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Where do capitalists get their wealth?

Means of production.

I call it C(mp)

People's ability to work.

Their labor power. I call it C(lp)

The stuff the capitalist buys, those

commodities are made up of means

of production, C(mp), and labor power, C(lp).

Before the capitalist makes

more money, he first

returns to market to sell.

materials for the machinery

and tools to be used on.

and paying people...

C . . . C'

So the

source of profit

can't be in the tools,

machines, and

raw materials.

Then where do profits

generally come from?

From workers.

By the way, Adam Smith saw it this way too.

He wrote this in his book The Wealth of Nations:

“The value which the workmen add to the materials resolves itself into two parts, of which the one pays their wages, the other the profits of their employer upon the whole stock of materials and wages which he advanced. He could have no interest to employ them, unless he expected from the sale of their work something more than what was sufficient to replace his stock, to him.”

Most people live at the bottom. We build the pyramid that's resting on our backs.

At the top, capitalists

and their governments.

They pay a range of people to protect them

from us, and to keep us in our place.

Some people say that some of the people who keep us in our places are also workers. If someone is beating, pepper spraying, detaining, deporting, and shooting us, it doesn't really matter if they're workers or not. They're not on our side.

M-C...P...C'-M'

That peculiar commodity? It's

our ability to work.

Let's make a new society,

one that isn't pyramid shaped.

One based on principles like

"To each according to need"

and "Everything for everyone."

Nothing

personal!

I call it

labor power.

Hungry? Need shelter?

Better have money to

pay.

We have to sell our labor power to get money for the things we want and need.

Moneybags must be so lucky

as to find in the market a

commodity with the peculiar

property of being a source of

value greater than what it

costs to purchase.

Commodification of what we need

compels us to sell our labor power,

our time and energy, to enrich

capitalists. And if no one wants

to buy our labor power, well...

Every capitalist buys from one and sells to another. If it was all a rip-off then every capitalist would rob as a seller and then be robbed as a buyer. In the end it would all come out even. How is it that every Moneybags comes out ahead?

We have to sell our labor power to get money for the things we want and need.

Moneybags buys something then sells something for more than he paid. Is it all just a rip-off? Capitalist robbing capitalist?

The key has something to do with the commodities in the

middle, the C in the middle of M-C-M'

I will call it M-M'

... but how does it

work?

Ah! It's not just M-M'. He buys and sells commodities. I call it M-C-M'

Capitalists turn money

into more money.

M- C -M'

He buys stuff.

Let's look closer.

He return to market

with some things to sell.

M- -M'

He buys stuff.

He return to market

with some things to sell.

He buys stuff.

M- C -M'

He return to market

with some things to sell.

He buys stuff.

A capitalist goes to

market with money.

He sells those things

for more money than

he spent at first.

A capitalist goes to

market with money.

He returns with

more money.

He sells those things

for more money than

he spent at first.

A capitalist goes to

market with money.

He sells those things

for more money than

he spent at first.

A capitalist goes to

market with money.

He sells those things

for more money than

he spent at first.

M- -M'

He buys stuff.

M-

A capitalist goes to

market with money.

He return to market

with some things to sell.

-M'

He sells those things

for more money than

he spent at first.

A capitalist goes to

market with money.

He returns from market

with more money.

What sort of stuff can

make value greater than

what it took to buy? What

is the capitalist actually

spending money on?

M- C

It's all M-C-M' but there's different kinds of commodities bought, different kinds of C.

A range of stuff.

He spends the

money on stuff.

M -

A capitalist goes to

market with money.

What sort of stuff?

He spends money on

machinery and tools.

M- C -M'

He return to market

with some things to sell.

He buys stuff.

A capitalist goes to

market with money.

He sells those things

for more money than

he spent at first.

Of course, what he sells is different from

what he bought in the first place. There's

some change in the commodities. I call the

changed commodities C'. So really it's

M-C...C'-M'. But where does that

change come from?

A capitalist goes to

market with money.

So the capitalist's M-C-M' is really

M-C(mp+lp)-M' but that

doesn't tell us much more. How

does the capitalist end up

with more money?

