What is the essence of surplus value. Appropriation of surplus value. The working day and its components

Surplus value

the value created by the unpaid labor of the wage worker in excess of the value of his labor power and appropriated by the capitalist free of charge. Expresses the specifically capitalist form of exploitation, in which the surplus product takes the form of P. s. production and appropriation of P. with. constitutes the essence of the basic economic law of capitalism (See Basic Economic Law of Capitalism). “The production of surplus value or profit is the absolute law...” of the capitalist mode of production (K. Marx, see K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 23, p. 632). It reflects economic relations not only between capitalists and wage-workers, but also between various groups of the bourgeoisie: industrialists, merchants, bankers, and also between them and landowners. The pursuit of P. s. plays the main role in the development of the productive forces under capitalism, determines and directs the development of production relations in capitalist society. The doctrine of the social system, which V. I. Lenin called "... the cornerstone of Marx's economic theory" (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 23, p. 45), was first developed by Marx in 1857- 58, in the manuscript "Critique of Political Economy" (the original version of "Capital"), although some provisions were already in such works of the 40s. 19th century, as "Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844", "Poverty of Philosophy", "Wage Labor and Capital".

A prerequisite for the production of P. with. is the transformation of labor power (See labor power) into a commodity. Only at a certain stage in the development of society does the owner of money find in the market a worker free from the means of production, forced to sell his labor power. Its consumption is tantamount to the creation of new value. The central problem of P.'s theory of s. is the explanation of the mechanism of capitalist exploitation on the basis of commodity-money relations prevailing in bourgeois society. The contradictory effect of this mechanism lies in the fact that the essentially non-equivalent exchange of activity between the worker and the capitalist, between labor and capital, is actually carried out on the basis of the law of value, i.e., on the basis of the exchange of equivalents - commodities that have the same value law).

Research of production process of P. of page. K. Marx begins with an analysis of the general formula of capital ( D-T-D; where D "b more D or D"=D+d), which expresses the purchase of goods ( D-T) to sell it ( T-D")With in order to increase capital. Gain or excess value ( d) over the originally advanced amount of money ( D), put into circulation, Marx calls P. s. The increase in the initial amount of money due to the addition of P. s. makes them Capital. The analysis of the general formula of capital shows that the P. of s. cannot arise from commodity circulation, which takes place on the basis of the law of value; on the other hand, if the owner of the money did not put it into circulation, then there could be no increase. Consequently, P. s. cannot arise outside circulation. Marx showed that the capitalist, buying and selling commodities at their value, nevertheless extracts from this process a greater value than he invested in it.

The sale of labor power to the capitalist occurs at its value, which is determined by the amount of socially necessary labor time during which it is reproduced. The capitalist acquires the use value of the commodity labor power, which has "... the original property of being a source of value ..." (K. Marx, see K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 23, p. 177). It is realized at the second stage of the exchange between labor and capital - in the process of production, when a new value is created that contains the P. s. The latter is defined by Marx as the difference between the value that living labor creates in the process of production and that which the capitalist pays to the worker in the form of wages (See Wages) . “Surplus value is nothing else than the excess of the amount of labor that the worker gives over the amount of materialized labor that he received in his own wages, as the value of his labor power” (ibid., vol. 47, p. 190-91).

The ability of the worker to work, and consequently the product of his labor, belongs to the capitalist. The law of value, as the law of the exchange of equivalents, does not contradict the fact that the value created as a result of the expenditure of living labor exceeds the value of labor power. Really P. s. acts in the form of profit, which in the process of implementation and distribution takes a number of forms: entrepreneurial income (See Entrepreneurial income) , appropriated by industrial and commercial entrepreneurs, Percentage a , appropriated by bankers, and land rent (See Land rent) , received by land owners. All these specific types of income have their own characteristics. What they have in common is that they have one source - the unpaid labor of workers.

