DAS CAPITAL
PART ONE: Commodities and Money
Chapter 1: The Commodities
Section 1: The Two Factors of the Commodity:: Use Value and Value
 The starting point of the materialistic dialectic (Marx Method) as applied to the
economic phenomenon, i.e. capitalist mode of production, is the most basic
element (the commodity).
a. The commodity is a thing independent from ourselves, meets a human
want/desire. (simple definition, dialectic later reveals it to be something
more comlex)
b. Marx is not interested in why we purchase commodities, or why we
need/desire them, only that buying commodities is inevitable.
 All commodities have a use value. i.e. how useful the commodity is.
c. 2 things about use value: 1) has no existence apart from the commodity,
essential to commodity 2) use value can only be determined in use or
consumption.
 Exchange value is the value of a commodity during an exchange for other
commodity.
d. Exchange value is not material, but comparative.
e. Marx Ex: Corn and iron- always has an equation that determines value
when compared, and the difference is simply in quantity.
 Relationship between use value and exchange value: one invokes the other.
f. Use value can change in quality, exchange value can change in quantity.
 Question: How is it that commodities with different use value can be measured
in the same units? Value is what connects all commodities so that they can all be
exchanged.
 One can produce use value without being a commodity if it’s produced
for self use.
g. Thus value is not dependent necessarily on use value, it is derived when
the goods produced is used by others, then it
becomes a commodity. Marx calls this social use value.
Section 2: The Dual Character of the Labour Embodies in Commodities
 If the quantity of expected labor to produce a commodity changes,
so will the commodity's value.
a. Increase in time spent means rise in commodity’s value.
b. Marx Ex: Linen vs cloth. Linen is 2x the value of thread, because
linen takes longer to make. Thus Use value is produced by useful
labor.
 Use value measures the actual usefulness of commodity, and value (i.e.
measured by labor) measures the exchange value.


Labor time is the only thing that all commodities with different use-values have
in common. Different forms of labor produces different use-value.
c. Total value is determined by labor time under equal/similar conditions of
production. (not lazy laborer taking long time to make commodity, thus
the value of commodity increases) Labor time is skill + intensity of labor.
d. Thought: Thus commodities have a social dimension, exchange value is
not intrinsic to them, but is determined by social/economic divisions of
labor.
Duel Character of Labor:
e. All labor is human labor power, and in this quality of being equal, that it
forms the value of commodities. (we sweat, use our brain muscles in
different combinations). PRDUCES VALUE
f. All labor is an expenditure of human labor power in a particular form
(coat and linen, tailoring and weaving), they are concrete useful labor.
PRODUCES USE VALUE
Section 3: Value-Form or Exchange Value
 (a) The Simple, Isolated, or Accidental Form of Value
a. Commodities come in double form: natural form and value form. We
don't know commodities' value until we know how much human labor
was put in it. Commodities are traded for one another after their values
are decided socially.
b. Then there is value-relation, (exchange value) which lets us trade
between different kind of commodities. (20 yards of linen = 1 coat)
 (b) The Total or Expanded Form of Value
c. "20 yards of linen = 1 coat or = 10 lb. tea or = 40 lb. coffee or = 1 quarter
of corn or = 2 ounces of gold or = ½ ton of iron or = etc."
d. the linen “is now expressed in terms of innumerable other members of
the world of commodities.
e. At this point, the particular use-value of linen becomes unimportant, but
rather it is the magnitude of value (determined by socially necessary
labor time) possessed in a quantity of linen which determines its
exchange with other commodities.
f. Every other commodity now becomes a mirror of linen’s value. This chain
of particular kinds of value is endless.
 (c) The General Form of Value
g. When commodities have the same exchange-value, the only thing that
differentiates them now is their individual use-value.
h. Relative form and the equivalent forma re interrelated. There is a
correlation between them even though they are polar opposites. The
equivalent form is a representation and an offshoot of the relative form.
i. Things cannot be either completely relative or completely equivalent.
There must be a combination to express the magnitude and universal

equivalency. That form is the expanded relative form of value, which is a
specific relative form of value of the equivalent commodity.
j. There can be a commodity so universal to all commodities that it actually
excludes itself to the point of no longer being an equivalent commodity
but rather a representation of a commodity. Social acceptance of its
commodity exchange value is so universal that it can transition into a
form of money, for example, gold.
The Money Form
k. Universal equivalent form or universal exchangeability has caused gold to
take the place of linen in the socially accepted customs of exchange.
l. God then attains price form. Price form of linen is therefore: 20 yards of
linen = 2 ounces of gold.
