When one considers the work that a man does for the body social
by means of his physical labour-power, it is plain that the above
reflections are grounded in the actual life of men. The position which
labour has come to occupy in the social order under the capitalistic
form of economy, is such, that is purchased by the employer from the
employed as a commodity. An exchange is effected between money (as
representing commodities) and labour. But in reality no such exchange
can take place; it only appears to do so. [4] What really happens is,
that the employer receives in return from the worker commodities that
cannot exist, unless the worker devotes his labour-power to creating
them. The worker receives one part, the employer the other part of
the commodity so created. The production of the commodity is the
result of a co-operation between employer and employed. The product
of their joint action is that which first passes into the circuit of
economic life. For the product to come into existence, there must
be a "relation in right" between worker and "enterpriser"; but the
capitalist type of economy is able to convert this "rights" relation
into one determined by the employer's superiority in economic power
over the employed. In a healthy social order, it will be obvious that
labour cannot be paid for, that one cannot set an economic value upon
it comparable to the value of a commodity. The commodity produced by
this labour first acquires an economic value by comparison with other
commodities. The kind of work a man must do for the maintenance of the
body social, how he does it, and the amount, must be settled according
to his abilities and the conditions of a decent human existence. And
this is only possible when such questions are settled by the political
state, quite independently of the provisions and regulations made in
the economic life.
This settlement of labour conditions outside economics, pre-establishes
a basis of value for commodities comparable to the basis already
established by the conditions of nature. The value of one commodity,
as measured by another, is increased by the fact that its raw material
is more difficult to procure; and, similarly, the value of a commodity
must be made dependent on the kind and amount of labour which the
"rights" system allows to be expended on its production. [5]
Thus economic life has its conditions fixed on two sides. On one,
there is the "nature-basis," which man must take as he finds it;
on the other, will be the "rights-basis" which has to be created on
the free and independent ground of the political State,--detached
from economic life, and out of the common sense of right.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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