Black Agenda Report, October 2 2019 and previously appearing in The Monthly Review and Portside.
It is necessary to learn how to measure the rate of exploitation so that we know precisely how much workers deliver into the total social wealth produced each year.
Each time an iPhone X is sold for $999, Apple receives $603.56 of surplus value in money form. What is the rate of exploitation?
s/v = 603.56/24.55 = 2458%
This is 25 times the rate of exploitation that is gleaned from Marx’s examples in Capital, published in 1867.
What does the number—2458%—tell us?
It tells us that an infinitesimal part of the working day is devoted to the value needed by the workers as wages.The bulk of the day is spent by the worker producing goods that enhance the wealth of the capitalist.The higher the rate of exploitation, the greater the enhancement of the capital’s wealth by the worker’s labour.
At www.blackagendareport.com
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