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What is ‘surplus value’?
The MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY explains one of the most fundamental concepts of Marxism
Marx
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LABOUR (work, the production of useful goods and services) is a characteristic of our species. And in all types of class society, exploited workers produce more use values than they consume themselves.
They are exploited because the difference — the “surplus” — is appropriated by the ruling class, whether slave-owners, feudal lords or capitalists.
In pre-capitalist societies exploitation is open and direct; the surplus is extracted by the compulsions of ownership (slaves) or feudal law (serfs).
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