Profits

Geoffrey Kay
Additional contact information
Geoffrey Kay: The City University

Chapter 7 in The Economic Theory of the Working Class, 1979, pp 92-119 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract From wages we turn to profits, the other category through which the value relations of capitalism make themselves known — or perhaps we should say unknown. For like wages, profits present these relations in a way that masks their nature. We have seen how this happens with the wage-form; how the value of labour-power appears as the value of labour and the knowledge of surplus value disappears behind the illusion that all labour is paid labour. Profit deepens the fog with which wages envelop exploitation. By relating it to total capital advanced, % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+- % feaagCart1ev2aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn % hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr % 4rNCHbGeaGqipu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9 % vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x % fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaWaaSaaaeaaca % WGZbaabaGaam4yaiabgUcaRiaadAhaaaaaaa!39A1! $$\frac{s}{{c + v}}$$ , the rate of profit makes surplus value appear as much the product of the means of production bought with constant capital as of labour-power bought with variable capital. From here it is a short step to the conclusion that profit is the product of capital as such — a return to capital just as wages are a payment for labour. Orthodox economics, which takes wages and profits as self-evident categories, inevitably adopts this position; as one economist put it, exploitation is a noise rather than a noun.

Keywords: Social Capital; Individual Firm; Capitalist Production; Cost Price; Capitalist Society (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1979
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-16085-3_7

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781349160853

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-16085-3_7

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().