Section 4: Fetishism
 Why does the commodity in its value-form (exchange) appear to be something
other than the aggregation of its human labor?
a. Because in capitalist society, the values of commodities are studied by
economists in their most advanced form: money. Commodity is seen as
metaphysically autonomous from the social labor that is the actual
determinant of value. This is called fetishism. (Process whereby society
generates idea, but forgets, over time, that idea is actually a
social/human product.
b. Commodities only enter relation with other commodities, which is a
social phenomenon. Before that, they are simply useful items not
commodities.
c. Fetishism is like the manufacturing of religious belief.
d. Fetishism within capitalism occurs once labor has been socially divided
and centrally coordinated, and the worker no longer owns the means of
production. They no longer have access to the knowledge of how much
labor went into a product because they no longer control its distribution.
Chapter 2: The Process of Exchange
 Gold has duel value, 1) value as form of currency in the process of exchange, 2)
value as accounted for due to labor in extracting gold.
Chapter 3: Money, or the Circulation of Commodities
 Labor time -> commodity -> Value -> necessarily appears as money -> price and
purchase -> necessity of exchanges AND exchangeability of commodity.
Section 1: The Measure of Values
 (a) The function of money is to provide commodities with the medium for the
expression of their values, i.e. labor time. (serves only ideal, imaginary capacity).

(b) Money has 2 functions: 1) measure of value as social incarnation of labor, 2)
standard of price as a quantity of metal with fixed weight.
 Quantities of metal are to be measured, stability is important. Metal itself is a
product of human labor. Different quantities of gold are magnitudes of the same
domination.
 (c) Price is the money name of the labor objectified in a commodity and
expresses value of commodity by asserting that given quantity of commodity A is
interchangeable with money B.
 Price form implies both the exchangeability of commodities for money AND the
necessity of exchange.
Section 2: The Means of Circulation
 (a: Metamorphosis of Commodities) “Social metabolism” transfers commodities
from hands of non-usevalue to hands in which they are use value. Commodities
can only exist as value for seller, and use value for buyer because commodity is
produced for exchange.
 During exchange, money commodity functions as exchange value while
commodity functions as use value. Commodity’s existence is only validated
through the form of money, money is only validated through the commodity.
 Metamorphosis of the commodity: 1) sale, value of commodity, once measured
by labor time, is now measured by gold. 2) purchase, where commodities lose
their form by the universal alienator, money.
 (b: Circulation of Money) Money is the means for the movement and circulation
of commodities.
 Money assumes the measure of value of a commodity, i.e. labor time.
 (c: Symbol of Value) Problem with gold is that it wore down during circulation, so
state introduced paper money, which is an imaginary expression, and money
arbitrarily measures the produce of labor.
Section 3: Money
 (a: hoarding) In order to buy without selling, one must have previously sold
without buying, thus there exists the essence of hoarding of money (purchasing
power) and this develops into a fetish for gold.
 (b: Means of Payment) Money as a means of payment expands beyond
circulation of commodities, it becomes the universal material of contracts, so
that debtors hoard money to pay back, and creditors hoard money to lend.
 (c: World Money) Countries have reserves of gold for 2 reasions: 1) home
circulation, 2) external circulation in world markets.
o But, when countries hoard money, money cant contribute to growth of
capitalist society, so banks are created as relief of this problem.
PART TWO: The Transformation of Money into Capital
Chapter 4: The General Formula for Capital
1) Money can only be transformed into capital through the circulation of
commodities.
2) Money originates not as capital, but only as means of exchange. Money becomes
capital when it is used as a standard for exchange.
3) The circulation of commodities has 2 forms that make up the general formula:
a. C-M-C: This represents the process of first selling a commodity for money
(C-M) and then using that money to buy another commodity (M-C):
“selling in order to buy”. During C-M-C, a commodity sold will be replaced
by a commodity bought. In this form money only acts as a means of
exchange. The transaction ends there. C-M-C form facilitates the
exchange of one use-value for another. Money is not yet capital.
b. M-C- M: This describes buying a commodity (M-C) and then selling the
commodity for more capital. (C-M). During M-C-M, money is essentially
exchanged for more money. The person who invested money into a
commodity sells it for money. The only function of this process lies in its
ability to valorize. By withdrawing more money from circulation than the
amount put in, money can be reinvested in circulation creating repeated
accumulation of monetary wealth—a never ending process. M’ (money
returned) = “M-C-M” + M∆ (surplus value). Thus money becomes capital
in this.
