[lbo-talk] productive and unproductive labour

James Heartfield Heartfield at blueyonder.co.uk
Sat Nov 22 08:21:22 PST 2008


"James says the only thing labor needs in order to be productive of surplus-value is a social relation to capital - it doesn't matter whether or not it produces material wealth. It's like magic. Set up a giant entertainment corporation, recruit every unemployed worker in the world, get them to tell jokes and make funny faces the entire working day, and hey presto - you have created an enormous amount of surplus-value."

You have a restricted idea of material wealth. Marx says that the value of labour power is determined not just by animal wants, but also by the labourer's cultural needs according to the 'degree of civilisation of a country', and that therefore its value includes, unlike other commodities, 'a historical and moral element' (Cap 1, p 168, Lawrence and Wishart edition). Man does not reproduce himself as an animal, by meeting only his physiological needs, but as a man, with spiritual needs, too.

At the back of this is a normative judgement, that you think that entertainment is a frivolous thing that ought to use up society's resources. You see United Artists and HBO** and think that they are a wicked waste of time - which subjective judgement is of course your right, but not anything to do with Marx's theory of capitalism's objective laws.

This is what Marx thought about the importance of spiritual development for capitalism:

"the production of relative surplus value, i.e. production of surplus value based on the increase and development of the productive forces, requires the production of new consumption ...[Hence]

"the discovery, creation and satisfaction of new needs arising from society itself; the cultivation of all the qualities of the social human being, production of the same in a form as rich as possible in needs, because rich in qualities and relations - production of this being as the most total and universal possible social product, for, in order to take gratification in a many-sided way, he must be capable of many pleasures [genussfähig], hence cultured to a high degree - is likewise a condition of production founded on capital. (Grundrisse pp. 409-410)

** Though by your own eccentric distinction you think they are productive when their output is distributed on dvds, but not when it is shown in cinemas or down cable channels.



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list