In the boundless desire to increase the production of P. s. capitalists intensify the exploitation of wage-workers in various ways. These methods correspond to two forms P. s. - absolute and relative. Absolute P. s. is the result of the lengthening of the working day beyond the necessary labor time during which the worker reproduces the value of his labor power. Its actual value depends on the correlation of class forces. Motivated by the greedy striving to increase wages, the capitalists do their best to lengthen the limits of the working day. However, with the growth of organization, the working class, as a result of a stubborn struggle, managed to achieve a legislative limitation of the working day. Absolute P. s. also increases as a result of an increase in the intensity of labor (See. Intensity of labor) - with a constant or even decreasing size of the working day. Another way to increase the production of P. s. is a reduction in the necessary and a corresponding increase in surplus labor time, with the length of the working day unchanged. Relative P. corresponds to this method. The reduction in the necessary working time is associated primarily with an increase in labor productivity in industries that produce the means of subsistence for the worker; Ultimately, this leads to lower labor costs. And this, in turn, leads to a reduction in the necessary and, accordingly, an increase in surplus labor time in all branches of capitalist production. A relative variation is the surplus wages appropriated by individual capitalists at their enterprises as a result of the reduction in the individual value of a commodity in comparison with its social value. Excessive P. with. not associated with lower labor costs. Its source is the higher labor productivity of workers at technically more advanced enterprises compared to the average level of productivity for the given industry. Excessive P. with. is temporary, because as the new technique and technology spread to other enterprises in the corresponding branch, the social value of commodities decreases and the difference between the individual and social value of commodities disappears. However, the fleeting nature of excessive P. s. does not mean that it disappears completely. It simply passes from one capitalist to another. The struggle to obtain it is the main stimulus for intra-industry competition (See Intra-industry competition).

The development of capitalism is characterized by a steady increase in the rate of wage production, which is the ratio of the total mass of capital production. to variable capital or surplus labor time to the necessary, expressed as a percentage m '- the norm of P. with ., m - mass P. s., υ - variable capital. Between the norm and the mass of P. s. there is a functional connection. If P.'s norm with. reflects the degree of exploitation of the working class, then the mass - the absolute value of P. s. ( m) and is equal to the value of the advanced variable capital (υ) multiplied by the norm of P. s. ( m"). Marx noted that "... the rate of surplus value is the exact expression of the degree of exploitation of labor power by capital, or the worker by the capitalist" (ibid., vol. 23, p. 229). According to his calculations, in the middle of the 19th century. it was approximately 100%. Norma P. s. in the factory industry of Russia in 1908 exceeded 100% (see V. I. Lenin, Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 22, pp. 24-25). According to the calculations of Marxist researchers, the norm of P. s. in the US manufacturing industry was in%: 115 (1966, V. Perlo, USA), 118-120 (1955, V. M. Kudrov and S. M. Nikitin, USSR), 192 (1958, E. S. Varga, USSR), 312 (1969, S. L. Vygodsky, USSR), 397 (1957, A. I. Kats, USSR), 1187 (1965-69, Yu. Kuchinsky, GDR). Fluctuations in the size of the norm P. s. due to differences in the calculation methods used. But all these calculations indicate an increase in the rate of P. s. with the development of capitalism. At the same time, one should keep in mind the influence of such counteracting factors as the struggle of the working class, the rise in the cost of labor, the struggle between the two systems, and so on. Marx noted that a possible improvement “... in the life situation of the worker, does not change anything in the nature and law of relative surplus value, does not change anything in the fact that, as a result of an increase in labor productivity, an increasingly large part of the working day is appropriated by capital. From this one can see all the absurdity of attempts to refute this law by selecting statistical calculations to prove that the material situation of the worker ... has improved ... as a result of the development of the productive power of labor ”(K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 47, p. 279).

P.'s theory with. Marx made it possible to reveal the inconsistency of the bourgeois apologetic theories of profit. Many of the "concepts" that contemporary bourgeois economists oppose to the theory of socialist s. Marx, are essentially modernized versions of the income theory formulated by the French economist J. B. Say (See Say) , then adopted by the British by J. Mill (See Mill) , J. R. McCulloch and N. Senior om. Representatives of vulgar political economy (see Vulgar Political Economy) set themselves the task of refuting the main thing in the economic theory of Marxism - the doctrine of P. s. it is precisely this that reveals the essence and mechanism of capitalist exploitation and equips the working class with a scientific understanding of its historical mission. American economist J. B. Clark tried to "deepen" the theory of Say's three factors. Considering that the distribution of the social product is carried out in accordance with the contribution of each of the factors of production (labor, capital, land) to the national income, he created the theory of marginal productivity (see Productivity theory).

