SOC 001 Lecture 5: Intro_to_Sociology_(5)
Document Summary
Commodity- 1. a thing that exists outside of us that we exchange for something we want or need. The exchange value of a commodity is the total amount of labor time required to produce it. Labor theory of value, exploitation, and surplus value: C= the labor necessary to make the commodity. M^1= money made from the sale of commodity, always greater than m. Labor power- a worker sells his/her ability to labor as a commodity on the open market. Wage- the capitalist buys a certain amount of labor power from the worker. Capitalist has a secret: he can increase the value of commodities without increasing the value of the labor power. The capitalist brings in a machine to speed up the process. And this is what marx referred to as exploitation: when surplus value created by the workers is taken by the capitalist.