What’s wrong with the Theory of Surplus Value?
The creation of this blog was provoked by a chance listening to a BBC radio programme that involved an economic discussion looking at austerity, at the rise of the super rich and at unprecedendetd inequality in the world
What caught my attention was that the chairperson rather clumsily, and in an apparently premeditated way, suggested that the Theory of Surplus Value should be consigned to the dustbin of useless economic theories.
This really surprised me. I couldn’t recollect ever having heard of Surplus Value before in any BBC or other mainstream broadcast.
This concerned me somewhat as here was the BBC allowing a presenter to tell listeners that the Theory of Surplus Value is useless, without any explanation or any discussion of it’s pros and cons.
So here was the BBC proposing the trashing of a theory that – to anyone not conditioned by dominant thought – is pretty much a self evident truth; hardly an impartial act by the world’s most famous public service broadcaster.
I was familiar with the theory myself; it refers to the exploitation of workers in society where labour power in commodity production is the source of value, and unpaid surplus labour is the source of profit and hence of minority held wealth, societal inequality etc.
But why was the issue raised in such a clumsy way? And if there is an explanation of profit that presents such a challenge to dominant thinking, why is it not at least discussed on air?
And again, if profit does not come from surplus labour, why is there no generally accepted explanation of profit among mainstream economists and politicians?
This blog, then, is a personal investigation of these and similar questions; or put another way, it asks
‘What’s wrong with the Theory of Surplus Value?’.
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Self-Evident Truths
In this part of the ‘About’ page a number of self evident truths will be outlined, to give an indication of the views underpinning this blog.
All of the Billions of Commodities
All of the billions of commodities produced under capitalism are made using only the same two basic components. These are:-
- The Earth’s natural resources, physical and biological
- Human labour, physical and intellectual
Some may immediately object and claim that commodity production also involves Capital and Machinery.
Well, Capital is simply derived from the surplus of past commodity production; it is in fact stored labour.
Machinery is itself a commodity. Commodities may be produced to be sold to the population – e.g. furniture, TV sets, mobile phones, clothes; or they may be produced to be sold for use in the production of more commodities – this may be called ‘Production of commodities by means of commodities’, to steal the title of the Book by Piero Sraffa.
It is clear then that, looked at in the most basic generalised manner, all commodites are produced by using the earth’s resources and human labour, either new labour or old stored labour.
So why do the producers of the Worlds wealth not own that wealth? Why do they have to be employed – day after day, week after week, year after year – until their old age?
To be continued.
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All Modern Humans
All modern Humans are physically related. The 7 or eight billion people currently alive on Earth are one large extended family.
It is true that here are competing theories regarding the origin and world wide spread of Homo Sapiens, but these do not change the obvious.
We are all of the same species and genome (between 99.6% and 99.9% identical); the only way that can happen is by repeated acts of reproduction and migratory spread.
So why does this family put up with a global economic system that tells them that every individual has to compete with all other individuals, and every organisation and nation also has to compete with all other organisations and nations – a system that produces gross inequalities amongst them, as well as devastating conflicts?
What is so bad about universal co-operation?
To be continued.
Profit, Wealth and Value 