The particular form of society in which we live is capitalism which is composed of two classes, defining class as relationship to the means of production. The capitalist class own the means of production, which enables them to exploit the working class and to live luxuriously on the surplus-value the workers produce. The working class have no ownership in the means of production and must therefore, to live, sell the only commodity they possess: : their mental and physical energies, viz., labour-power.
Labour-power is not to be confused with labour; the latter is the function of the former. Labour-power, being a commodity, is subject to the same economic laws as other commodities. The value of any commodity is determined by the amount of socially-necessary labour-time required for its reproduction. In applying this yardstick we shall see that labour-power exists in the living individual: therefore the value of labour-power resolves into the means of subsistence, food, clothing, living accommodation, all the things required to reproduce the labour-power for the employment in which it is engaged. This includes provision for the worker’s family, as his children must replace him in the labour market.
The purely physical means of subsistence required to keep the worker sufficiently supplied with energy to continue in working order is qualified by historical or social elements; these reflect wants arising from developing social conditions, and varying standards of living obtained by workers in different countries. The value of labour-power may therefore vary within certain limits. It may, for example, be increased by the expansion of the social element, or the social element may be brought nearer to the bare means of subsistence just sufficient to keep the worker as exploitable material. Any further reduction, reducing wages beyond the physical element, would result in labour-power failing in normal efficiency.
Wages are the price of labour-power, the expression of its value in terms of money, although price and value are not necessarily identical. Wages therefore may rise above or fall below the value of labour- power, depending on the pressure of capital on one side and the resistance workers are able to put up. A constant struggle takes place as a necessary result of the wages system. The worker must always try to maintain his standard of living, the capitalist will always try to increase his profit.
The value produced in a working day is divided into two parts. The first is that which has to be returned to the worker as wages. The remainder is appropriated by the capitalist class as owners of the means of production, and is called surplus-value. Clearly the one cannot increase without the other decreasing. Also, wages can never rise above the point where the average amount of profit is threatened to any extent. However, it is a mistake to suppose that this conflict of interests constitutes the class struggle. It is one part of the class struggle, a necessary but limited one. The ultimate struggle is over the ownership of the means of production and distribution, and its prosecution requires comprehensive political action.
Failing that, the basic position of the wage-worker remains unaltered. As we have seen, labour-power is a commodity and like other commodities has value. But it is unique among commodities in that by its use, i.e. when the worker produces by applying his energies to natural resources and raw material, he creates value. He not only adds value, but more value than that of his labour-power. It is the difference between what the worker receives as wages, and the total value he produces, that is the source of the capitalist’s profit. The worker must supply the capitalist with surplus-value in order that he may work for his own livelihood.
Socialists ask their fellow members of the working class to look beyond the wages system, to become conscious of the need to move on to an altogether different society. A society where wages would have no place, there would be no wage-working class, and no capitalist to appropriate what is produced. Property society has served its purpose. Socialism will give rise to new social relations corresponding to the ownership of the means of living being in the hands of the world community. The aim should be to abolish the wages system and to replace it by a system where people can freely take the things they require, as they will freely take part in producing them.
P. Young
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