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Absolute and Relative Surplus Value

In: The Economic Theory of the Working Class

Author

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  • Geoffrey Kay

    (The City University)

Abstract

The first of these ratios, the rate of surplus value, is the most crucial, since it is the one that directly summarises the economic relations between the class antagonists of capitalist society. If we add together surplus value and variable capital for a society for the period of, say a year, we get the annual total of new production. New production is total production less the amount needed to replace used up means of production — what is conventionally called net national income. The ratio of surplus value to variable capital is therefore, first of all, a measure of income distribution between the capitalist class on the one side, and the working class on the other. But new value is entirely the product of living labour which receives only a proportion of it back as wages. Thus the rate of surplus value is an indicator of exploitation as well as income distribution, measuring the ratio of paid to unpaid labour performed by the working class.

Suggested Citation

  • Geoffrey Kay, 1979. "Absolute and Relative Surplus Value," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: The Economic Theory of the Working Class, chapter 4, pages 44-53, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-16085-3_4
    DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-16085-3_4
    as

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