Today's post bring us a fourth of the way through Lebowitz's article, the point where I think we start digging into the more challenging ideas. I am certainly going to try to pick up momentum. Sorry for the many delays....
Lebowitz writes:
Exploitation of wage-laborers
22. What happens, then, in the sphere of capitalist production? It all follows logically from the nature of capitalist relations of production. Since the capitalist’s goal is surplus value, he only purchases labor-power to the extent that it will generate that surplus value. After all, he’s not in the business of charity.
You know, one reason "A Christmas Carol" still stands up for me, despite people seeing it as sentimental and so forth, is that it so clearly portrays (at least from my perspective) the core capitalist mentality. All of those things Scrooge says are what's called good business sense, and his social fixes (work houses, prisons) have become more popular than ever in this country and the world it is shaping over the past three decades. As capitalism hits its limits.
23. In order to understand the generation of surplus value, think about what workers normally buy—in other words, what they need to maintain themselves at their existing standard of living, i.e., the average real wage. Based upon the general level of productivity in the society, we can calculate how many hours of daily labor are required to produce that real wage. For example, at a given point, the daily wage might embody 6 hours of average labor—6 hours of “necessary labor”; it means that on average, it takes 6 hours of work to produce the equivalent of that wage.
This is a tough section. As Marx described it, "socially necessary labor" is that which is necessary, using the best tools and methods, anywhere in society. That minimum amount of labor will drive the competitors towards its level. I'm not sure where Lebowitz is going with the 6 hours number, at least in this paragraph, but I think it is important to keep in mind that the wage is going to be determined by the minimum amount of labor required for the worker to get the job done--and to keep the labor coming to work.
24. Of course, the capitalist has no interest in a situation in which workers work only long enough to get their equivalent. What the capitalist wants is that workers perform surplus labor—i.e., that the labor performed by workers (the capitalist workday) exceeds the level of necessary labor. The necessary condition for generation of surplus value is the performance of surplus labor—i.e., more labor than the labor contained in what the capitalist pays as wages. The capitalist, through the combination of his control of production and his ownership of the product of labor, will act to ensure that workers add more value in production than the capitalist has paid them. The difference between the total labor they perform and the labor equivalent in their wage (in other words, a difference which is their unpaid labor) is exploitation.
I suppose this gives a clue to the 6 hour number. Lebowitiz is suggesting, for instance, that employers want 2 more hours of work out of a laborer for every 6 hours actually needed to get the job done. Of course, there are many ways workers are squeezed. My brother, who works as a supervisor, has talked about the imperative from above, every year, on his job. If his workers kick ass and do a terrific job, making higher profits than ever before, the mandate is that they raise that number by some percentage next year. They can work faster, the equivalent of 12 hours in 6 hours, or they can work longer for less pay. But what we've established here, the guiding principle, is that a capitalist (an employer) is in the business of getting the most bang for his buck. This means the capitalist's job is to make as much money as possible out of a worker while paying that worker only enough to keep her coming back in to work--somewhat well fed, somewhat healthy, somewhat satisfied. As the Monopoly board of multinational businesses becomes more competitive, the worker will deal with less satisfaction, worse health and worse nutrition because we are not in control of the game.
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I hate to keep coming back to my prior work experience on this blog, but the last point about the capitalist providing just enough welfare for the worker in order for her to reproduce her labor capabilities and keep her coming back can be affirmed by my past employers actions regarding company sponsored health care. One policy adopted before I left was that a worker had to have worked there for a year before receiving their health care benefits. This is an obvious calculation by the company, considering the high employee turn over rate, to cut benefit costs of employees who are likely to quit. Nevertheless, health care benefits are in place not because employers care about the overall health of the worker. What is more important to them is their productive capacity to perform surplus labor, which I think is what Lebowitz is talking about. What I am familiar with is surplus product produced by labor. If a worker works 4 real hours in one day, depending on the company, he could have produced enough product to have worked 6 hours, but only got paid for 4. Or there is the overtime scenario which is when an hourly worker works the alotted amount of time it takes to produce a certain amount in a day, but is asked to work over that if product quota is not met (this is why overtime pay is often 1.5 times the wage of regular pay, because its so profitable). It seems like in the capitalist game, workers often work hard, or long, (or both and end up dying young). In either case the worker is always the loser.
ReplyDeleteExcellent examples, Isaac! Don't worry about returning to them. One reason I call for them may be that I've forgotten things that have been said. But also there's a way in which each of these exchanges may bring up a new aspect of a particular experience. I think your paragraph above is invaluable, as are the others. I'm going to wait before I respond to the other out of some hope others might jump in here with their own examples.
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