This video is about some of the basic ideas of Marxist economics. Since it is a short video and
not a huge multi-volume text, it inevitably will glaringly oversimplify this incredibly nuanced
and complex topic. This is no replacement for any of the actual readings but perhaps it will
be helpful. "Owning the means of production." You depend on material conditions to survive. This is
stuff made out of things, like food, clothing and shelter. You also depend on what is needed to make
these things, like land, farming tools, building tools, building materials - that kind of thing.
The first kind of thing is called the means of subsistence, and the second is called the means of
production. This is important. Notice that if you have access to the sufficient means of production,
you can produce some of your own means of subsistence. But having the means of
subsistence does not allow you to produce anything if you have no access to means of production. Here
is a central characteristic of capitalism people can own the means of production all this really
means is that other people either aren't allowed to use it or must use it on the owners terms so
if you don't own any means of production you must arrange a deal of it as satisfying to someone who
does in order to get your means of subsistence and thus survive use-value and exchange-value usually
we find things valuable because they are useful I could trade you a basket of food for a shovel
and this would make sense because you have a use for food and I have a use for a shovel exchanging
your shovel for a bag of garbage would not make sense to you because I assume you do not have much
use for garbage so generally speaking in order for something to be valuable for trade it must
be useful this is a pretty fundamental principle here exchange value something valuable for trading
depends on use value something valuable in its utility however it's something with use value
doesn't necessarily have exchange value air is useful we use it to breathe but we do not trade
for it because it is everywhere so in addition to use value there is one more variable that is
critical for something to have exchange value and that is labour shoes have use value because they
protect our feet but if like air they required no labor to get why would you trade anything for
them no one in their right mind would sew shoes would have no exchange value but alas we live in a
world where people need to work to produce shoes thus they are indeed valuable for trade notice
that labor does not always create exchange value either I doubt you would find my crown doodles
very valuable even though I put a lot of work into them it is only when labour creates a previously
unavailable use value that exchange value is also created one characteristic of exchange value is
that it is more easily quantifiable than use value it is hard to say whether a potato is more useful
than a match but it is easier to imagine a potato being worth that is exchangeable for a number of
matches this is where money comes in to serve as a universal unit of account through which to compare
all items with exchange value appropriation of surplus value part of me for assuming but
I imagine that you want means of subsistence so that you can survive let's also further imagine
that you don't own the means of production and let's say that some fine lad comes to you and
says I'm a capitalist which means that I own the means of production and I pay others to operate it
you can use what I pay you to purchase means of subsistence and it will all be hunky-dory let's
say you accept and work the means of production all day using your labor to create things with
use value thus creating new exchange value the capitalist takes everything you produce and gives
you some money which represents much less than the exchange value you've produced this is enough for
your means of subsistence for the day but no more and guess you'll have to come work tomorrow too as
the week's go by and you continue to work for the capitalist the capitalist continues to accumulate
the value you produce some of this he uses for maintenance keeping the means of production in
good working order some is used to get the raw materials used in production the rest is either
used to scale up and get more means of production or for his own means of subsistence and personal
luxuries this last bit here is known as a surplus value which is important here's a fascinating
question if you the worker are doing the actual productive labor and the capitalist is not why
does the surplus value go to him and not to you wouldn't it be more fair for you to have it as
you're the one doing the actual work after all since your wages are only covering your means
of subsistence your only choices are to continue working for the capitalist or starve therefore
under Marxism the capitalist profiting that is taking the surplus value generated by workers
is considered exploitation this exploitation is only made possible by the institution of
private property and private property is only made profitable through exploitation private property
where no one was exploited where everyone got to keep the value that they themselves produced would
hardly be private at all private property and exploitation are inseparable so we are
presented with a choice to accept exploitation as a part of how we live or declare private property
inherently unjust and abolish it altogether crisis and revolution let us assume that capitalists are
not a huge fan of the idea of abolishing private property they decide to keep their control of
the means of production and keep profiting through exploiting people so our capitalist
keeps taking the surplus value you produce uses it to get better productive equipment so you can
produce more and makes an even larger profit now imagine a neighboring capitalist is competing by
selling the same commodities for a lower price to attract consumers it's not a huge deal though
our capitalists can just lower his prices to after all his new equipment makes production faster and
cheaper larger amounts can be produced and sold cheaply while the profits remain the same and
since this competition is producing this effect with all capitalists the means of subsistence has
gotten cheaper for you to buy the capitalists can thus lower your wages to increase his profit and
you will still be able to survive and come back and work for him but then the neighbor gets even
better equipment scales up production and again lowers his prices so our capitalists must again
upgrade his means of production scale up and lower his prices along with your wage since this is
happening across the board a problem soon arises more goods are being produced than society needs
and because wages are so meager no one can afford to buy them anyway so the capitalists cannot sell
their goods and their profits begin to fall since it is no longer profitable to hire people
and produce goods the capitalists lay off their workers and try to sell their means of production
no one who wants it can afford to buy it so we end up with means of production that no one is
allowed to use at a population producing nothing not even their own means of subsistence so what
do we do one obvious answer is for the workers to say to hell with this and come together and
work the means of production anyway regardless of whose private property it is the capitalists
may object but they are sorely outnumbered so the means of production is seized from them by force
this time around the value that is produced will go directly to the people who put labour
into producing it this is known as a communist revolution and it must happen sooner or later
or else all of the world's productive forces will grind to a halt forever this was a simple overview
of some of the thoughts of Karl Marx there are many more of his ideas that are central to his
work that we did not even touch upon so hopefully the stoat your curiosity to learn more in many
ways conditions today are different from how they were in Marx's time it's hard to say what
a modern-day communist revolution would look like but it is clear that a deep change must happen if
we want to survive what will it take for humans to live in peace thank you for watching this
video I do not run ads and I never will so if you want to support me you can do so on patreon
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