Labor is prior to, and independent of capital.
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Capital, in the hands of the capitalist class, is wealth that has been stolen from workers in past generations. Workers are exploited as workers, not as consumers. These and similar statements show the importance of understanding Marx's Law of Value and the extraction of Surplus Value. We can see the reason for the evils and contradictions that beset society -unemployment and mass poverty in the face of plenty, monetary inflation, recessions, depressions, war.