component of Labour-Power

Labour that is produced and reproduced outside the framework of commodity production.

Wage Labour

The type of labor in which workers sell their capacity to work in exchange for a wage.

Market Component of Labour-Power

The labor necessary for the capitalist system that is produced and reproduced within the market economy.

Social Wage

The total value of public services and provisions that support workers' reproduction.

Meaning of Exploitation

A relationship of material dependence where the welfare of one party increases at the expense of another.