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S. Artesian replying to Barbera wrote: For example, the wage form mediates the dispossession of the laborer from the products of the total working day; the wage form mediates the estrangement of labor from the conditions of labor, the products of labor, and the time of labor by appearing as compensation paid to the worker for the entire working day. In fact, the mediation is compensation only for part of the day, hiding within itself the expropriation of unpaid labor, and yet reproducing on an ever larger scale the results of that expropriation. And Artesian quotes from Marx's draft of his proposed chapter 6 of Capital, entitled "Results of the Direct Production Process" ending with " This perpetuation of the relation of capital as buyer and the worker as seller of labour is a form of mediation which is immanent in this mode of production; ..... It glosses over as a mere money relation the real transaction and the perpetual dependence, which is constantly renewed through this mediation of sale and purchase." I would like to read Artesian's original post. I welcome this focus on how wage labor allows for the appearance that the worker is being paid for a whole day's labor, when in fact the capital buying it is taking a portion. It is one of the most central contributions of Marx extrapolated over the years to explain the exploitation of those who have nothing to sell but their labor power by those who have accumulated these portions in money (not labor time) form, as surplus labor value, into stores (binomial digital ledger-esque entries nowadays) of money known as capital. Focusing on this alone however has distracted from understanding other aspects that I find mightily helpful in seeing the way forward from capitalist economics (nothing happens unless it makes a capital pile grow; and what is most likely to happen is what makes it grow the most the fastest) to socialist (where the "difference between the world average labor time added to products of same kind MINUS that that other workers add to what we have to pay to work another day is the common wealth, monetized and privatized, we still see artistry of money changers steal" cf epilogue<http://www.peggydobbins.net/dwellingintents/epilogue.html> Marx well understood and repeatedly noted that wages are the money form of the world average labor time embodied (by other workers) in the necessities, commodities produced by other workers similarly adding more labor time than they consume. Sometime in the '90s the UBS began publishing data on major cities that made it abundantly clear wages are pegged to the local purchasing price of commodities of necessity, those goods and services embodying the average labor time of some workers that other workers must purchase to get and hold their job. This certainly facilitated the targeting of global capital funds. I do not think we will advance civilization by abolishing this difference, between the labor time added and that consumed. Surplus Value transformed into Social Surplus may or may not be expropriated and exploited as we go forward. Certainly the enemies of socialism believe so. Whether elites screw the rest of us is more a function of political will and organization by masses of people, which will have to be internationally coordinated, and we do have a way to go. We need for people who are well familiar with Marx and Engels central contributions, those which differentiate them from others, to move us forward. I found it noteworthy that the Chinese character for 'commodity' looks like 3 packages and is interpreted as 'necessities of living.' Also that the character for "corporation" is translated as "capital fund." cf pin and zi<http://international-behind-the-barcode.org/symbols.html> ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
