All workers deserve more than just the cost of their labor power

  • Ildsaye [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    12·
    8 hours ago

    Workers are, as a rule, not paid the cost of their labor power. The scam of capitalism is that workers are usually paid a small fraction of the value they generate for the company. Some of that value must necessarily go to material inputs, maintenance, and upgrades of the workplace, as well as contribution to necessary public services; some goes to the worker; but the bulk of it goes to owners and shareholders for no good reason.

    • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
      2·
      1 hour ago

      Labor power is not the same as labor. The price of labor power is the minimum cost of reproducing labor. That’s enough money to provide food, water, and shelter. The quality of your shelter is up for debate though. Effectively, the price of labor power is how much it cost for you to be able to come to work the next day. VPP covers the topic in detail

    • balderdash@lemmy.zip
      5·
      6 hours ago

      The exploitation is baked into the very foundations of capitalsm. Another scam is that the workers, who are the ones actually making all the useful commodities we need (e.g., food, clothing, housing, etc.)–as well as the infrastructure that keeps production operational (e.g., roads, bridges, electricity, etc.)–cannot access those commodities without an exchange of money. We create all the necessities of life, we create more than enough to provide for everyone’s needs, but we cannot access those necessities outside of a fucking paywall.

      Even worse, the capitalists that produce commodities in search of profits are independent; but the realization of the value embedded in those physical objects depends on an exchange at the market which is outside the capitalist’s control. So the conjunction of the profit motive and the paywall (i.e., exchange-value standing in the way of the use-vale) leads to much overproduction and waste. Even when labor has gone into agriculture, for example, the capitalist would rather dump tons of fresh food than lose money. It’s an idiotic system and yet people will defend it to the death.