Exploitation FAQ 1 of 2

Q. I don't make anything in my job. Am I still being exploited?
A lot of jobs don't produce goods and services- police men, bank clerks, cashiers. The distinction that is usually made is referred to as the difference between productive and unproductive labor.
Q. Are basketball players exploited?
Basketball players work. They work for large capitalist enterprises. But they make way more money than most workers. It is really hard to believe that they are being exploited. Those large capitalist enterprises are still making a profit above what is paid to the players. They wouldn't pay players those profits if they couldn't make a profit from them.
There is class conflict in the sports industry. Players go on strike...there is always a battle over how much surplus the capitalist takes.
Basketball players aren't the only ones who work for their team. From trainers, coaches and pr men to the guys that clean the seats after the game and hose down the locker room, or the guys that work the cameras- there is a massive amount of labor that goes into a basketball game before it is delivered to you via TV. Many of those people are not paid well.
It seems that ball players- because they have a monopoly over a highly prized skill, are able to command much more of the surplus created in a sports franchise than any other worker. Some class theorists refer to this as skill exploitation- that highly skilled workers get some of the surplus value created by less skilled workers. In that sense the skilled workers benefit from the low pay of the unskilled workers. This drives a wedge between the workers in a particular firm, putting them at odds with each other instead of being united against a capitalist class.
1 workers can have different relationships to surplus value due to skills and or their relation to the coordination of production (managers). 2. these different relationships affect objective things like their wages, and subjective things like their class solidarity.
Q. Nobody works at my laundromat. How is profit made?
You see, the laundromat isn't really selling a commodity to you. Instead you are renting the use of a machine for 30 minutes. No value is being produced. The same is true for a landlord. A landlord owns a house and charges you to live in it. You aren't producing a commodity and the landlord isn't producing a commodity. You are just paying the landlord for the use of his property. Landromats and rental housing can generate a lot of income for their owners. But these owners aren't engaging in the production of commodities, thus they are not creating new values.
So where does their income come from if they don't create value? Their income comes out of the wages of workers who pay out a portion of their wages for the use of the landlord's property. These wages come from their work- productive work which creates value. In a sense landromat owners and landlords are leeches- sucking some of the wages out of society without contributing to the creation of value.

Q. Patagonia... Isn't it possible for profit to be made through exchange, and for workers to be paid fairly?
A. Assuming you could convince all people to shop ethically instead of in their own economic interests, this would entail some new vision of capitalist competition- somehow capitalists couldn't compete anymore by lowering prices... or maybe you are proposing that all industries be monopolized, or severe restrictions to competition be enforced by states.

Bourgeois economists consider profit to be a result of different preferences in exchange (marginal utility theory), while marxists consider profit to be a result of the exploitation of labor.

If we take the entire social product (W), workers produce all of W. W is divided into v (variable capital-the amount workers are paid for producing w) and s (surplus value- the amount appropriated by capitalists (W=S+V). S is the profit. You seem to be advocating a system whereby the prices of commodities are all inflated above the value of W so that commodities exchange at W+S.

If the price of all commodities are inflated, isn't that the same as the prices of no commodities being inflated?

But how do we measure V relative to W and S anyway? In other words, how do we know workers are being paid for the entire social product? We need some way of measuring V and W. They are both expressions of the amount of labor that goes into them, but they are only quantified in society through money prices. In other words, in your model where the price of the commodity is W+S, how do we know how much of that money price should go to the laborer and how much should go to the capitalist? All we have really done is to change the variables in the equation in order to end up with the same equation.... profit= W+S is the same as saying profit=S+V. The question is always: "how much of the prices of a commodity belong to the capitalist and how much to the laborer?"

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[Mauser9513]

Is it true that the Capitalist is un-entitled to the profits he accumulatees because they are derived exclusively from value produced by the workers, even thought they make some decisions. Is making decisions such as the Capitalist does, a valid excuse for exploitation.

[brendanmcooney]

@Mauser9513. what do you think?

[Mauser9513]

@brendanmcooney lmao thats why I'm asking you, I would say no because their type of mental labor produces no real value

[brendanmcooney]

@Mauser9513. A capitalist could do work that created value. For instance many petit bourgeois like restaraunt owners to work that creates value. But they create no more than other workers. However as owner of the business that can decide how much of the value goes to them and how much to workers. They can capture the surplus.

Now coordinating work is not productive of value. Neither is ownership. To be a capitalist all you have to do is own capital.

[adhocbc]

So,

In a word - you're saying - there is no little difference between a perfectly competitive market and a marxian market? Is it true, that Marx and Adam Smith were very much in line despite what redneck buisness profs will tell you?

[brendanmcooney]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'marxian market'. Marx's theory of value and exploitation start from the same place as Smith: competitive free markets. But their theories are very different in many ways.

[grammypwns]

great video, very interesting can't wait to do some research and watch more

[americanpatriot226]

Hey, great video btw. Can you make a video responding to JacobSpinney's "Capitalists Do Not Exploit Workers (in a free market)"?

[JackBlair2]

MSred- If 1000 Marxists each came into $1000 each, then say goodbye to next week's Internationale meeting

[Mauser9513]

@msredalbert1 Many do exist, one that rolls of the top of my tounge is the fast-growing Mondragon of Basque, Spain. Or the Catalonia Metal Works which experienced unprecedented growth through de-centralized planning and collectivization.

[msredalbert1]

@brendanmcooney So according to you, basketball players who make 20+ million dollars a year are being "exploited". LOL!!! What a dumb fuck you are. Moron.

[msredalbert1]

@JackBlair2 Don't try to explain BASIC ECONOMICS to Brendan. This fucking idiot probably doesn't understand long division.

[msredalbert1]

@brendanmcooney So why the fuck are you living in the most capitalistic country on earth if you hate capitalism so much you fucking stupid moron!

[msredalbert1]

@brendanmcooney Capital does NOT have to make a profit in order to survive. You and your commie friends are free to start a business and give all your profits to charity, it's just that instead you choose to whine about capitalism in the ignorant videos you produce. What profit does is give people an INCENTIVE to produce. Why would I invest in Wal-Mart stock if I wasn't hoping to get a profit? It would be better for me to just spend that money on myself. Moron.

[msredalbert1]

@duartefever Tell me about it. This guy is so ignorant it's almost hard for me to fathom. This idiot sits online and produces idiotic videos while PRODUCING SURPLUS VALUE FOR YOUTUBE. Yet he complains about it! LOL!!! What a retard.