Exploitation

[Ballyfornia]

How exactly does exploitation happen in day to day basis? i kind of understand it with my brother who was made to work 13 hours at a pub and my friend who is under 18 and working more hours than should be for someone under 18 and is under paid. but what other ways does in happen

[Rooster]

Under a capitalist mode of production there are two classes of people; the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. A proletariat is someone who sells their labour power (their ability to labour) for a wage or a salary, to a capitalist (the boss/bourgeoisie). A proletariat has no other means of subsistence apart from selling their labour power. This is Marx's analysis of class. A worker sells their labour (a commodity) for money, so that other commodities can be produced; C-M-C. A capitalist invests money into a business (buying land, machinery, raw material – ie, what's called dead labour and the means of pro) and also people/workers' labour power (living labour). They do this to make commodities so that they can be sold for money; M-C-M. But, to become a capitalist one must get more money in return. This extra money is called capital (profit); M-C-M+


In the free market things are exchanged at their real value. So many shoes can be exchanged for a car, a car can be exchanged for so many bottles of beer, but all can be exchanged for money. Seldom is the case that things exchange above or below their real value. So where does capital come from? It comes from the exploitation of workers. Labour power is different from other commodities because it can create value.


A worker who earns £6 an hour and workers 8 hours a day gives us a daily wage of £48. Lets say that this particular worker is a chef who makes sandwiches, and lets say that the average price of a sandwich is £3 and that the worker can make 10 sandwiches an hour (and this must be a very lazy worker but lets leave it at that). This gives us £30 an hour being produced. This means that within two hours of work, the chef has more than earned his daily wage (and a daily wage is usually the minimum that a worker needs to live on). Through an 8 hour day, the chef creates, using the figures outline, £240. This extra money is capital, used for reinvestment, paying of the debts of the capitalists and generally lining the pockets of the capitalist who has produced nothing, who has worked on nothing. Try this exercise for yourself. See how much value you create a day and how much you earn.


A capitalist can not squeeze dead labour (they buy it at it's real value), but living labour can be squeezed. Wages can be driven down (usually with the threat of being sacked and replaced with one of the vast army of the unemployed), the length of the working day can be increased, labour saving machines and equipment can be introduced and so on.

[Obs]

How exactly does exploitation happen in day to day basis? i kind of understand it with my brother who was made to work 13 hours at a pub and my friend who is under 18 and working more hours than should be for someone under 18 and is under paid. but what other ways does in happen
EVERYONE is underpaid. That's how some people make a profit. That's how all workers are exploited.

[Sixiang]

EVERYONE is underpaid. That's how some people make a profit. That's how all workers are exploited.

I would generally agree with you, except I would say that "celebrities" are over-paid.