Communism and Christianism: Analyzed and Contrasted from the Marxian and Darwinian Points of ViewBrown, William Montgomery
Religion
Communism and Christianism: Analyzed and Contrasted from the Marxian and Darwinian Points of View
Brown, William Montgomery
Christian socialism; Communism; Communism and Christianity
Ans.: It is the difference between what the working class as a whole
gets for its labor power at its value in wages, say an average of five
dollars per day, for producing commodities, and what the employing class
as a whole gets, say an average of twenty-five dollars, for the same
commodities when sold at their value. According to this conservative
estimate capital is upon the whole and in the long run robbing labor of
four-fifths of the value of its productive power. Capitalism is
therefore the great robber, the Beelzebub of robbers.
17. Since the economic factor is the determining factor, what does the
law of Surplus Value furnish us?
Ans.: "Surplus Value is the key to the whole present economic
organization of society. The end and object of capitalist society is the
formation and accumulation of surplus value; or in other words, the
systematic, legal robbery of the subject working class."
18. Define value and state how measured.
Ans.: Value is the average amount of human labor time socially, not
individually, necessary under average, not special, conditions for the
production or reproduction of commodities.
19. What determines the value of labor power?
Ans.: It is determined precisely like the value of every other
commodity, i. e., by the amount of labor time socially necessary for its
production or reproduction by the raising and support of children to
succeed their parents as wage-earning slaves.
20. Since labor power is a commodity, what condition is it subject to?
Ans.: It is subject to the same conditions that all other commodities
are subject to without regard to the fact that it is the source of all
social value. The worker in whom the commodity labor power is embodied,
does not get the value of the product of his labor, but only about
one-fifth of it, enough to keep him in working order and reproduce more
labor power in his children. If the worker received the value of the
product of his labor he would receive much more than enough to keep him
in working order and to raise his family. Such an economic condition
would abolish all forms of surplus value or profit, also the wage
system, by substituting economic and social organization in the interest
of the working class. No other class could remain in existence and the
class struggle would be ended.
21. In what economic system, past or present, does surplus value appear?
Ans.: It is the root of all social systems since the rise of the
institution of private property, but only under the present system
(capitalism) has labor power assumed the commodity form. Labor power is
a commodity with a two fold character: it has a use and an exchange
value. Its use value consists in its being capable of producing values
over and above its own needs for sustenance and reproduction. Its
exchange value consists in the amount of socially necessary labor time
required for its production and reproduction.
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