Tote und lebendige Wissenschaft

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1016561377

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-85201

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Spann, Othmar http://d-nb.info/gnd/118615904

Title:: Tote und lebendige Wissenschaft

Edition:: Zweite, stark vermehrte und durchgesehene Auflage

Place of publication:: Jena

Publisher:: Verlag von Gustav Fischer

Year of publication:: 1925

Scope:: XV, 172 Seiten

Digitisation:: 2019

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Tausch und Preis nach individuallistischer und universalistischer Auffassung

Collection:: Economics Books

30 THE SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY. which he has paid, he acquires everything it produces during the entire day. He therefore exchanges the produce of six hours against the labour of twelve hours, and puts in his pocket, as net profit, the produce of the six hours beyond the “necessary labour.” From this surplus, pocketed by the employer, capital comes into being. The capitalist has different methods of increasing his profits. The first consists in multiplying the number of his workmen. In fact, as many workmen as he employs, so many times does he pocket the product of the six supplementary hours of labour. If he employs only one workman, by deduct ing for himself the product of half a day’s labour, he would obtain only the bare means of living, like the workman himself. If he employs two, he would have for his own consumption the equivalent of what two workmen consume. The second method is to lengthen the working day. The longer the labourer works beyond the necessary time which represents his wages, the greater the profit he brings to his master. Marx here shows by detailed examples borrowed from the history of manufacture and industrial legislation in England, that capital and machinery necessarily tend to prolong the working day, and that in order to arrest them in this course, the State has been obliged to interfere with successive enactments limiting the hours of labour. The third method consists in diminishing the duration of the “ necessary labour.” If the workman could produce in three hours what he needs for his subsistence, the cost of his labour-power would be diminished by one half. The capitalist would then obtain the full value of the labour of twelve hours, in return for a sum of money equivalent to the labour of three hours, that is to say, for half the wages. This also seems to accord with Ricardo’s law : if the workman’s cost of maintenance be lowered, wages would fall proportionately. But how is the reduction in the cost of maintenance to be attained ? By rendering the labour which creates the articles of the labourers’ consumption more productive. As hours of labour obtain the same price, no matter what they produce, if twice as many articles can be made in the hour, each article will cost one half less, and the labourer will have one half less

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Object: The Socialism of to-day

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