Is Capitalism an Inherently Exploitative System

Thank you for accepting! Good Luck. If you work a job I'm sure it wouldn't take you very long of think of times that your employer has taken liberties - trimmed down break and lunch times, asked you to do unpaid overtime etc;etc. And yet individuals in the west who work low paying jobs are the "lucky ones" globally. "Sweatshops" in the developing world are infamous examples of the injustices of capitalism. One need not be a socialist to be disgusted by the unfair conditions these worker endure an think the should get a fair wage. However not many people know that there is no such thing as a fair wage - at the very core of capitalist system is exploitation, turning the labor of the many into profits of the few. A Wage is what a capitalist pays the worker for their a certain period of time for a specific amount of his labor power the price of a commodity is always higher than the worker's wage because the capitalist don't sell labor but labor power. This is because how wage is determined. The capitalist thinks of the worker much like a machine. For a machine to maintain its production it must be fueled, serviced, and eventually replaced by newer ones. It is the same for workers. The boss pays the amount needed to become a worker (the training needed), the amount needed to survive so the worker can come back to work the next day, and the amount needed to raise children, who will later become workers. They feel they don"t need to pay any more, and if they pay too much then workers won"t have reason to return to work the next day in order to survive. This may seem like a fair deal between a worker and his boss - like a contract. in reality this a form of exploitation called wage slavery. Labor power is different from all other commodities it can increase the value of other commodities. If we"re only paid for our ability to work, and not the work we do, then where does the surplus value (extra value) go? For sake of simplicity let us consider "surplus value" to have three components: profit, interest and rent. All are based on payment for letting someone else use your property. Rent is what we pay to be allowed to exist on part of the earth Interest is what we pay for the use of money. Profit is what we pay to be allowed to work a farm or use piece of machinery. Rent and interest are easy to define, they are payment for using someone's property and have existed long before capitalism. Profit is trickier to define although, ultimately, is still a payment for using property. The term "profit" is often used simply, but incorrectly, to mean an excess over costs. However, this ignores the key issue, namely how a workplace is organized. In a co-operative, for example, while there is a surplus over costs "there is no profit, only income to be divided among members. Without employees the labor-managed firm does not have a wage bill, and labour costs are not counted among the expenses to be extracted from profit, as they are in the capitalist firm." "economic category of profit does not exist in the labor-managed firm, as it does in the capitalist firm where wages are a cost to be subtracted from gross income before a residual profit is determined . . . Income shared among all producers is net income generated by the firm: the total of value added by human labor applied to the means of production, less payment of all costs of production and any reserves for depreciation of plant and equipment."[Christopher Eaton Gunn, Workers' Self-Management in the United States, p. 41 and p. 45] Consequently "[The] worker, when he is able to work, finds no acre to till, no machine to set in motion, unless he agrees to sell his labour for a sum inferior to its real value." [Peter Kropotkin, Anarchism, p. 55] I'll use the example of a Starbucks barista to illustrate. The average hourly wage for a barista is $8.80, the average price of a beverage is $2.50 so if a barista makes three drinks she has payed for 85% of her hourly wage any drinks over three is appropriation. The contract in which the worker allegedly sells his labour power is a contract in which, since he cannot be separated from his capacities, he sells command over the use of his body and himself. . . The characteristics of this condition are captured in the term wage slave." [Carole Pateman, The Sexual Contract, pp. 150-1] Sources; http://www.socialistrevolution.org... Christopher Eaton Gunn, Workers' Self-Management in the United States The Political Philosophy of Bakunin http://www.glassdoor.com... Peter Kropotkin, Anarchism, p. 55 Carole Pateman, The Sexual Contract, pp. 150-1