![]() The focus of the capitalist when introducing machinery into the workplace, therefore, is not to lighten the load of the worker, nor to reduce the hours of the working day, but to increase the productivity of labour within the workplace and thus substitute workers with machines. ![]() The machine is a means for producing surplus-value.” 1 “Like every other instrument for increasing the productivity of labour, machinery is intended to cheapen commodities and, by shortening the part of the working day in which the worker works for himself, to lengthen the other part, the part he gives to the capitalist for nothing. Whilst the development and application of machinery within the productive process was a revolutionary step forward, Marx begins chapter 15 of Capital on Machinery and Large-Scale Industry by explicitly stating the purpose of the application of such machinery on a capitalist basis: to increase the profits of the capitalists. ![]() Having discussed how the capitalists are able to increase profits by improving productivity through the application of new organisational means within the workplace, Marx now turns his attention towards the most revolutionary of developments within capitalism: the machine. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |