fig. 2: The worker sells labor power to the capitalist. Its value is calculated to be the cost of the worker’s own survival and reproduction. This is paid in the form of wages. But during the working day, the worker produces more than that. The rest is surplus value.

Material and Means

Works for Free

The worker sells labor power to the capitalist. Its value is calculated to be the cost of the worker’s own survival and reproduction. This is paid in the form of wages. But during the working day, the worker produces more than that. The rest is surplus value.

Others Will Take It

In our example, let’s pretend that wages are $50 a day. This is basically tied to (in general) the amount needed to “reproduce” the worker (that the worker needs to subsist from day-to-day and replenish the class with more workers). And let’s pretend that the other costs associated with production — the materials and the depreciation of machinery, rent for the factory and other inputs, are also $50 per day, which adds up to $100 total costs.

I Made That

The capitalist puts the labor power to work. Let’s say each worker produces goods worth $50 every hour. That means the costs associated with production – $100 of wages and inputs – are covered within 2 hours. Then the rest of the day, whatever the worker produces is extra, or surplus value. If the working day is 8 hours, the surplus value will be $300. The value of the product, then, is all that put together: $400.

Throw Him Off

Because the capitalist owns the means of production, the worker doesn’t have the right to keep the product; the capitalist essentially rents the worker and takes what the worker produces. The amount of wages and of surplus value is contested, and can fluctuate according to the relative power of the contending classes.

Exploiting is Exhausting

The capitalist then sells the product at its value. The profit is already in the product, generated in the process of production itself. It’s realized at the point of sale. If it’s bought by a retailer, an additional amount is added on to the retail price. This is not additional surplus value, but instead is the imposition of an unequal exchange between the merchant and the customer. The customer is paying more than the actual value of the commodity, because of the greater market power of the retailer.

Commodity Breakdown

If the retailer is a monopoly, it can use its market power to dominate capitalists, to set its purchase price below the actual value of the commodity. This is one manifestation of imperialism, a way that surplus value is extracted from dominated countries. This puts pressure on the capitalist, who in turn intensifies pressure on the workers. Often, their wages are pushed below the amount required for survival. We see this happening with giant multinational retailers such as Walmart and Gildan.

Comics from Stephanie McMillanhttp://stephaniemcmillan.org