The Class Struggle

In a Capitalist economy, the means of production are not public property. The land, raw materials, factories, machines, are owned by individuals, who are called the capitalists. Thus, the position of a person in the society depends upon whether he owns or not the means of production.

If a person belongs to a small group of owners to the means of production, he is from capitalist class. A person from capitalist class can do without working. If a person belongs to the large group that does not own the means of production, he is from working class. A person from working class can not live unless he works.

Thus, in capitalism, one class lives by owning; the other class lives by working. Since labor is essential to the production of goods, one can think that those who do the labour would be handsomely rewarded. But they are not. In a capitalist society, the largest incomes are of those who own the most and not who work the most.

The wheels of the capitalist society go around by Profit. Profit can be maximised when a business man pays as little as possible for what he buys and receives as much as possible for what he sells. The first step towards this is to reduce expenses. One of the expenses of production is wages. So, it would be in the interest of the employer to pay as low as possible.

Thus, the interests of the owners and workers are opposed. This leads to a war between these two classes. The capitalist tries to make profits to remain a capitalist. The worker tries to get decent wages to remain alive. Each can succeed only at the expense of other.

Surplus Value

A capitalist does not produce things which he wants to satisfy his own needs, he produces things to sell to others. However, to get the things produced, he needs labour. He buys the labour power from the worker class. The worker sells his labor power in return for wages. When a worker hires himself out to an employer he doesn’t sell him what he produces; the worker sells his ability to produce.

There is a difference between what the worker is paid and the value of what he produces, in the period (such as 8 hours a day) of his employment. The difference between what the worker receives in wages and the value of the commodity he produces is called surplus value. This surplus value is the profit that goes to the capitalist. What a worker gets is a wage that keeps him alive and keeps him able to raise a family so that his offspring’s would replace him when he dies.

Accumulation of Capital

Greatest amount of profits goes to the capitalist who uses the most advanced and efficient technical methods. So all capitalists keep striving for improvements to accumulate more and more capital.

Monopoly

Monopoly makes it possible for the monopolists to accomplish their purpose—make tremendous profits. Competitive industries make profits in good times and show deficits in bad times. But for monopoly industries the pattern is different—they make tremendous profits in good times and some profits in bad times.

Socialist Indictment of Capitalism

The socialism indicts capitalist system of being inefficient and wasteful, irrational, and unjust. It is based on the premise that the self-interest of the business man is sure to benefit the nation, which is a wrong proposition. Instead of basing production on the needs of all, it bases production on the profits of the few. It is unjust because its foundation stone is that of inequality. The greatest waste of capitalism is war.