CAPITAL Karl Marx 1867 Athens, February 12,

Capitalism is a system of commodity production In a capitalist system, producers do not simply produce for their own needs (subsistence), or only for the needs of individuals with whom they are in personal contact -- capitalism involves the production of commodities for exchange in a nation-wide, or international market 2

Commodities “A commodity is, in the first place, an object outside us, a thing by its properties satisfies human wants of some sort or another” (69) Commodities are products of labor, bought and sold on the market All commodities have a two-fold character: a use value and an exchange value 3

Use value and exchange value The utility of a thing is its use-value an object can have use value whether or not it is a commodity, but to be a commodity it must also have exchange value Use value is realized only in process of consumption Use values, which occur in all societies, are determined by their physical properties in relation to human needs – clothing keeps one warm, bricks provide shelter Exchange value refers to the value a product has when offered in exchange for other products in market transactions exchange value presupposes "a definite economic relation," and only has meaning in reference to commodities, or the equivalent in money 4

Labor theory of value Labor theory of value: the value of an object is determined ultimately by the amount of labor time that it took to produce it Human labor is the one commodity that is exchanged for its value while being capable of producing more than its value Surplus value: the difference between what workers earn for their labor and the price or value of the goods that they produce 5

Labor exploitation Surplus value is the source of the capitalist’s profit: the capitalist pays the worker less than the value of what she actually produces it is also the source of the capitalist’s exploitation of the worker because the worker gives more than is given in return without having any voice in this relationship of exchange 6

Capitalism & the Fetishism of Commodities A fetish (from the Latin facticius, "artificial" and facere, "to make") is an object believed to have supernatural powers, or in particular, a man-made object that has power over others Fetishism is the belief that natural objects have supernatural powers, or that something created by people has power over people As labor increasingly becomes an abstraction in the capitalist system of production, we come to forget the human social relations behind the products of labor, even though the products were created by people 7

Commodity fetishism To producers, “the relations connecting the labor of one individual with that of the rest appear, not as direct social relations between individuals at work, but as what they really are, material relations between persons and social relations between things” Commodity fetishism refers to the distorted relationship existing between individuals and the production and consumption of goods We treat the goods we buy as if they have “magical powers,” losing sight of the fact that we create commodities 8

Metatheoretical Map Nonrational Rational Individual Collective A C T I O N ORDER surplus value class conflict class interests labor exploitation forces & relations of production commodity fetishism alienation/estrangement 9

Metatheoretical Map Nonrational Rational Individual Collective A C T I O N MARX DURKHEIM 10 ORDER

CAPITAL Karl Marx 1867 Athens, February 12,

US wealth distribution today? Psychologists Dan Ariely and Michael I. Norton asked people to identify wealth distribution in the US, by quintiles, or fifths “ Home of the Free, Land of the Poor,” Making Sen$e, PBS Newshour, 8/16/

2/Freedonia, Sweden, US Which countries do pie charts A, B and C represent? 1/US, Spain, Egypt 2/Freedonia, Sweden, US 3/Luxembourg, US, Somalia Country A Country B Country C 13