Re: On working-class versus ‘middle-class’-Part 1
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John A Imani
On working-class versus ‘middle-class’ Part 2: What constitutes a class?
“The first question to be answered is this: What constitutes a class?...
“At first glance — the identity of revenues and sources of revenue. There are three great social groups whose members, the individuals forming them, live on wages, profit and ground-rent respectively, on the realisation of their labour-power, their capital, and their landed property...[Here the manuscript breaks off.]” i (1) “Here the manuscript breaks off…” with the last words of Marx in his greatest achievement.
In capitalism, there are four major classes, three working classes and two capitalist classes (sic).ii (2) Below is a discussion so as to bring to the fore an expansive proposition, a general theory, that the socioeconomic categories of class are to be defined and differentiated by the elements of value of the product that each class of people produces and/or brings to market.
Definition of Value-In capitalism the value of a commodity u, i.e. what the commodity is worth, is here designated as being equal to the total labors l*iii (3) that are ‘socially necessary’iv (4) for its production. In capitalism such labors are of three distinct natures, all of which are measurable with the same vector which is the amount # of Abstract Human Labor-time (AHL-t)v (5), which makes these labors commensurable, i.e. u = l*vi (6) = #AHL-t
Value then will be held to be a composite of three very different forms of labor L*. There are two, which are purchased by the capitalist with her money capital, M = Mc + Mv, as inputs to her planned production. First, there is Mc, ‘dead labor’, also called means of production or constant capitalvii (7) and will be denoted as c that were produced in a previous cycle(s) of production.viii(8)
The second portion, MV, of the capitalist’s money capital is her disbursement of the wage v tendered for the purchase of labor-power or ‘living labor’ or variable capital v. Its contribution to product value is the total wages of the labor-powers v ix (9) ‘socially necessary’, as labor, to finish the product in the last cycle of work performed upon the constant capital inputs before the product is ready for market.
The third kind of labor is not purchased by the capitalist but the value added by this labor flows to him gratis. This is surplus-labor or surplus-product or surplus-value s which accrues to the capitalist by virtue of the provisions of the ‘wage-bargain’ that consists of this: the capitalist owns the means of production, the laborer does not. In order for the latter to be allowed to use such means so as to add the value of her wage she must work past the amount of time that it takes to recreate the value of that wage v through the expenditure of her labor-power in action as labor l. Such labor, in capitalism is thus divided into the wage and the surplus-value, i.e. l = v + s. Conversely, v = (l - s)
There are other possible elements of product value: rent r and interest i. These will be shown to be but derivatives of the industrial (and agri-, mineral- and marine-industrial) capitalist’s surplus-value.
The Elements of Value in the Products of the Several Classes
1. Class Schematics: The Working Classes
(JAI: Because of difficulties in formatting this document in a manner which would survive posting on Marxmail I have to present the below descriptions of the several classes in a manner most inelegant. A better formatted pdf is available upon request.)
Class a. Independent Worker b. Wage-worker c. Petit-bourgeois
Example a. Gardener (with no hired help) b. Wage-worker gardener c. Gardener (with hired help)
Elements of Product Value a. c + l b. v = (l - s) c. c + l + v +s
The Independent Worker owns her own means of production c and therefore does not have to share the value added by her labor l. The value of her product equals c + l.x (10)
Contrariwise, the Wage-worker does not own her means of production c and in order to obtain these—so as to produce the value of her wage v—has to accede to the owning capitalist a portion s of such value-added by her labor l, i.e. v = l – s.xi (11)
The Petit-bourgeois owns enough means of production c to but also means sufficient to hire a waged-worker v. The value of her product is therefore c + l + v + s as her product’s value consists of the used-up means of production c; plus the value added by her own labor l (which because of her ownership of the means of production she does not have to share this with anyone); plus the value of her worker(s) wage v; plus the surplus-value added s by the her worker(s)’ labor l lasting longer than what is necessary to reproduce the value of their wages. The important thing here is that the owner labors l (adds value) alongside her workers who add the value of their labor l but only net their wage v = l – s.xii (12)
2. Class Schematics: The Capitalist Classes
Class a. Petit-bourgeois b. Bourgeois Capitalist 1 c. Bourgeois Capitalist 2 d. Bourgeois Capitalist 3
Example a. Gardener (with hired help) b. Industrial ‘Entrepreneur’ c. Landowner d. Usurer
Elements of Product Value a. c + l + v +s b. c + v + s c. r d. i
The Petit-bourgeois both as worker and as capitalist is described above. The value of her product is c + l + v +s.