Chapter 5: Contradictions on the General Formula
1) Capital originates not from circulation: “In its pure form, the exchange of
commodities is an exchange of equivalents, and thus it is not a method of
increasing value,” If the participating individuals exchanged equal values, neither
of the individuals would increase capital. The needs being satisfied would be the
only gain. Commodities, if traded fairly, should not create surplus-value. Since
surplus-value cannot arise from circulation, for it to be formed, something must
take place in the background which is not visible in the circulation itself.
2) Capital originates from circulation: Labor determines the value of a commodity.
Through the example of a piece of leather, humans can, through the means of
labor, increase the value of a commodity. Turning the leather into boots
increases the value of the leather, because now more labor has been applied to
the leather. Thus Capital is created within circulation because labor creates value
within the general formula.
3) Contradiction of the general formula: Capital cannot be created from circulation
because equal exchange of commodities creates no surplus value, AND capital
cannot be created without circulation either, because labor creates value within
the general formula. Thus, “Capital must have its origin both in circulation and
not in circulation.” The capitalist must buy commodities at their value, sell them
at their value, and yet conclude the process with more money than at the
beginning. The profit seemingly originates both inside and outside the general
formula.
Chapter 6: The Sale and Purchase of Labor-Power
1) Labor-power as a commodity: Labor-power existing on the market depends on
two fulfillments: 1) the workers must offer it for temporary sale on the market
and 2) the workers must not possess the means to their own subsistence.
a. As long as the labor-power is sold temporarily then the worker is not
considered a slave. Worker dependence for a means of subsistence
ensures a large working force, necessary for the production of capital.
2) The value of labor bought on the market as a commodity represents the definite
amount of socially necessary labor objectified in the worker. The capitalists need
workers to combine with their means of production to create a sell-able
commodity, and workers need capitalists to provide a wage that pays for a
means of subsistence. Within the capitalist mode of production it is custom to
pay for labor-power only after it has been exercised over a period of time, fixed
by a contract.
PART THREE: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value
Chapter 7: The Labor Process and the Valorization Process
1) The production of absolute surplus value arises directly out of the labor process.
2) 2 sides to labor process. 1) buyer of labor power (capitalist), 2) the worker.
3) For the capitalist, the worker possesses only use-value (labor power).
4) Capitalist buys from worker his labor power, worker receives a wage. The labor
that worker puts forth to produce the object has been transferred to the object,
giving it value.
5) Capitalist owns raw materials, means of production, and labor power (worker).
Capitalist owns product of labor. Capitalist gets commodity, surplus value, and
capital from this process.
6) Capitalist produces surplus value, but surplus value is difficult to produce. If
goods are purchased at full price profit cannot be made.
7) Profit cannot be made through the purchase and sale of goods because price
changes on the market will force other capitalists to adjust their prices, resulting
in one price.
8) Surplus value arises from worker. The secret of surplus value resides in the fact
that there is a difference between value of labor power and what the labor can
produce in a given amount of time. Labor power can produce more than its own
value.
9) Worker adds value to good because worker himself is viewed as physical
existence of labor power and a natural object.
10) For commodity to produce labor power, 2 things has to be true: 1) worker is the
living commodity that produces labor power, 2) worker must produce more than
its own value.
Chapter 8: Constant Capital and Variable Capital
1) C = c + v: C = capital advanced, c = “constant capital”, v = “variable capital”
2) c is the means of production (factories, machinery, raw material). c has fixed
value which is transferred to commodity. Source of surplus value comes from v.
v is labor power, and v can produce more value than it possesses.
Chapter 9: The Rate of Surplus Value
1) Accumulation of capital occurs after production process is complete.
2) Equation for accumulation of capital: C’ = c+v+s, i.e. C’ (value created during
production process) + constant capital + variable capital + surplus value.
Chapter 10: The Working Day
1) 2 parts to working day:
a. time necessary in order to produce the value of the worker labor power
b. surplus labor time, which produces no value for the laborer, but produces
labor for the capital.
Chapter 11: The Rate and Mass of Surplus Value
1) Rate of surplus value is ratio of surplus labor time to necessary labor time, this is
also known as the rate of exploitation.
2) Capitalists maximize profits by manipulating rate of surplus value, by increasing
surplus labor time.
Chapter 12: The Concept of Relative Surplus Value
1) A --------------------B-----C
a. A-B represents necessary labor, B-C represents surplus labor.
b. Marx asks “how can the production of surplus value be increased, i.e.
how can surplus labor be prolonged without the prolongation of A-C?
