Constant Capital, Surplus Value, and the Working Day
Module 5 of Capital and Political Economy: distinguish constant and variable capital, calculate the rate of surplus value, and analyze the working day as a contested relation.
- Time
- About 90 minutes
- Activities
- Read, retrieve, compare, apply
- Concepts
- Constant and variable capital, surplus labor, and the working day
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- Pathway completion
- 0 of 14 steps
- Checkpoints rated
- 0 of 2
- Next review
- Not scheduled
By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
- Explain why Marx calls means of production constant capital and labor power variable capital.
- Calculate the rate of surplus value without confusing it with the rate of profit.
- Analyze the working day's length and intensity as outcomes of class struggle and regulation.
Commit to a first explanation.
A firm spends $800 on equipment and materials and $200 on wages. Which expenditure can add new value rather than transfer existing value? Explain your guess.
Follow the causal sequence.
Chapters 8–10: Constant Capital, the Rate of Surplus Value, and the Working Day
Karl Marx
Read with a scope
Read Chapters 8–10. Keep c, v, and s separate in every example, then mark each point where law, organization, custom, or resistance affects the working day.
Keep one question in view: Why is the boundary between necessary and surplus labor a social struggle rather than a fact fixed by the employment contract?
Explain the method without the source.
Watch the analytical operation.
In a ten-hour shift, five hours reproduce the daily value of labor power; the exploitation rate is therefore 50%.
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Divide the working day
Five hours are necessary labor, leaving five hours as surplus labor.
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Form the correct ratio
The rate of surplus value is surplus labor divided by necessary labor: 5/5.
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Calculate the result
The rate is 100%, not the surplus portion's 50% share of the total day.
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Avoid a price shortcut
The calculation requires a value relation; observed wages, sales, and accounting profit do not reveal it directly.
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Identify the conflict
Extending the shift to twelve hours while necessary labor remains five raises surplus labor to seven and the rate to 140%.
Complete the missing steps.
The opening steps are supplied. Finish the analysis in your own words, then compare your reasoning before trying the independent case.
A hypothetical print shop transfers 600 value units from inputs, advances 150 for labor power, and produces 150 of surplus; its rate of surplus value is 20%.
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Keep the components separate
Treat the stated figures as value magnitudes: c = 600, v = 150, and s = 150. The finished output contains 900 value units.
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Identify new value
Living labor adds 300 units: 150 replace the labor-power advance and 150 form surplus. The 600 units from inputs are transferred value.
Apply the structure to a new case.
Rate both checkpoints, then record this pathway step.
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