 Absolute and Relative Surplus ValueGeoffrey Kay
Chapter 4 in The Economic Theory of the Working Class, 1979, pp 44-53 from Palgrave Macmillan Abstract: Abstract The first of these ratios, the rate of surplus value, is the most crucial, since it is the one that directly summarises the economic relations between the class antagonists of capitalist society. If we add together surplus value and variable capital for a society for the period of, say a year, we get the annual total of new production. New production is total production less the amount needed to replace used up means of production — what is conventionally called net national income. The ratio of surplus value to variable capital is therefore, first of all, a measure of income distribution between the capitalist class on the one side, and the working class on the other. But new value is entirely the product of living labour which receives only a proportion of it back as wages. Thus the rate of surplus value is an indicator of exploitation as well as income distribution, measuring the ratio of paid to unpaid labour performed by the working class. Keywords: Income Distribution; Real Wage; Advanced Country; Capitalist Society; Labour Time (search for similar items in EconPapers) There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-16085-3_4 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-16085-3_4 Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan |
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