He buys stuff.

C

C . . . C'

- M'

M -

He buys stuff.

He return to market

with some things to sell.

A capitalist goes to

market with money.

He spends money on materials for the

machinery and tools to be used on.

He sells those things

for more money than

he spent at first.

- M

He spends money on machinery and tools.

He spends money on materials for the

machinery and tools to be used on.

He sells those things

for more money than

he spent at first.

M- C

He spends money hiring people to use the

machinery and tools on the materials.

He spends the

money on stuff.

A capitalist goes to

market with money.

He spends money hiring people to use the

machinery and tools on the materials.

The heart of the matter must be

something that takes place between

C and C', during the ... the time away

from the market.

The capitalist buys machinery and tools,

from another capitalist who sells them.

Capitalists generally

buy things at their full

price. And they

generally sell things

at a price high enough

to make a profit.

Otherwise the sellers

of the machines,

tools, and materials

would be getting ripped

off regularly. They would

go out of business

and the buyer would not

be able to purchase

these products.

He return to market

with some things to sell.

C . . . C'

- M

M -

He buys stuff.

He return to market

with some things to sell.

He sells those things

for more money than

he spent at first.

A capitalist goes to

market with money.

The stage M-C represents the capitalist appearing on the market as an owner of money, M, looking to buy commodities, C. These commodities consist of a variety of objects (means of production) and of labor power.The stage C…P…C’ represents the process of production. The workers hired (ie, the labor power purchased) are set to work in production, P, using the other objects purchased – raw material, tools, machines, the physical space of the work place. The produce new commodities, C’.The stage C’-M’ represents the capitalist returning to the market as an owner of commodities, the end result of the production process P. The capitalist sells the products for more money than he spent over all.

He sells those things

for more money than

he spent at first.

The capitalist buys materials for the

machinery and tools to be used on.

These too are bought from another

capitalist who sells them.

Protecting the current wealth of capitalists and continuing the flow of wealth into capitalists' pockets are two of the main organizing principles behind capitalist society.

What happens after the capitalist

buys things in the market and before

the capitalist returns to market?

This is part of why capitalist societies are pyramid shaped.

M is money. The dashes are exchanges where one capitalist buys a product that another capitalist sells. C is the commodities that a capitalist buys. The elipses ... represent the passage of time in production. P is production. C' is the new commodities, the product of production. The capitalist sells these for M'. M' is a greater amount of money than the initial amount, M.

Capitalists get to

own that wealth.

This is exploitation.

Workers do

the work that

makes the wealth.

C'

-M'

Workers make things

and perform services

that a capitalist sells.

In general the money employers make from selling the products of workers' labor is greater than what employers pay out in wages. Otherwise they start to fire people. Capitalists make more money from our labor than we get paid in wages. Why else would companies hire people? Surplus value, the source of capitalist wealth, comes from workers. Our labor produces wealth. Capitalists pay us a portion of that wealth, and keep the rest.

By the way...

to summarize

my abbreviations

and formulas...

The capitalist takes the

new commodities back

to market to sell.

machinery and tools.

M- C

He spends the

money on ...

A capitalist goes to

market with money.

The capitalist

pays people to

use the machinery

and tools on

the materials...

This produces new commodities, C'. That is, employees make new stuff that the capitalist owns.

He sells those things

for more money than

he spent at first.

He buys stuff.

He return to market

with some things to sell.

So the real source of

capitalist wealth is

outside the market,

in production, P.

Surplus value comes from

production, but where,

exactly? Let's go back

to the market.

So the real formula

for capitalism is

M-C...P...C'-M'

The difference between the money at

the start, M, and the money at the end,

M', is what I call surplus value.

M - C . . . P . . . C' - M'

He buys stuff.

He returns to

market with

some things

to sell.

A capitalist goes to

market with money.

He sells those things

for more money than

he spent at first.

M - C . . . P . . . C' - M'

He returns to

market with

some things

to sell.

A capitalist goes to

market with money.

He buys stuff.

He sells those things

for more money than

he spent at first.

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