• tags :: capitalismproletariat

The general law of capitalist accumulation, as specified by Marx in chapter 25 of Capital Vol. 1 is that capitalist society ultimately creates and necessitates its reserve army of labor It accomplishes this by decreasing the demand for labor, by maximizing working time and minimizing wages. This is the direction that capitalist society is always heading towards, and as such explains why poverty not only exists, but must continue to exist in capitalist society.

The greater the social wealth, the functioning capital, the extent and energy of its growth, and, therefore, also the absolute mass of the proletariat and the productiveness of its labour, the greater is the industrial reserve army. The same causes which develop the expansive power of capital, develop also the labour power at its disposal. The relative mass of the industrial reserve army increases therefore with the potential energy of wealth. But the greater this reserve army in proportion to the active labour army, the greater is the mass of a consolidated surplus population, whose misery is in inverse ratio to its torment of labour. The more extensive, finally, the lazarus layers of the working class, and the industrial reserve army, the greater is official pauperism. This is the absolute general law of capitalist accumulation. Like all other laws it is modified in its working by many circumstances, the analysis of which does not concern us here. --- Karl Marx, Capital Vol. 1, chapter 25