ch. 7: marx on creativity of labor & surplus value

labor connects ______ and ______ ?

human being and nature

human acts on nature but also ?

“changes his own nature”

look at labor process “_______ of any specific social formation” like capitalism or feudalism

independently

“labor in a form in which it is an exclusively human characteristic”

architects or bees

Marx’s famous definition of human labor as creative, as imaginative in essence

“worker is “_______" his/her purpose, has "a purposeful will" and uses "______"

conscious of / the free play of his own physical and mental powers

human labor in its “natural” form is about the play of ideas as much as physical activity and when we are robbed of using our ideas, our imagination at work, then we are ?

dehumanized

revolutionary feminist Alexandra Kollontai wrote _____ to critique the capitalist work process

“Love of Workers Bees”

who “defined man [human being] as a tool-making animal”?

benjamin franklin

Why is nature not natural?

Animals and plants which we are accustomed to consider as products of nature, are the result of a gradual transformation continued through many generations under human control, and through the agency of human labor"

Examples: plants in Amazon rain forest, fruit trees, etc

What is he discussing when he says nature is not natural?

use values

What is dead vs. living labor?

Tools or machines are dead: "Living labor must seize on these things, awaken them from the dead, change them from merely possible into real and effective use-values.”

what is individual consumption?

I produce something and then consume it

What is productive consumption?

labor consumes raw materials and produces “a product distinct from the consumer”

predominates over individual consumption

The labor process is purposeful activity aimed at the production of ____ ?

use-values

abstract labor is valorized which does what?

creates more value, including exchange value, than its purchase price, realizng a surplus value for the capitalist

What has changed?

1. worker “works under the control of the capitalist to whom his labor belongs”

2. the product is the property of the capitalist and not that of the worker, its immediate producer”

valorization

realization of value, especially surplus value, a precondition for profit

The 2 purposes of our capitalist is to produce:

1. exchange value

2. surplus value

abstract labor

simple labor, the average labor of a given society

production as a process of …

creating value

workers are paid for the value their labor has added to raw material which is how long?

6 hours, a day’s work

what are the two types of value for labor power?

1. its value or price as wages on the labor market vs.

2. the value it creates in process of production, with latter normally much, much higher

The value of _______ and the value which that labor-power valorizes in the labor process, are two entirely ______ magnitudes; and this difference is what the capitalist had in mind

labor-power / different

labor possesses a ____?

use value

what does it mean for labor power to possess a “use value”?

a source not only of value, but of more value than itself

they extend hours of labor to create what value?

surplus value

money transforms into ____?

capital

the capitalist transforms value into capital, value which can perform its own valorization process, an animated ____ which begins to work, as if body were by love possessed

monster

what is surplus labor time

a source of surplus value for the capitalist

surveillance by supervisors or devices enforce standard of _____ vs. taking too long on the job ; required for capitalist production

socially necessary labor time

slavery vs. free wage labor

“treating one with brutality, and damaging the other con amore (joyfully, lovingly)”

what is the double robbery of the worker?

1. Labor as naturally creative and partly intellectual – and this is stolen from the worker in the modern capitalist production process, wherein human relations are as relations between things, more like a beehive or an anthill than specifically human labor. 

   2. In monetary/value terms, the worker is forced to donate surplus labor time to the capitalist, which becomes the source of surplus value profit. This is because the worker is paid wages, which represent the value of labor power on the labor market, but inside the factory, this becomes “variable capital,” which expands in value, creating a surplus value, often huge, for the capitalist.