202306260825 Status: #idea #🧠 Tags: #economics #communism # Exploitation (of Labour) Marxism's critique of profit is not centered on the idea that any delta between cost and selling price is inherently exploitative. Instead, the focus is on the source of that delta or surplus value in the capitalist mode of production. According to Marx, the surplus value—manifested as profit for the capitalist—is created by labor. Workers, Marx argues, are paid less than the value they add through their work. The capitalist pays the worker a wage (the cost of labor-power, which Marx defines as the amount necessary to sustain the worker and reproduce the labor force), but the worker’s labor produces goods or services of higher value than this wage. This difference constitutes the "surplus value" or profit. In this context, exploitation doesn't necessarily mean that the capitalist is cheating the worker or that working conditions are poor, though these can certainly be aspects of exploitation. Exploitation, in Marxist theory, is a structural condition of capitalist production: the capitalist exploits the worker by appropriating this surplus value that the worker has produced. It's important to note that many economists and philosophers challenge Marx's labor theory of value and his concept of exploitation. Critics often argue that Marx fails to account for the role of capital (such as machinery, buildings, raw materials), risk, entrepreneurship, and time preference in the creation of value. They contend that profit is not just a return on labor, but also a return on these other factors. --- # References -