Skip Navigation
askchapo @hexbear.net durbutter [he/him] @hexbear.net

Confused about Chapter 15 of Capital Vol. I

So I'm at the tail end of chapter 15, one of the longest chapters as far as I can tell. Lots of information but I read it only in pieces during a particularly busy week. Can someone give me a rundown of why capitalists want to extend the working day so much? Why is it more profitable to hire more workers over an extended working day than creating more efficient machinery?

2
2 comments

  • I think I might have figured it out:

    1. Machinery decreases the SNLT required to produce commodity x
    2. The value of commodity x therefore decreases to a minimum
    3. Profit can only be increased by extending the working day and producing more of commodity x
    4. The constant capital required to invest in machinery cannot be exploited to make profit, unlike the variable capital invested in labor and finally
    5. efficient production machinery is only invested in once labor puts a cap on its own exploitation through organization

  • Haven't read Capital but from a purely worker perspective: having to shut everything down and start everything up is "unproductive" time in the capitalist mind. Maybe it's different now with more advanced machinery but back when Capital was written it must have taken a significant amount of time.