Marxism Review, Essay Example

• Objectification – is the act of representing an abstraction as a physical thing. Externalization – is attributing to an outside cause.
• Property – A thing or things that belong to someone.
• Private Property – is ownership based on arbitrary legal entitlement.
• Use Value – is a value derived from actual use of a good or service.
• Exchange Value – In political economy and especially Marxian economics, exchange value refers to one of four major attributes of a commodity, i.e., an item or service produced for, and sold on the market.
• Socially Necessary Labor Time – Socially necessary labor time in Marx’s critique of political economy is what regulates the exchange value of commodities in trade and consequently guides producers in their attempt to economize on labor.
• Simple Circulation – is the movement of commodities, selling in order to buy.
• The Circulation of Capital – is the movement of capital from one investment to another, or between one country and another.
• Surplus Value – in the Marxist theory it is the excess of value produced by the labor of workers over the wages they are paid.
• The Value of Labor in Capitalism – The value of a commodity is determined not by the production of that one item alone but rather as the fraction of society’s total simple, abstract labor devoted to it.

In order to understand how the value of labor is measured, one has to understand how Marx viewed value. Marx dictated that value was measured in monetary units. He goes to the extent to argue that money is “universal equivalent form of value in general.” The measure of value of labor is too based on money. All merchandise has value, due to human labor; therefore the output is measured by the end value of that commodity. Money being equal to value, it is essential to associate value with the labor-time within the commodities. The value of a certain item can only be determined with the labor necessary that production. Marx tried to quantify the components of labor to determine the true bottom line, or the real price of that specific commodity. Therefore the value of labor is measured by its input. There are many different levels of labor to consider as well, from lowest to skilled where the value and the input/ output could be significantly different. The end result is the price of the total commodity including the input of labor. The value of labor is measured with all factors in consideration.

Private property production produces surplus values without violating the equivalent for equivalent rule either in the purchase of the means of production, the purchase of labor power, or the sale of commodities produced. Consider that labor products become commodities, only when labor is done privately. For example, if the product of labor is private property when someone initiates an exclusive and absolute right of ownership. The categorization of the property has nothing to do with labor. The system of law enforced the relations of production, purchase of labor power, and the sales of the commodities that are produced. For example, when that private property produces surplus value for a construction need, that usefulness is contingent on ownership rights. Private property production produces a use-value to accommodate the needs of others. Not always in order to meet the needs, but more as a means to exploit them. Private producers create products in order to sell them; ownership is easily transferrable upon sale. Marx’s classic formulations: “Labor does not create value, but only labor in the service of property.” (Real Value) The owners of private property production produce surplus value by spending money in order to produce more.

Production of surplus value violates the equivalent for the equivalent rule in the use of labor in production. Labor is considered differently when producing utilities and creating value. This is distinguishable simply by the process of production. Creating value by producing commodities, versus the unity of labor-process through the production of surplus-value. This is either the capitalist production of commodities or the process of production. Surplus value is not regulated by the type of labor, whether that is unskilled or skilled. It is more costly to employ the higher than average labor therefore violating the equivalent of equivalent rule. Higher value labor creates equal time, however significantly more costly than that of an unskilled laborer. Regardless of the skill differences, the value of quality does not differ from the additional portion of surplus-value created.

Explain how Marx uses the disposable time issue to support the claim that capitalism is no longer an appropriate economic system for modern times. How would disposable time be used in a more appropriate economic system? Marx dictated that wealth is nothing more than disposable time. Capitalist appropriate disposable time in the form of surplus-value. Increasing productivity of labor will create extra surplus-value. With such intentions in mind, capitalisms value eventually becomes groundless. This is a result of the decreasing labor for production, which is the basis for the law of value. Capitalism will cease to exist as we know it. Marx writes, “ The recognition of the products as its own, and the judgment that its separation from the conditions of its actualization is improper – forcibly imposed – is an enormous consciousness, itself the product of the mode of production resting on capital, and as much the knell to its doom as, with the slave’s consciousness of himself that he cannot be the property of a third, with his consciousness as person, slavery vegetates to merely artificial existence and has ceased to be able to prevail as the basis of production.” (Uchida 1) A more appropriate economic system would be controlled by freely associated workers. The pre-capitalist mediates the economic formation is the transition from money to capital. The origins of free labor-power, free funds, free exchange, and the accumulation of money stem back to pre-capitalist. Disposable time would be better utilized in an economic system by necessary planning. Knowing objectives and having the necessary resources eliminates disposable time. Social individuals can decide what their disposable time will be versus the necessary labor time which dictates that individual.

Crude communism is “the domination of material property looms so large that it aims to destroy everything which is incapable of being possessed by everyone as private property.” It is the belief in a one party totalitarian state. Crude Communism is the highest point of leveling-down and such envy based upon a preconceived minimum. Communism as a humanism is the development of human nature being more and more materialistic. Humanism is the philosophy of ethics with regards to value, dignity, and human interest. “There are, besides, eternal truths, such as Freedom, Justice, etc., that are common to all states of society. But communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion and all mortality, instead of constituting them on a new basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical experience.” (Manifesto) Gould viewed communism as humanism in an authoritarian bureaucratic state. Communism takes away individuals freedoms. It strips people for the humanism, flexibility, and their overall alienation of personal freedoms. Communism as a humanism was still almost describable as a cult, void of individuality. Overall the views of anything associated with communism were a violation of personal freedoms through dictation.

References

“Real” value: Comments on the “labor theory of value” and the wealth of capitalist society. Web. http://www.ruthlesscriticism.com/realvalue.htm

Uchida, Hiroshi. The Chapter on Capital and The Doctrine of Essence. 1988. Web. Manifesto of the Communist Party. Marx & Engels Library 1848. Web.