The doctrine about P. with. allowed Marx to formulate the basic economic law of the movement of capitalist society, to reveal the objective trends in its development, gave the key to understanding the capitalist mode of production. Since the appropriation by the capitalist class of the PS created by the working class takes place in accordance with the internal laws of the capitalist mode of production, and above all with the law of value, capitalist exploitation follows from the very essence of capitalist production relations. Consequently, the liberation of the working class from "wage slavery" is impossible within the framework of the bourgeois system; this requires a socialist revolution. At the same time, the gigantic development of the productive forces, which accompanies the intensified exploitation of labor by capital, also means the creation and accumulation of material prerequisites that make the socialist revolution possible. Thus, from the theory of P. s. the conclusion that the class contradictions between capital and wage labor are irreconcilable follows immediately.

Lit.: Marx K., Capital, vol. 1-3, Marx K. and Engels F., Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 23-25, part 1-2; his, The Theory of Surplus Value (Volume IV of Capital), ibid., vol. 26, part 1-3; Engels F., Anti-Dühring, ibid., vol. 20, p. 25-27, 208-27; Lenin V.I., Three sources and three components of Marxism, Poln. coll. soch., 5th ed., vol. 23, p. 44-46; his own, Karl Marx, ibid., vol. 26, p. 63-73; Varga E., Essays on the problems of the political economy of capitalism, M., 1964, p. 113-16; Leontiev L. A., "Capital" by K. Marx and the modern era, M., 1968, pp. 68-122; Vygodsky S. L., Modern capitalism. (Experience of theoretical analysis), M., 1969, p. 240-49; Political economy of modern monopoly capitalism, vol. 1-2, M., 1970; Kuchinsky Yu., The law of surplus value under imperialism, "Problems of Peace and Socialism", 1973, No. 11.

V. S. VYGODSKII.

Great Soviet Encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1969-1978 .

See what "surplus value" is in other dictionaries:

- (surplus value) The key concept of Marxist theory. Denotes the surplus labor (S) expended by the worker in excess of the necessary labor or variable capital (V) required to satisfy the basic necessities of life. The relationship between... ... Political science. Dictionary.

- (surplus value) The excess of the value produced by the labor of workers over the value received or wages. As Karl Marx pointed out, surplus value is necessary in order to make investments or to have unproductive workers, ... ... Economic dictionary

- (surplus value) The excess of the value produced by the labor of workers over the wages they received. Occupying a key position in Marxist economics (Marxist economics), the concept of surplus value is the basis for ... ... Glossary of business terms

According to Marx, the difference between the value of the product of labor and wages. Surplus value, which is the profit of the entrepreneur, arises from the fact that the worker works more time than is necessary for production ... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia

In the labor theory of value, that part of the value of commodities produced in capitalist enterprises, which is created by the unpaid labor of wage workers in excess of the value of their labor power, and appropriated by the capitalists free of charge... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

SURPLUS VALUE- (surplus value) (Marxism) - the difference between the cost of capital at the beginning of the capitalist production process and the additional value of the goods produced. According to Marx, the source of the latter is the labor force hired by the capitalist. Big explanatory sociological dictionary

Dear Remkos!

I decided to make an answer to your question in the form of a separate topic: it is very important, but in Russia many people think differently.
Of course, I'm afraid to make a mistake again, as with the number 78, but I'm writing about 50% based on what I read.
About Europe under Marx, and not about tsarist Russia, where "for some reason" a revolution took place.
And not about today's Russia.

You got it right!

The rate of surplus value is the ratio of what the capitalist received as surplus value to what he paid the worker.
Those. the rate of 50% means that the worker received twice as much as the capitalist got in the form of surplus value. the added value created by the labor of the worker was divided in the ratio: two thirds to the worker, one third to the capitalist.

It should be taken into account that it is very difficult to determine the amount of added value created, and it is easier to figure out how much to pay an employee, and not at a loss.
Therefore, it is difficult to say how much a worker in Russia actually produced.
Probably the rate of surplus value was much higher than 50%. After all, even now in Russia no one talks about surplus value, although nowhere has its rate ever been so high.

