Means of Production as Capital

[Brotto Rühle]

What makes the means of production "capital"? Is it the alienation of the direct producer and the monopolization of the means of production?

[The Feral Underclass]

Capital is a social system, the logic of which is to set value in motion to produce more value. Within that logic of capital, the means of production are tools in the creation of value.

[Brotto Rühle]

Capital is a social system, the logic of which is to set value in motion to produce more value. Within that logic of capital, the means of production are tools in the creation of value.
You're thinking capitalISM

[The Feral Underclass]

No I'm not. Capital is value in motion creating more value. It is a social system. Capitalism is the ideology/economics of capital.

[Fakeblock]

Well, I think the formula for capital, M-C-M', has the answer to this question. The means of production are, in capitalist societies, commodities that are used as a way of valorising money. The capitalist uses his money to buy raw materials, instruments of labour, labour power etc. and, in turn, uses these materials to create more value, adding a surplus to his orginal value.

[Polaris]

Capital is a circuit that money and commodities go through in order to produce value and can also be used to refer to a specific item/group of items (accumulation of capital), including money once they are in this circuit-- but only when they are in this circuit. That is, the money that I have in my piggy bank isn't capital, neither could you say that my laptop is capital. But if I insert my money into the circuit it could then be called capital.

What does it mean to put my money into the circuit?

Note that it doesn't mean simply buying something. That would be expressed as M-C. As you can see, no new value is created here, and neither the money (M) or the commodity (C) can be considered capital.

The circuit in which capital flows is this:
M-C-M'
The ' after M means that the value of M has increased. What basically happening here is that a capitalist invests money in the production of a commodity which they then sell for a greater amount of money; the difference between M' and M is profit. In more detail:
M-(MP+LP)-C-M'
Once money is used to buy the means of production (MP, things you make commodities with or out of, such as machines or rocks) and labor power (LP, this is paid for to workers in the form of wages) it's title of capital is transferred to the (MP+LP). What happens to this money is it is either given to the workers through wages, where it stops being the capital form of money and becomes the commodity form (the worker uses it to purchase commodities to be consumed) or it is given to other capitalists who either use it for consumption (not capital) or use it in the capital circuit by buying their own MP and LP. Anyway, then the production process happens and because labor is added to the means of production during the creation of the commodity (C) its value is greater than the money used in the first place, so it can be sold for a profit by paying the workers less than the value of the labor they contributed.

So! Sorry if that was too much information. The short answer is that capital can be used to mean this cycle:
M-(MP+LP)-C-M'
And can refer to the things in this cycle while they are active.


Capital is value in motion creating more value.