#+title: Marx's theory of surplus-value

- tags :: [[file:capitalism.org][capitalism]] [[file:20200716134257-surplus_value.org][surplus-value]]
- source :: [[file:literature/20200611201816-capital.org][Capital Vol. 1]] [[file:literature/20201014222130-capital_vol_2.org][Capital Vol. 2]]

Marx's theroy of surplus-value can be summarized as (from vol. 2):

#+begin_quote
Productive capital, in performing its functions, consumes its own component
parts for the purpose of transforming them into a mass of products of a higher
value. Since labour-power acts merely as one of its organs, the excess of the
product’s value engendered by its surplus-labour over and above the value of
productive capital’s constituent elements is also the fruit of capital. The
surplus-labour of labour-power is the gratuitous labour performed for capital
and thus forms surplus-value for the capitalist, a value which costs him no
equivalent return. The product is therefore not only a commodity, but a
commodity pregnant with surplus-value.
#+end_quote

That is to say, that surplus-value comes from a laborer performing labor upon a commodity to increase its value. The result is surplus-value.