What is Socialism? |
Common terms and phrases
ability abstract labour accused amount arises Belfort Bax Bernard Shaw Bourgeois capitalist Christian Socialist circulation claim class feeling clear commodities concrete labour confiscation consider consumed consumption corn cost creates criminals Crofter Commission day of revolution desire doctrine equality of condition Ethics of Socialism everything exchange exchange-value exist expropriation Fabian Essays fact give gold gulf hands Hubert Bland human labour Ibid idea individual justice of Socialism Karl Marx labour embodied labour-power labour-time land less liberty machinery manual labour Marx says Marx's matter ment Merrie England modities monopoly nature necessary never Non-Socialist Nunquam object paid persons possession present private property produce Proletariat proof prove quantity religion rightful owners sell shillings six hours sort stolen struggle Student's Marx surplus labour surplus value theory things tion told truth use-value wages wealth whole wolves working-man workman
Popular passages
Page 291 - It tells us that in two different things — in 1 quarter of corn and x cwt. of iron, there exists in equal quantities something common to both. The two things must therefore be equal to a third, which in itself is neither the one nor the other. Each of them, so far as it is exchange-value, must therefore be reducible to this third.
Page 291 - Each of them, so far as it is exchange value, must therefore be reducible to this third. A simple geometrical illustration will make this clear. In order to calculate and compare the areas of rectilinear figures, we decompose them into triangles. But the area of the triangle itself is expressed by something totally different from its visible figure, namely, by half the product of the base into the altitude. In the same way the exchange values of commodities must be capable of being expressed in terms...
Page 272 - If we make abstraction from its usevalue, we make abstraction at the same time from the material elements and shapes that make the product a use-value; we see in it no longer a table, a house, yarn, or any other useful thing. Its existence as a material thing is put out of sight.
Page 167 - A house may be large or small; as long as the surrounding houses are equally small it satisfies all social demands for a dwelling. But let a palace arise beside the little house, and it shrinks from a little house to a hut.
Page 292 - ... we see in it no longer a table, a house, yarn, or any other useful thing. Its existence as a material thing is put out of sight. Neither can it any longer be regarded as the product of the labour of the joiner, the mason, the spinner, or of any other definite kind of productive labour.
Page 113 - tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door ; but 'tis enough, 'twill serve : ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I am peppered, I warrant, for this world. A plague o...
Page 303 - Each of these units is the same as any other, so far as it has the character of the average labour-power of society, and takes effect as such ; that is, so far as it requires for producing a commodity, no more time than is needed on an average, no more than is socially necessary.
Page 263 - A use-value, or useful article, therefore, has value only because human labour in the abstract has been embodied or materialised in it. How, then, is the magnitude of this value to be measured ? Plainly, by the quantity of the value-creating substance, the labour, contained in the article. The quantity of labour, however, is measured by its duration, and labour-time in its turn finds its standard in weeks, days, and hours.
Page 281 - Along with the useful qualities of the products themselves, we put out of sight both the useful character of the various kinds of labour embodied in them and the concrete forms of that labour; there is nothing left but what is common to them all; all are reduced to one and the same sort of labour, human labour in the abstract.