THE added value is a concept created by the German Karl Marx (1818-1883), to understand the relationship between the time needed to perform a job and its renumbering.
For Marxist political economy, the value of work and the wage received by the worker means inequality. In other words, the worker's effort is not converted into real monetary values, which devalues his work.
In other words, surplus value means the difference between the value produced by the work and the salary paid to the worker. It is, therefore, the basis of exploitation of the capitalist system on the worker.
Note that the term is often used synonymously with “profit”. The profit of the capitalist system is generated by the relationship between surplus value and variable capital, that is, workers' wages.
As an example, we can think of the following: to meet the basic needs of life (housing, education, health, food, leisure, etc.) a worker's salary is reached with daily work 5 hours. Thus, the worker would only need to exercise his function during this period.
However, the capitalist system prevents him from working only five hours a day.
Thus, 3 more hours a day (8 hours a day), he works to supply the capitalist system's need for profit, which results in surplus value.
Summary of the Capital Gaining System
The surplus value system, explained by Marx, is based on the exploitation of the capitalist system, where the work and the product produced by the workers is transformed into merchandise with the purpose of profit. Thus, workers end up receiving a lower value that does not match the work performed.
For example, you are a store attendant and, in addition, you clean, organize inventory, carry material, among other functions. Therefore, instead of the boss hiring several people and assigning a specific function to each, he practices the added value of this worker who ends up doing all the services.
This model corroborates the employer's exploitation of the worker who, in most cases, submits to the situation because he has no alternative.
It is worth remembering that the profit obtained by the work performed is destined for the boss. Thus, the worker who performs, for example, five functions (serving, administering, cleaning, counting inventory and ordering goods) does not receive for five, that is, he only receives for one of them.
In such a way, the class that owns the means of production - the bourgeoisie - enriches by accumulating wealth, at the expense of the labor force coming from the working class. This movement leads to an increase in social inequalities.
Types of Added Value
There are two types of added value:
- Absolute Added Value: in this case, the worker performs the work in a given time that, if calculated in monetary value, would result in inequality between work and wages. In other words, profit arises from the intensification of work due to the increase of hours in the working day.
- Relative Capital Gain: in this case, the surplus value is applied through the use of technology, for example, increasing the number of machines in a factory, however, without increasing the workers' wages. Thus, production and profit increase while the number of workers and wages remain the same.
Alienation to Marx
In the context of surplus value, one of the concepts developed by Marx was that of alienation, a condition of the worker who performs his work alienatedly, that is, as an instrument of enslavement.
This process leads to the dehumanization of human beings, as instead of feeling fulfilled with their work, they are removed - alienated - from what they produce.
For example, in a designer clothing factory, the workers who produce the merchandise do not have a salary that allows them to enjoy that product. Thus, according to Marx, the worker is dehumanized by this process, becoming a piece of the capitalist gear.
Learn more about the subject in the article: Alienation in Sociology and Philosophy.
Learn more about the topic:
- Karl Marx
- Proletariat
- Questions about Karl Marx
- Historical Materialism
- What is the Alienation of Labor for Marx?
- Dialectics: the art of dialogue and complexity
- Sociology in Enem: what to study
