AUT: Re: machines and surplus value

["Harry M. Cleaver" <hmcleave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 24 Feb 2002, Patrick Lea wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I have a rather fundamental question in regards to surplus value and
> machines.
>
> Surplus Value, the basics:
>
> People work, labour. The capitalist class, however, do not purchase what
> people produce, but their potential to produce, and reward not labour in
> particular, but labour in general.

Actually, capital often "purchases" what people produce, but not in
factories. In all cases, capital pays for "labour power", i.e. the
ability and willingness to produce. In general it pays the cost of
producing and reproducing that labor power.

> So if a worker produces 5 lines of code
> one day, but 10 the next, they are paid the same on both days. (aside: what
> about commission work? telemarketing for example?)

Clearly the cost of reproducing labor power doesn't change much on a day
to day basis, the cost of reproducing labor power is an average. Also,
with piece work the payment may vary with level of production but over
time there is still an average wage, an average value of labor power.

> That I understand, and fits with production generally. That also makes the
> concept of surplus value potentially correct as well. If people *were* paid
> according to what they've produced individually (barring things like piece
> work) there would be no surplus value, for example: artisans. (contract work
> too perhaps? or is that just another piece work?)

There would be no surplus product/value if the workers received/retained
collectively everything they produced or the value of everything they
produced. In piece work, and any other kind of work under capital, they do
not, thus surplus product and value. In real terms, what the capitalist
get is all the means of production that are produced (that's what they
get with their surplus value, qua capitalists).

> What I'm still missing (after the whole of vol 1 of capital, and various
> other texts) is the role the machine in the rise and fall of both value and
> surplus value. Machinery, from the stone tools onwards, dead labour,
> function in allowing living labour to produce more "things" (commodities
> perhaps) in a shorter period of time.

Yes.

> They do not produce more value as
> such, as each individual "thing" merely contains less value (objectified
> labour) than they did prior to the introduction of the particular machine.

Yes, by the definition of value as labor value and the rise in
productivity.

> So that's why after the introduction of the machine the particular commodity
> achieves less exchange value than prior to the machine. Eg. That's why
> computers become cheaper and cheaper the more computers are used to create
> them.

Yes.

> (aside: a strange occurrence: it would be impossible to create a
> modern computer without the use of a modern computer.)

Probably not. But this is only a modern version of what has been common in
the rise of machine industry as Marx discusses in Chapter 15 of Vol. I of
Capital. Machines are used to produce machines.

> But it still hasn't clicked with me as to how machines benefit the
> production of surplus value.
>
> Is it because machines allow for less labour needed in producing for the
> producer, and more can be spent producing for the
> consumer(capitalist)???????? True, I guess. If I was producing 3 cobs of
> corn, two of which I bought back to consume for myself, then really only one
> goes as surplus. If, through a nifty little corn machine, I increase that to
> 6 cobs of corn, and still only consume 2, that's 4 cobs of corn as surplus.
> Is that it??? If it is, well something seems not quite right, not sure what.
> It kind of makes sense, yet kind of doesn't. But I don't know why. Almost
> circular perhaps? HELP!

Your example is fine. What doesn't make sense? Your example is in real
terms but such real terms are the essential foundation of value terms. If
the use of a machine multiplies the amount workers produce in a given
period then there are two issues: first, what happens to the value of each
piece, and second, who gets what? As I think you see, the value of each
piece falls if the amount of labor remains the same. Because value is
defined by Marx in terms of labor, this follows directly. Second, assuming
the capitalist have the power to keep the wage/value-of-labor-power
constant, then they get the extra production and a larger share of value.
In Marx's jargon the rate of surplus value (S/V) or rate of exploitation
rises. If they are forced to concede a rise in the value of labor power,
then S/V may not rise as much, or even fall if the growth of V outstrips
the growth of productivity. In general Marx assumed it would not.

Moreover, as he argues in chapter 12 of the same book, any increase in the
productivity (through the use of machines) of production of the means of
subsistence (consumption goods that determine the value of labor power)
will, ceteris paribus, reduce the value of labor power and raise S/V. (Of
course, even increases in productivity in the production of means of
production that eventually feed back and have an impact on the value of
the means of subsistence and hence on the value of labor power  and
hence on S/V.)

So....... anything still not clear?

H.

>
>
> bye
> patrick
>
>
>
>      --- from list aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
>

............................................................................
Snail-mail:
Harry Cleaver
Department of Economics
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas 78712-1173  USA

Phone Numbers:
(hm)  (512) 442-5036
(off) (512) 475-8535
Fax:(512) 471-3510

E-mail:
hmcleave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
PGP Public Key: http://certserver.pgp.com:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=hmcleave

Cleaver homepage:
http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/index2.html

Chiapas95 homepage:
http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/chiapas95.html

Accion Zapatista homepage:
http://www.utexas.edu/students/nave/
............................................................................



     --- from list aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---