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What does it mean to be a left wing economist today? |
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Page 7 of 38
Looking at the diagram above one can see the origin of several key Marxist concepts:
1. Surplus value is defined as M` - M. (The – is a minus sign.) It is the private appropriation of the social product. The workers produce C´ but the capitalist owns C´ which the capitalist then sells for M´.
2. Exploitation. This is another word for the extraction of surplus value from labor.
3. Proletariat. They are the people who sell labor power in the market transactions M→ C, and who then do the work.
4. Marx´s original definition of capitalism, as a form of society whose wealth appears as an immense collection of commodities (Waren) now appears in a different light. The existence of commodities in the kind of society Marx analyzes is an outcome of some people hiring other people to work. The former hire the latter for the purpose of ending up with more money than they started with.
5. Accumulation. M´ can be reinvested.
<-- <-- <-- <-- <-- <--
| ^
v |
M --> C ………..P………….. C´ --> M´
A cycle is established in which profits are available to pay for the inputs required to make still more profits, which in turn will make still more profits, ad infinitum.
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