marx Flashcards
(10 cards)
What is the main argument of Theories of Surplus Value?
Marx critiques classical economists (e.g. Smith, Ricardo), arguing that capitalism’s real aim is not to meet human needs but to extract surplus value by exploiting labour. Capital is a social relation that inverts the role of people and things.
What is surplus value?
Surplus value is the unpaid labour of workers that is appropriated by capitalists. It’s the source of profit in capitalism and the core of exploitation.
How does Marx describe the inversion of social relations?
Under capitalism, “materialised labour dominates living labour.” Machines, science, and cooperation—created by workers—are turned against them as instruments of capital.
What is alienation in this context?
Workers become alienated because the products of their labour control them, rather than being under their command. This deepens inequality and dehumanises labour.
What’s the example of peasants and artisans?
Marx describes them as “split selves”—both employer and employee. A peasant “employs himself as a wage-labourer,” showing how capitalist logic penetrates even self-employment through self-exploitation.
Why does Marx critique Smith and Ricardo?
He argues they misunderstand value by treating it as a natural or fixed law. They overlook how labour time and surplus labour are manipulated to extract value under capitalist production.
What is Marx’s critique of Ricardo’s theory of profit?
Ricardo assumes a fixed working day, which hides the reality of extended or intensified labour. Marx insists that surplus value arises from variable, not fixed, labour conditions.
Why does this theory matter for development studies?
It shows how global labour relations and industrialisation are built on systematic exploitation—a lens crucial for analysing inequality, poverty, and resistance in the Global South.
What’s a broader philosophical point Marx makes?
Capitalism turns means (products, tools) into ends, and people into means—a reversal that drives alienation, class conflict, and the need for systemic change.
What is a counterpoint to Marx’s critique?
Some argue that Ricardo’s abstract theories helped clarify long-term price movements and were necessary groundwork. Still, Marx insists that focusing on exploitation is essential to understanding capitalism’s true nature.
