Start a Fire
10th September 2011, 17:19
I read Engels' Principles of Communism FAQ, and although I found it to generally be pretty informative and clear, I was a bit confused by one statement he made. The question was: Under conditions does this sale of the labour of the proletarians to the bourgeoisie take place?
Engels stated:
since business is sometimes worse and some times better, the worker receives sometimes more and some times less, just as the factory owner sometimes gets more and sometimes less for his commodities. But just as the factory owner, on the average of good times and bad, gets no more and no less for his commodities than their costs of production, so the worker will, on the average, get no more and no less than this minimum.Now, I understand that things are a bit different now since (in many countries at least) there is a minimum wage. What I am confused about is the statement that on average, factory owners get no more or less for their commodities than their costs of production. Wouldn't this just mean that the factory owner makes no net worth profit? Perhaps I'm misunderstanding this.
Another thing I am a bit confused about is Engels' statement about the creation of private property.
towards the end of the Middle Ages, there arose a new mode of production in the form of manufacture, which could not be subordinated to the then existing feudal and guild property, this manufacture, which had out grown the old property relations, created a new form of property, private property. Why is it that land was not considered private property during feudalism? Why wouldn't the landlord be considered the owner of private property (land), and the serf be considered the exploited worker?
I know there are obvious differences between capitalism and serfdom/feudalism, so any clarification would be greatly appreciated.
edit: I don't know why I put an apostrophe in the title, that doesn't make any sense lol.
Engels stated:
since business is sometimes worse and some times better, the worker receives sometimes more and some times less, just as the factory owner sometimes gets more and sometimes less for his commodities. But just as the factory owner, on the average of good times and bad, gets no more and no less for his commodities than their costs of production, so the worker will, on the average, get no more and no less than this minimum.Now, I understand that things are a bit different now since (in many countries at least) there is a minimum wage. What I am confused about is the statement that on average, factory owners get no more or less for their commodities than their costs of production. Wouldn't this just mean that the factory owner makes no net worth profit? Perhaps I'm misunderstanding this.
Another thing I am a bit confused about is Engels' statement about the creation of private property.
towards the end of the Middle Ages, there arose a new mode of production in the form of manufacture, which could not be subordinated to the then existing feudal and guild property, this manufacture, which had out grown the old property relations, created a new form of property, private property. Why is it that land was not considered private property during feudalism? Why wouldn't the landlord be considered the owner of private property (land), and the serf be considered the exploited worker?
I know there are obvious differences between capitalism and serfdom/feudalism, so any clarification would be greatly appreciated.
edit: I don't know why I put an apostrophe in the title, that doesn't make any sense lol.