Surplus value: what is it?

The surplus value is the amount of profit that is created by a hired employee by exceeding the cost of his own workforce. At the same time, the products produced, as well as the time spent, are appropriated without charge by the employer. This term expresses a specific form of exploitation, fully consistent with the basic economic law of capitalism. However, such a concept can illustrate not only the relationship between the worker and the employer, but also between the various groups of the so-called bourgeoisie, for example, landowners and industrialists, bankers and traders. The surplus value, as well as the ways to increase it, can play a significant role in the effective development of the productive forces and production relations. Prerequisites for the appearance of the above-mentioned term is the conversion of labor into a product or services. After all, it was only at a certain stage in the formation of society that the employer could find a hired employee who was independent of the means of production .

The source of surplus value can differ in form. Allocate absolute, redundant and relative groups. The first is achieved by increasing the working time or by achieving a higher intensity. The second is obtained by increasing the productivity of each individual relative to the average statistical level. The third form, to which surplus value can be represented, is obtained as a result of a decrease in the share of labor inputs. Similar categories are historically developed and fully characterize the ways to increase this parameter. Nevertheless, despite the sufficient number of differences, all these methods have one important common factor - the source is invariably the unpaid labor force.

The rate of surplus-value is the ratio of the mass of all surplus-value to the value of the labor expended for its production. Thus, the above-described concept can be characterized as the degree of exploitation of one person by another.

The theory of surplus value is limited both by theoretical arguments and historical facts. In the role of the latter there were also the stories of the formation and development of states, and the forms of the economic organization of society, for example, marginalism and neoclassicism.

Let us also consider the process of production, as a result of which surplus value can be obtained. By acquiring labor, the employer can begin to organize the production process, developing it in such a way that the daily employee not only creates a value equivalent to his labor expended, but also the value that subsequently becomes his wages. The latter is considered an unpaid entrepreneur component. Consequently, it is the surplus value.