With the Russian minimum wage, which is up to nine times lower than what they pay, for example, in some European countries, it turns out that the rate of surplus value is 800%.
Let's take into account: unskilled labor is the same all over the world, otherwise we must admit that the "armless and brainless" European is 9 times "smarter and more handy" than the same Russian - typical Russian racism.

And this is one of the main reasons that classical (according to Marx) capitalism died (in the USA in the 30s of the last century, in the world - in the 50s and 60s).

Surplus value:
- limited the size of the capitalist's profit to "some" percentages of the worker's salary;
- the main thing - workers received only for the "reproduction of labor power", that is, only for existence, and were excluded from the consumer society, which limited the ability of the capitalists to produce a lot - as much as you can buy;
- created a serious conflict between workers and capitalists, threatening revolution, unrest, not to mention the unwillingness of workers to work with enthusiasm.

Crises of overproduction are the response of the economy to the lack of buyers.

The rejection of surplus value was an economic revolution that improved the lives of workers and abolished the limitation of capitalist profits to the amount of funds that were only with the "provided".

The first "discovery" was made by Henry Ford in 1914: he began to pay twice as much.
Those. he not only abandoned surplus value, but also began to overpay workers by a third more than what they created as added value. Provided that at his factory, too, the rate of surplus value was 50% - a big question.

This immediately allowed workers to spend as much as they spent on the "reproduction of the labor force", on the purchase of goods and services.
Those. the consumer part of society increased sharply ("My workers are my main buyers" - Ford).

Ford himself did not lose anything in this:
- he included the cost of wages in the amount of his costs, and in the price;
- by developing production, creating new models, increasing productivity (not only labor, but also equipment, and due to the new organization of labor), he could sell new models at the price of old ones, which guaranteed demand and competitive advantages.

In essence, Ford was one of the first to make a profit not from surplus value, but from his entrepreneurial decisions, which has now become the main difference between the modern economy and capitalism according to Marx.

Now in economics it is established that profit is the difference between the amount of sales and the amount of costs.
Naturally, the "capitalist" includes in his costs his labor income for the work of managing the enterprise, i.e. and in the absence of profit, he "remains not at a loss."
In the same way, an entrepreneur, who may not own property (rent, a small block of shares), manages the activities of his enterprise, receiving labor income (“salary”) for this - this is called “routine work”.
If an entrepreneur introduces something new (constructive, technological, organizational or other), which makes his product or service preferable in the market, then consumers buy it even at "high" prices, so that the amount of sales exceeds the amount of costs.

And only this is the profit of the entrepreneur.
This is exactly what is said not only in textbooks, but this is how profit is estimated in the accounting documents of the enterprise.
And only this is subject to income tax in the United States (35% - and only from enterprises registered as a corporation; individual enterprises, if they are not registered as corporations, do not pay income tax - only income tax paid by the owner or owners).

It is useful to know that a corporation is liable for itself only with its property, and an enterprise that is not registered as a corporation is liable for the personal property of the owner.
Therefore, it is safer to form even a tiny firm as a corporation, and at the same time smartly reduce what is shown in the report as profit.

Please note that after income tax, everything that is distributed among specific people (managers, shareholders, employees) is subject to US income taxes in the amount of 40%. Like shares when sold ...
Those. in total, more than 60% of taxes are levied on profits.

It must be understood that in the modern economy, almost everywhere, labor is paid for more than the added value created by labor (in the USA, by about 25%, in England - by 30% ...). But there are many articles on this topic, including Russian.

All entrepreneurs pay - this is dictated by the salary market.
But not everyone makes a profit.

Those. the main economic law of the modern market: the redistribution of "overpaid for labor" from those who are not very successful in the market (and incur losses) to those who are successful, whose goods are in demand - the market rewards him with profit.
It is clear that such a profit can be much higher than the capitalist surplus value.
Those. the contradiction has been resolved.
These are not words or theory.
You can take, for example, the "expenditure" of the US GDP in terms of spending, it is impossible to find anything there that would resemble surplus value.
At the same time, in Russia, data from Rosstat on the distribution of income show that even after taxes, "economic profits and other incomes" started at 50% of GDP, and now more than 30% of GDP.
In the US, corporate profit before taxes is 5% of GDP.

Another law of the modern economy: prices are determined not by the one who produces, but by the consumer market.
According to the principle: the greater the market demand (demand), the greater the production (supply), but the lower the price per unit of goods or services.
And the countermeasure that we can all observe in life: the price almost does not change when a heaped new one is sold instead of the old model. Not necessarily in monetary form, more often in the equivalent of purchasing power.
So with televisions from the American "KVN-49" (I was lucky to see him), so with cars, computers and many others.
I wrote this because in Russia they believed (or believe?) That the price is determined simply by an agreement between the manufacturer and the buyer - the terrible illiteracy of Russian "liberal reformers".

By the way, many in Russia believe. that any business is bound to make a profit.
They do not understand the difference between income, which is the payment of any kind of labor;
and profit, which is only a reward for market attractiveness, i.e. profit is directly paid by the market, and income is determined by the market level of wages.

You may not read further, but...
Roosevelt's New Deal was. to some extent, following the Leninist NEP, an attempt to replace "communism" with a modern mixed economy. Of those measures that Roosevelt had, the introduction of a mandatory hourly minimum wage was very important. By 1940 it was about 5 dollars of our time, a lot. By the way, Ford's minimum was more than our $100. Compare with today's Russia-will be called a Russophobe.
Russian "liberals" clung to the fact that the minimum increases unemployment, which is true, but says a lot about misunderstanding.

At least, first of all, it destroys unproductive labor, which begins to bring only a loss to the employer. Forces to improve production and technology.
As for unemployment, government jobs and unemployment benefits were introduced in the United States.
The allowance "also" increases unemployment, but the main thing is different: a person can refuse low-paid work, he will not die of hunger.

I believe that the introduction in Russia of a minimum wage below the subsistence level for the worker himself was Gaidar's biggest crime.
This is what created the main wealth of Russian privatizers, not property at all.
Ownership without the economic labor of management simply stagnates.
"Property itself" is another Russian idiocy.

That's it, in general.
I am writing in such detail because I want people in Russia to know at least what high school students in the world know.
Their textbooks are now even higher than what was in the early 90s in textbooks for students.

And all this is not only in Russian in translations, but also in the books of Russian authors.

Thank you for your attention.

Profit is part of the value of the surplus product created in the branches of material production. It is one of the forms of income of socialist enterprises, and it is defined as the difference between the volume of sold products to the wholesale prices of the enterprise and the costs of its production.

The coefficient km, which characterizes the ratio of the value of the surplus product and socialized wages to individualized wages, is the same for any branch of the national economy. It is currently recommended to take it equal to 0.9.

Profit in the socialist economy is part of the value of the surplus product and is the income of the enterprise, organization. The profit is primarily directed to the expansion of production and the improvement of the material and living conditions of the workers. Part of it is transferred to the state budget in the form of deductions for public needs.

When sold to consumers, gas is subject to sales tax. The turnover tax is a part of the value of the surplus product, which is completely at the disposal of the state. Through the turnover tax, the central state

In a socialist society, profit 1) is a concrete form of manifestation of the value of the surplus product, which is public property, and expresses the relations of production of comradely cooperation and socialist mutual assistance of workers 2) is created by the systematically organized labor of people free from exploitation 3) is formed in the conditions of the sale of goods at planned prices and goes not to the class of owners, but to all working people and only to them 4) acts as the main guarantee for the needs of continuous growth of production and a rise in the living standards of all members of society 5) is used as an important economic lever for the planned management of the national economy and is one of the synthetic indicators of the economic efficiency of socialist production.

Since value has no physical, objective meaning, the concept of the value of a surplus product is also meaningless. Profit and surplus value are the same for any form of ownership (the only difference is who receives this profit).

The problem of a radical restructuring of the system of payments from the state economy to the budget affected the entire system of distribution and redistribution of national income and, above all, the value of the "surplus product".

Unlike his predecessors, K. Marx approached capital as a category of social character. He argued that capital is a self-increasing value that gives rise to the so-called surplus value. Moreover, he considered only the labor of hired workers to be the creator of the increase in value (surplus value). Therefore, Marx believed that capital is, first of all, a certain relationship between different strata of society, in particular between wage workers and capitalists.

ENK/ - conditional value of the cost of surplus labor.

SURPLUS VALUE - the value of the surplus product created by the labor of hired workers, appropriated by the capitalists. The doctrine of surplus value is the main thing in the economic theory of the capitalist mode of production by K. Marx. The prerequisite for the transformation of a surplus product into surplus value is the appearance on the market of a specific product, labor power. Historically, this was associated with the formation of a class of hired workers, legally and economically free (having no means of production). For

Profit in a socialist economy is one of the forms of net income. Profit basically expresses the value of the surplus product. The profit also includes some part of the cost of the necessary product, for example, to create material incentive funds at the expense of profit.

Part of the value of the surplus product created in a socialist enterprise appears in the form of profit, while the other part, the turnover tax, is wholly placed at the disposal of the state. The turnover tax in the USSR is one of the types of obligatory payments made by socialist enterprises and organizations to the budget, with the help of which the state centralizes a part of the value of the surplus product for public needs, withdrawing it directly from the proceeds of economic organizations from the sale of products.

The one-time collection of turnover tax is predetermined by its economic nature. Being part of the value of the surplus product, it is created in the process of production of the product and can be collected only once.

Funds corresponding to the monetary form of the value of the surplus product are used to pay taxes, mandatory payments, to expand production, and social needs.

The turnover tax is a part of the value of the surplus product, which is completely at the disposal of the state. Through the turnover tax, the state centralizes a part of the income of oil sales organizations for the needs of the national economy.

At present, the study of the content of profit has not been completed and is being conducted at two levels - microeconomic, which involves an analysis of the formation of tribal within the enterprise, and macroeconomic, which expands the scope of research to the economy as a whole and involves identifying the role of profit in the country's income. Thus, profit, on the one hand, is an economic category, a scientific abstraction expressing certain economic relations of production, and on the other hand, a part of the value of the total / national product (GDP), value and surplus value (surplus product). In real economic life, however, profit can take the form of money, material values, funds, resources, and benefits. Specific forms of manifestation of profit are closely related to the national regulation of the economy. In modern Western economic literature, several types of profit are distinguished: economic (net), accounting, gross, entrepreneurial, normal, marginal, taxable, etc. Let's consider the main ones.

The peculiarity of the state credit is the repayment, urgency and payment1 of the funds provided on loan. However, these relationships should not be confused with a bank loan.

Surplus value is a term coined by Karl Marx in his Capital. This concept is one of the central ones in his economic theory. According to Marx, surplus value is the difference in the value of labor, which is appropriated by the capitalist in the process of capitalist production.

Important. Surplus value is not added value and should be distinguished.

In order to understand the meaning of this term, it is necessary to take into account that his economic views are based on the following postulates:

The value of a commodity depends solely on the amount of labor invested. The influence of supply and demand Marx does not consider

Marx calls the costs of producing a commodity "necessary labor" and believes that everything that is above a given value is the result of the capitalist appropriating the products of someone else's labor.

The source of profit (surplus value) is the result of the capitalist appropriating the labor of a worker who works in excess of the "necessary time"

Marx views value as materialized labor. Karl Marx was not the first and not the only economist who based the value of a commodity on the basis of labor input. It is also recommended to read the works of Adam Smith and David Ricardo. According to this scheme (from invested costs), pricing was carried out under socialism - solely on the basis of the costs incurred. Modern economists have abandoned this theory of value.

If the value of a commodity is determined solely by the costs of the labor invested in it, then it is necessary to explain the difference between the actual value at which a commodity is exchanged for another commodity or for money. Therefore, Marx introduces the concept of "surplus value". That is, the excess of the value of the goods over the value of the labor invested, raw materials, materials, etc. The source of surplus value, according to Marx, is the consumption by the capitalist of labor power longer than the time during which its own value is reproduced. Marx refers profit, interest, rent, taxes, excises, duties, etc. to the same process, but "in a special form." That is, the appropriated labor is thus redistributed among all the agents of capitalist production.

The source of surplus value, according to Marx, is only the sphere of production. Surplus value arises in any production and serves as a source of taxes and accumulation. But under capitalism it arises in the form of profit, which becomes for the capitalist an independent goal of production.

