explaining marx's theories on capitalism and alienation, a threadpic.twitter.com/A1kq1Ppqc8
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workers are alienated from work: they aren't there to do it of their own free will, it's to get money to fulfill other desires. the end is disconnected from the means, and this disconnect reduces the worker to an near animal-like state
socialism is the cure to alienationpic.twitter.com/ZemkGKgglzThis media may contain sensitive material. Learn more
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the origin of alienation is commodity fetishism – the belief that inanimate things (like commodities) have human powers (like value) which should govern the activity of human beings
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a commodity is a product which is made for exchange. a commodity appears from one angle as a use-value and the other as a value. labour which creates a commodity possesses a dual character
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"value" is the social labour of the commodity producers embodied in a commodity. value is a historical category which belongs only to commodity economy. the magnitude of the value of a commodity is determined by the labour which is socially-necessary for its production
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the contradiction in simple these economies consists in the fact that the workers' labour, which is directly their own private affair, bears a social character they are estranged from. in this economy based on private ownership, the law of value is more than just a random given
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capitalism is commodity production at a high level of development. it is when labour-power also becomes a commodity. being a commodity, labour-power under capitalism has value and use-value
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the value of commodified labour-power is determined by the value of the means of subsistence necessary for the maintenance of the worker and his family. the use-value of the commodity labour-power consists in property of being the source of value and surplus-value
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surplus-value is the value created by the labour of the worker in excess of the value of his labour-power and is appropriated by the capitalist without compensation. the production of surplus-value is the basic economic law of capitalism. you'll sometimes see this called "profit"
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variable capital is that part of capital which is spent on the purchase of labour-power; this part of capital grows as a result of the creation by the workers of surplus-value which is appropriated by the capitalists
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the rate of surplus-value is the proportion of surplus-value to variable capital. it expresses the degree of exploitation of the worker by the capitalist. capitalists raise the rate of surplus value by 2 methods - the production of absolute + relative surplus value
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absolute surplus value is surplus value created by means of lengthening the working day or raising the intensity of labour. relative surplus value is surplus value created by means of shortening necessary labour-time and correspondingly increasing surplus labour time
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and lastly, the class interests of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat are an irreconcilable fact of capitalism. the fundamental contradiction of capitalism is the contradiction between the social character of production and the private. as capitalism develops, this sharpens
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of course, there are much more nuances to this than what can be said in 280 characters. for further reading though, i advise reading this [1] surprisingly accessible work of political economy from the USSR. trust me, it's a damned good source [1]: https://www.marxists.org/subject/economy/authors/pe/index.htm …
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