Could someone please explain "Surplus Value" to me please?

[MaverickChaos]

I'm guessing there are already a lot of topics on this but I've read over the theory and definitions of it but I haven't studied any Economics so it doesn't make any sense to me - especially with the way Marx wrote.

I just need the basic definition and idea behind it to give me a starting point, thanks.

[redarmyfaction38]

I'm guessing there are already a lot of topics on this but I've read over the theory and definitions of it but I haven't studied any Economics so it doesn't make any sense to me - especially with the way Marx wrote.

I just need the basic definition and idea behind it to give me a starting point, thanks.
i'll give it a go :D,
surplus value arrives when you take a basic product like cotton or iron ore and through the labour and expertise of your worker turn it into something more valuable like clothing or steel.
this creates a difference between cost to the employer and worth to the consumer.
surplus value.
that is a very simplified explanation, as i'm sure, my more educated comrades will rush to tell you :D

[trivas7]

Surplus value is the value created by the wage worker's labor over and above the value of her labor power and appropriated by the capitalist without remuneration.

[redarmyfaction38]

Surplus value is the value created by the wage worker's labor over and above the value of her labor power and appropriated by the capitalist without remuneration.
"her" labour power????????? :D

[NerdVincent]

I just need the basic definition and idea behind it to give me a starting point, thanks.
Easy. Surplus value can be defined as the value added to a product's cost of production in order to have a capital gain. What does it mean?
In a capitalist society, it means that once the workers are paid, the money left will go "to the compagny". If the compagny is making more money, the workers' wages won't increase, there will be "profit".
Surplus value depends on the law of "supply and demand". Compagnies can play with this surplus value: *"supply and demand" on wikipedia*
Communist want the "surplus value" to be erased, so that people won't pay more than the cost of production and all the money will go to workers.

[professorchaos]

"her" labour power????????? :DSome people seem to think that the use of feminine pronouns is somehow more correct and righteous than that of masculine pronouns.

[Random Precision]

From marxists.org (I never indulge in theoretical explanations of a concept unless they haven't already done it):

Surplus-value is the social product which is over and above what is required for the producers to live.

The measure of value is labour time, so surplus value is the accumulated product of the unpaid labour time of the producers. In bourgeois society, surplus value is acquired by the capitalist in the form of profit: the capitalist owns the means of production as private property, so the have no choice but to sell their labour-power to the capitalists in order to live. The capitalist then owns not only the means of production, and the workers’ labour-power which he has bought to use in production, but the product as well. After paying wages, the capitalist then becomes the owner of the surplus value, over and above the value of the workers’ labour-power.

In all societies in which there is a division of labour, there is a social surplus; what is different about bourgeois society is that surplus value takes the form of capital, and surplus value is in fact the essence of production in capitalism.– Only productive work, i.e., work which creates surplus value, is supported. All “unproductive labour” is eliminated.

The capitalists may increase the amount of surplus value extracted from the working class by two means: (1) by absolute surplus value – extending the working day as long as possible, and (2) by relative surplus value – by cutting wages.

Attempts by individual capitalists to increase their profits by introducing machinery or speeding-up production by technique fail as soon as their competitors copy the new technique and restore their market share. The end effect of these improvements in production may be to increase the productivity of labour, but unless the rate of surplus value is increased proportionately, the rate of profit will actually fall.

Having been accumulated as capital, surplus value must then be distributed to landlords, bankers and other parasites, and expended via taxes on the various expenses of maintaining the social fabic.

http://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/s/u.htm#surplus-value

[MaverickChaos]

Thanks a lot guys, that really helped :)