2) It is in best interest to divide work day like this: A------------B’ – B---------C
a. Amount of surplus labor (surplus value) is increased, amount of necessary
labor is decreased. This is called Relative Surplus Value. Whereas when
there is actual lengthening in working day, and surplus value is created, it
is called Absolute Surplus Value
b. For Relative Surplus Value to occur, capitalist must drive to increase the
productivity of labor, reduce wages, and make business efficient. This
drive also leads to the decrease of the value of the workers means of
subsistence, thus a decrease in the value of his labor power, because he
is working too hard.
3) The attempt to extract more and more surplus-value from labor on the one side,
and on the other side the resistance to this exploitation, are according to Marx at
the core of the conflict between social classes, which is sometimes muted or
hidden, but at other times erupts in open class warfare and class struggle.
[edit] Chapter 13: Co-operation
According to Marx, co-operation happens “when numerous workers work together side by side in
accordance with a plan, whether in the same process, or in different but connected processes.” [31] Cooperation also shortens the time needed to complete a given task. Marx says, “If the labour process is
complicated, then the sheer number of the co-operators permits the apportionment of various operations to
different hands, and consequently their simultaneous performance. The time necessary for the completion
of the whole work is thereby shortened.”[32] The effort by the capitalist to organize co-operation is simply
for reasons of increasing production. While this is the case, Marx is quick to note that the collective powers
of co-operation are not created by Capital. T his, according to Marx, is a disguise or a fetish. Marx cites the
building of the pyramids, which occurred prior to the organization of a capitalist mode of production.
Chapter 14: The Division of Labour and Manufacture
[edit] Section 1. The Capitalist Character of Division
In this section 1, The Dual Origin of Manufacture, Marx examines manufacture as a
method of production involving specialized workers, or craftsmen, working on their own
detailed task. Marx cites the assembly of a carriage as an example of the first way this is
brought about. In this, multiple skilled workers are brought together to produce
specialized parts once unique to their craft, contributing to the overall production of the
commodity. Another way this manufacture arises is by splitting up a single handicraft
into multiple specialized areas, further introducing a division of labour.
[edit] Section 2. The Specialized Worker and his Tools
In this section, Marx argues that a worker who performs only one task throughout his
life will perform his job at a faster and more productive rate, forcing capital to favor the
specialized worker to the traditional craftsman.[33] Marx also states that a specialized
worker doing only one task can use a more specialized tool, which cannot do many jobs
but can do the one job well, in a more efficient manner than a traditional craftsman
using a multi-purpose tool on any specific task.[34]
[edit] Section 3. The Two Fundamental Forms of Manufacture- Heterogeneous and
Organic
In this section, Marx argues that a division of labour within production produces a
hierarchy of labor, skilled and unskilled, and also a variation in wages. Yet according to
Marx, this division within the labour process reduces a workers skills collectively, which
devalues their labour power.
[edit] Section 4. The Division of Labour in Manufacture and the Division of Labour in
Society
In this section, Marx states that division of labour has existed in society long before the
establishment of a capitalist mode of production. Marx argues that despite its existence
prior to capital, division of labor is unique under capital because its goal is to increase
the rate and mass of surplus value, not create a “combined product of specialized
labours.”[35]
[edit] Section 5. The Capitalist Character of Division
In this section, Marx discusses an increased class struggle that is brought about by
capital, or in this case in the division of labour. By creating such a division, it disguises
the efforts and work of such a division as that of the capitalist. Division of labour under
capitalism, according to Marx, is a subdivision of a workers potential and sets limitations
on his mental and physical capacity, making him reliant upon the capitalist to exercise
his specialized skill.
[edit] Chapter 15: Machinery and Large-Scale Industry
[edit] Section 1. Development of Machinery
In this section, Marx explains the significance of machinery to capitalists and how it is
applied to the workforce. The goal of introducing machinery into the workforce is to
increase productivity. When productivity is increased, the commodity being produced is
cheapened. Relative surplus value is amplified because machinery shortens the part of
the day that the worker works for his or her means of subsistence and increases the
time that the worker produces for the capitalist.
Marx discusses tools and machines and their application to the process of production.