Norm and mass of surplus value

It is traditionally believed that the rate of surplus value is an exact expression of the degree of exploitation of wage-workers by capital. The ratio of surplus value and variable capital is very important, since it allows one to judge the degree of exploitation of wage workers by capitalists. The ratio of the magnitude of surplus value to variable capital, expressed as a percentage, Marx called the rate of surplus value (m´). The rate of surplus value is the ratio of the mass of surplus value to variable capital, expressed as a percentage; category of capitalism, which is the most important indicator of the exploitation of workers by capital. The surplus value (m) created in the process of capitalist production appears as an excess of the value of commodities over all the capital (k) advanced for their production; the latter is divided into two parts: constant and variable capital (). The rate of surplus value can be expressed by the following formula:

where m´ is the rate of surplus value; m - surplus value; V is variable capital. For clarity, let's look at a hypothetical example. From today's point of view, the rate of surplus value ceases to be an accurate expression of the degree of exploitation of wage labor by capital. Suppose that during each hour the employee creates a value equal to 5 thousand rubles. The working day consists of 5 hours of necessary time and 2 hours of surplus labor time. Consequently, in the necessary labor time it creates a value equal to 25,000 rubles, and in the surplus labor time, 10,000 rubles. This ratio of the cost of labor power and surplus value is 40%.

As capitalism develops, the degree of exploitation, or the rate of surplus value (m´), tends to increase. The capitalist appropriates the more surplus value, the greater its mass. And the mass of surplus value (M) depends on its norm, the cost of labor power and the number of exploited workers. The mass of surplus value - in the economic theory of K. Marx - the absolute value of surplus value; is equal to the value of the advanced capital multiplied by the rate of surplus value. From here we obtain the formula for the mass of surplus value: М=n* m´* , where n is the number of workers.

In striving to raise the rate of surplus value, the capitalist is always interested in increasing surplus time, and hence the working day as a whole. But the latter has a natural framework. Its lower limit is the necessary labor time during which the worker reproduces the value of his labor power. The upper limit is the length of the day. Of course, the working day cannot last 24 hours, since the employee must have time to restore his labor force, primarily for rest, as well as to replenish his professional knowledge, meet cultural and social needs.

Thirst for profit encourages entrepreneurs to lengthen the working day, sometimes up to 16 - 18 hours. But as a mass phenomenon, the facts of such an excessive increase in the length of the working day have become history. Although even now they are found in countries of developed capitalism, especially in its agricultural sector, and even more often in developing countries.

Surplus value- a term coined by Karl Marx in his Capital. This concept is one of the central ones in his economic theory. According to Marx, surplus value is the difference in the value of labor, which is appropriated by the capitalist in the process of capitalist production.

Important. Surplus value is not added value and should be distinguished.

In order to understand the meaning of this term, it is necessary to take into account that his economic views are based on the following postulates:

The value of a commodity depends solely on the amount of labor invested. The influence of supply and demand Marx does not consider
Marx calls the costs of producing a commodity "necessary labor" and believes that everything that is above a given value is the result of the capitalist appropriating the products of someone else's labor.
The source of profit (surplus value) is the result of the capitalist appropriating the labor of a worker who works in excess of the "necessary time"

If the value of a commodity is determined solely by the costs of the labor invested in it, then it is necessary to explain the difference between the actual value at which a commodity is exchanged for another commodity or for money. Therefore, Marx introduces the concept " surplus value". That is, the excess of the value of the commodity over the value of the labor invested, raw materials, materials, etc. The source of surplus value, according to Marx, is the capitalist's consumption of labor power longer than the time during which its own value is reproduced. To the same process, but "in a special form" Marx assigns profit, interest, rent, taxes, excises, duties, etc. That is, the appropriated labor is thus redistributed among all agents of capitalist production.

Considering ways to increase surplus value, Marx singled out two main ones, which he designated using the following terms:

absolute surplus value- is created by increasing the length of working time during which the worker works in excess of the "necessary time of reproduction."
relative surplus value- is created by reducing the cost of labor and "reducing the required production time" (implying an increase in labor productivity).

Thus, the appropriation of someone else's labor, carried out in excess of the necessary, Marx defines as the main feature of the capitalist mode of social production. That is exploitation working for the purpose of making a profit through the appropriation of his labor - the main and inalienable property of capitalism.

According to Marx, "the exact expression of the degree of exploitation of labor power by capital, or the worker by the capitalist" can be obtained through rate of surplus value.

The formula for the rate of surplus value

The rate of surplus value is the ratio of the duration (quantity) of surplus and necessary labor.