Philosophy [Close Reading] Capital Volume I, Karl Marx - Essay Example

The longer the time spent to create a certain product, the higher the value it will command in the market. A Marxist analysis would give us a premise that labor is the source of all value since it is a “congelation” of labor. The Marxist theory is that the amount of labor embodied in the material object would determine its value. “As values, all commodities are only definite masses of congealed labor-time.” (Capital, Vol. I, p. 40.) Unfortunately, the importance of labor is muted by the fact that according to Marx, many capitalists are exploiting labor.

In the Capital Volume 1 chapter 4, Marx often described the acts of the capitalists in the wage-labor exchange with the laborers as something akin to robbery, theft and embezzlement. Marx believed that the capitalists are essential robbing the laborers of the value of their labor by denying the laborers the full price of their labor. Note that in the Marxist point of view, labor has two characters, the abstract and the concrete nature. Note that under the arguments of Marx, any act of labor expended have dual impact where one is the concrete action directed towards the making of certain products and the abstract portion which is disposable for the use of society in a given place and time.

In other words, where the system separates the actual act of production from the means of production; labor itself as human labor force becomes a commodity that could be traded for value. (See Capital, Vol. 1, p. 71.) The fact that the owners of the means of production such as the capitalists tries to extract more labor for less pay is seen by Marx as form of thievery that is directed on the laborers’ labor commodity. In other words, the exploitation of labor is seen by Marx as form of violation of the rights of the laborer to the fruits of their labor.

How do the owners of the means of production or the capitalists steal labor? Marx