Chopping at the Capital Infastructure

According to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, “It is only by being exchanged that the products of labor acquire, as values, one uniform social status, distinct from their varied forms of existence as objects of utility” (Engels 665). What is presented by both Marx and Engels is that value is created socially. This value is a culmination of all the labor that is invested in to a certain product. Take a stroll down any supermarket aisle and you will find yourself with commodities. The bright colorful packaging of breakfast pastries to the roasted “Fair Trade” coffee beans. Each of these items comes from the work of labor, and this labor is what helps set a value when it comes to the act of purchasing.

The Labor Theory of Value is an interesting way to explore how value is created. There is a structure of labor that flows upwards until it reaches the consumer. Each level of labor is applied to the value in which the consumer then pays for. The end goal is for a manufacturer to provide a commodity to a consumer with a surplus value in order to make profit. Sometimes this surplus value is jacked up according to social standards, which is why the same product, marketed towards different economic groups, have large variations in price. For the most part, the labor defines how much a product will cost. Take for example a clothing item that is produced on American soil in comparison with one that is produced overseas. The value of the laborers is drastically different, according to cost of living, insurance, taxes, etc. This is, in theory, why American made or commodities developed in “first world nations” usually have a much higher market value than those which have been outsourced.

Many multinational companies have moved to outsourcing labor in order to cut production costs, although many times it is in order to increase surplus value. As lightly touched on in the Flight of the Conchords song “Think About It” (found at about 1:26 into the video clip).

“They're turning kids into slaves just to make cheaper sneakers.
But what's the real cost?
'Cause the sneakers don't seem that much cheaper.
Why are we still paying so much for sneakers
When you got them made by little slave kids
What are your overheads?”

Capitalism has driven many businesses into finding a way to lower the cost of labor in the products they produce while offering similar or higher prices. This leaves a giant gap between the laborer and the consumer because the wages paid to create the product no longer effect the value the same way it used to. This is why in some sectors of the labor force there are such large pushes towards a living wage, because as the values of commodities rise with inflation, and the payment of laborers remains stagnant, the entire infrastructure of capitalism will collapse because of its own values.

Works Cited:

Engels, Friedrich. "The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret Thereof." The Norton Anthology of Theory & Criticism. By Karl Marx. 2nd ed. New York, NY: W.W. Norton &, 2010. 663-71. Print.