The Bourgeois Capitalist 1 is implicitly delineated by the above description of the wage worker. Her product’s value is c + v + s.
The products of Bourgeois Capitalists 2 and 3 may or may not enter into BC1’s product’s value as the BC1 may own the land and/or buildings she operates on and/or in; and may be in personal possession of the funds necessary to undertake production and thus this BC1’s has no element of rent nor interest.xiii (13)
If not, then the product of the Bourgeois Capitalist 2 is property (land and/or buildings), the ownership of which entitles her to ground-rent r. All rents are paid by the capitalists out of the surplus-value extorted from her workforce.
The Bourgeois Capitalist 3 is similarly paid out of surplus-value save that, in this case, her product is money-capital lent at interest i.
These complete the several classes of workers and capitalists in capitalist production.
(Note: There are many citations from Marx and others to substantiate these descriptions of classes as presented here. (Available upon request.) For brevity, save one, only one was used in the endnotes. Where there are page numbers given these refer to the 1967 International Publishers’ paperbacks.)
i(1) “Capital Volume 3.” Chapter LII. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1894-c3/ch52.htm ii (2) Obviously, one class must be both a working class as well as a capitalist class. iii(3) l* designates the total labors of the three forms of labor: ‘dead’ labor which is the consumed constant capital k, the ‘living’ labor v and the surplus labor s (see just below in text.). iv(4) ‘Socially necessary labor’ means the average hours of labors required to make a specific product with the average skilled laborer working with the average intensity of such work and using means of production and technology that are of average quality. v(5) Abstract Human Labor-time (AHL-t) here is defined as the value-adding ability of the average worker per unit of time under average conditions of production including the levels of skill, technology and intensity of labor. vi (6) As u = l* is but tautology, u, the value of a product is as equal to the total labors l* used up to produce the commodity. vii(7) Called ‘constant’ because the value that its usage, as a factor of production, adds to the commodity being produced, is equal to, on average, the value of itself, i.e. it can not add anything more than its own worth to the worth of the commodity as, obviously, if it could then it would have commanded a higher price at market. viii(8). “Though a use-value, in the form of a product, issues from the labour-process, yet other use values, products of previous labour, enter into it as a means of production. The same use-value is both the product of a previous process, and a means of production in a later process…” Marx. “Capital. Vol 1.” Chap VII. ix(9) Labor-power is the worker’s ability to work. The difference between labor-power and labor is the same as that between a sewing machine and using it to sew. You pay for the machine (its ability to do work, i.e. like labor-power) but you pay nothing more to use it (like the workers’ labor). There is much folderol and ado about the difference between labor-power and labor but the great Edward G Robinson said it best: “The sitting around on the set is awful. But I always figure that's what they pay me for. The acting I do for free.” https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_G._Robinson x(10) “In that original state of things, which precedes both the appropriation of land and the accumulation of stock, the whole produce of labour belongs to the labourer. He has neither landlord nor master to share with him.” Adam Smith. “Wealth of Nations.” https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/smith-adam/works/wealth-of-nations/book01/ch08.htm xi(11) “...the labourer, on quitting the process, is what he was on entering it, a source of wealth, but devoid of all means of making that wealth his own.” Vol 1.” Chapter XXIII. (p570.) https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch23.htm
“We shall assume that he is a mere wage-labourer, even one of the better paid, for all the difference it makes. Whatever his pay, as a wage-labourer he works part of his time for nothing.” “Vol 2.” Chap 6. p132. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1885-c2/ch06.htm xii(12) “Of course he (the capitalist) can, like his labourer, take to work himself, participate directly in the process of production, but he is then only a hybrid between capitalist and labourer, a ‘small master’.” Marx. Capital (Vol 1) p308. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch11.htm xiii(13) “If we consider the total social capital C, and use p1 for the industrial profit that remains after deducting interest and ground-rent, i for interest, and r for ground-rent, then s/C = p/C = p1 + i + r/C = p1/C + i/C+r/.” “Capital. Vol 3.” Chap 15. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1894-c3/ch15.htm. (This here also serves as citation for interest.)
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