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Commodity Labour Value Analysis

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It is necessary to analyse the value of the commodity labour power to know the origin of the surplus value. Labour power is a commodity but the labour itself is now a commodity. The capitalist hires the worker to come to his factory on a certain day to perform a certain task which is set for him. The capitalist is buying the workers capacity to work or it can be said as he is buying the labour power. It doesn’t take into account the expenditure of brain and muscle power which actually constitute the labour until he is set to work. In capitalism the labour contract is legally limited or terminable or both. This shows the fact that the labour is indeed selling himself. Now since the labour power is a commodity it will have a value like another …show more content…

Let us suppose that this value is the product of six hours labour. This means that after production has proceeded for six hours the worker has added to the value of the materials and machinery used up—a value which we know reappears in the product—an additional value sufficient to cover his own means of subsistence. If the process were to break off at this point the capitalist would be able to sell the product for just enough to reimburse himself for his outlays. But the worker has sold himself to the capitalist for a day, and there is nothing in the nature of things to dictate that a working day shall be limited to six hours. Let us assume that the working day is twelve hours. Then in the last six hours the worker continues to add value, but now it is value over and above that which is necessary to cover his means of subsistence; it is, in short, surplus value which the capitalist can pocket for …show more content…

Consequently the working day can be divided into two parts, necessary labor and surplus labor. Un­ der conditions of capitalist production the product of necessary labor accrues to the laborer in the form of wages, while the product of surplus labor is appropriated by the capitalist in the form of surplus value. It is to be noted that necessary labor and surplus labor as such are phenomena which are present in all so­ cieties in which the productiveness of human labor has been raised above a certain very low minimum, that is to say, in all but the most primitive societies. Furthermore, in many non-capi- talist societies (e.g. slavery and feudalism) the product of sur­ plus labor is appropriated by a special class which in one wav or another maintains its control over the means of production. What is specific to capitalism is thus not the fact of exploitation of one part of the population by another, but the form which this exploitation assumes, namely the production of surplus

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