Explanation of Marx's theory of surplus value

[Comrade Jandar]

No matter how many different sources I read I'm still having trouble understanding Marx's theory of surplus value. Can someone please, in as simplest terms possible, explain it? Thank you in advance.

[Comrade Marcel]

"The essence of capitalist exploitation is that workers are only paid for part of the labour service they provide to the capitalist employers. The other part of the labour provided goes unpaid. The proceeds from this end up in the pockets of the capitalists. So in the working day the worker is engaged in earning money for him/herself, i.e., wages, and also earning money for the capitalists from which profits are derived." -- http://www.oneparty.co.uk/html/abc.html

"The new value created in the course of production by a worker's labour over and above the value of his labour power. If a worker receiving £100 a week in wages were to create only £100 a week in value, his employer would obtain no benefit from employing him and would cease to do so.

"An employer will employ a worker only if he produces in a week an amount of new value which exceeds what is paid to him in wages. The difference is the surplus value -- value which is created by the worker but appropriated by his employer. If a worker creates £200 of new value in a week but is paid £100 in wages, his employer has obtained £100 in surplus value from that worker. So, if he employs 1,000 such workers, he obtains a total of £100,000 of surplus value in a week.

This is the mechanism by which the capitalist class exploits the working class. Clearly, exploitation under capitalism has a more concealed character than under slavery or feudalism." -- http://www.oneparty.co.uk/html/marxism/Cl2.html

""Most people don't understand that capitalism is an economic dictatorship, with a small owning class controlling all of the services and industries for the purpose of personal enrichment, and a far larger working class who does all of the useful work but receives in return only a tiny fraction of the value of what they create. A capitalist is an individual who owns such a sizable portion of productive or distributive property that he/she doesn't have to work in order to receive wealth. A capitalist produces no wealth at all but simply owns. " -- http://www.angelfire.com/co2/sociali...italismis.html

"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 workers 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://marxists.org/glossary/terms/s/u.htm

[promethean]

No matter how many different sources I read I'm still having trouble understanding Marx's theory of surplus value. Can someone please, in as simplest terms possible, explain it? Thank you in advance.

Surplus value is the additional value created by workers through their efforts put into the process of production. This additional value, left over after the costs of maintenance of the working class and the existing productive mechanism have been deducted, goes towards both consumption of the capitalist class and towards the reproduction of the productive process by investment in machinery and other goods needed for the continuation and expansion of the productive process.

[socialistjustin]

The most simple answer I have ever heard was this: You work from 9 to 5 and your work until 2 pays your wage while the next 3 hours is the value going to the capitalist to do whatever.

Obviously numbers can vary and such, but that explanation was given in a video on crisis theory. Seems simple enough.

[Sugarnotch]

It's pretty closely related to the labour theory of value iirc.

Let's say you have a warehouse job. You get paid the hourly wage of 10$, but produce 40$ worth of goods in the same time. The surplus value is the 30$ you don't see; the 30$ that ends up in others' hands. You are essentially paying your employer 30$ for the privilege of working.

Obviously, the numbers vary, but the point stands.

[skizzy]

If you have any problems with any of his theories i usually watch Kapitalism 101 on youtube.. i found them useful

[Revolution starts with U]

You go to work and in X amount of time create $5 of value to the productive effort. You are paid $1, another dollar goes to administrative costs, maybe one more to reinvestment. The boss pockets the rest.

Pretty simple is you ask me. On top of it, of your dollar, the government lets you keep a measly $.70.

[Rooster]

Surplus value is basically profit. How does a capitalist make profit? The capitalist pays the worker a wage, a fixed amount per hour, in exchange for the worker's ability to labour (his labour power) regardless of the profit the capitalist makes from his labour.

This arises because labour power can create more value than it's worth. The labourer gets paid the amount they need to live on, which they create during the working day. The capitalist can then go on and take whatever value is left and this is the surplus value. In effect, the capitalist gets the use-value of the worker's labour power but pays only the exchange-value.

The working day is in effect divided into two:

Necessary labour - the time the worker spends actually earning the amount paid in wages. In any society a worker would need to labour for a period of time in order to provide the food, clothing and shelter they require. The amount of time this takes will vary according to the technology that is available to help them with their work.

Surplus labour - the time spent producing surplus value for the capitalist.

The capitalist can increase their surplus value making the working day longer and/or increasing the efficiency of the work place so the worker covers the cost of their wages in a shorter time leaving more of the rest of the day available to produce surplus value.

If you've spent any time working then you quickly realise that this is what is going on. It's why people in a sweat shop can spend all day making sneakers by won't be able to buy a single pair with their day's wages.