Marx claims that many experts, including himself, cannot distinguish between tools and
machines. Marx states that they “call a tool a simple machine and a machine a complex
tool.”[36] Marx continues to elaborate on this misinterpretation of definition, explaining
that some people distinguish between a tool and a machine “by saying that in the case
of the tool, man is the motive power, whereas the power behind the machine is a
natural force independent of man, for instance an animal, water, wind and so on.”[37]
Marx explains a flaw with this approach comparing two examples. He points out that a
plow, which is powered by an animal, would be considered to be a machine and
Claussen’s circular loom, which is able to weave at a tremendous speed, is in fact
powered by one worker and there fore considered to be a tool. Marx gives a precise
definition of the machine when he says “The machine, therefore, is a mechanism that,
after being set in motion, performs with its tools the same operation as the worker
formerly did with similar tools. Whether the motive power is derived from man, or in
turn from a machine, makes no difference here.”[38]
There are three parts to fully developed machinery:
1. The motor mechanism powers the mechanism. Be it a steam engine, water wheel or
a person’s caloric engine.
2. The transmitting mechanism, wheels, screws, and ramps and pulleys. These are the
moving parts of the machine.
3. The working machine uses itself to sculpt whatever it was built to do.
Marx believes the working machine is the most important part of developed machinery.
It is in fact what began the industrial revolution of the eighteenth century and even
today it continues to turn craft into industry.
The Machine is able to replace a worker, who works at one specific job with one tool,
with a mechanism that accomplishes the same task, but with many similar tools and at a
much faster rate. One machine doing one specific task soon turns into a fleet of cooperating machines accomplishing the entire process of production. This aspect of
automation enables the capitalist to replace large numbers of human workers with
machines which creates a large pool of available workers that the capitalist can choose
from to form his human workforce. The worker no longer needs to be skilled in a
particular trade because their job has been reduced to oversight and maintenance of
their mechanical successors.
The development of machinery is an interesting cycle where inventors started inventing
machines to complete necessary tasks. The machine making industry grew larger and
worker’s efforts started focusing toward creating these machines, the objects which
steal work from its own creator. With so many machines being developed, the need for
new machines to create old machines increased. For example, the spinning machine
started a need for printing and dyeing, and the designing of the cotton gin. “Without
steam engines, the hydraulic press could not have been made. Along with the press,
came the mechanical lathe and an iron cutting machine. Labor assumes a material mode
of existence which necessitates the replacement of human force by natural forces.”[39]
[edit] Section 2. The Value Transferred by Machinery to the Product
As we have seen in the previous section, the machine does not replace the tool, which is
powered by man. The tool multiplies and expands into the working machine that is
created by man. Workers now go to work not to handle the tools of production but to
work with the machine, which handles the tools. It is clear that large-scale industry
increase the productivity of labor to an extraordinary degree by incorporating its fast
paced efficiency with in the process of production. What is not as clear is that this new
increase in productivity does not require an equal increase in expended labor by the
worker. Machinery creates no new value. The machine accumulates value from the
labor, which went into producing it, and it merely transfers its value into the product it’s
producing until its value is used up.
Only labor power, which is bought by capitalists, can create new value. Machinery
transfers its value into the product at a rate, which is dependent upon how much the
total value of the machinery is. “The less value it gives up, the more productive it is, and
the more its services approach those rendered by natural forces.”[40] The general rule
of machinery is that the labor used to create it must be less than how much human
work it replaces when it is used in the process of production. Otherwise, the machinery
would not be effective in raising surplus value and instead depreciate it. This is why
some machinery is not chosen to replace actual human workers because it would not be
cost effective.
[edit] Section 4. The Factory
Marx begins this section with two descriptions of the factory as a whole.
“Combined co-operation of many orders of workpeople, adult and young, in tending
with assiduous skill, a system of productive machines, continuously impelled by a
central power” (the prime mover); on the other hand, as “a vast automaton, composed
of various mechanical and intellectual organs, acting in uninterrupted concert for the
production of a common object, all of them being subordinate to a self-regulated
moving force.”[41]
This twofold description shows the characteristics of the relationship between the
collective body of labor power and the machine. In the first description, the workers, or
collective labor power, are viewed as separate entities from the machine. In the second
description, the machine is the dominant force, with the collective labor acting as mere
appendages of the self operating machine. Marx uses the latter description to display
the characteristics of the modern factory system under capitalism.
In the factory, the tools of the worker disappear, and the worker’s skill is passed on to
the machine. The division of labor and specialization of skills re-appear in the factory,
only now as a more exploitative form of capitalist production (work is still organized into
co-operative groups.) Work in the factory usually consists of two groups, people who
are employed on the machines and those who attend to the machines. The third group,
outside of the factory, is a superior class of workers, trained in the maintenance and
repair of the machines.
Factory work begins at childhood to ensure that a person may adapt to the systematic
movements of the automated machine, therefore increasing productivity for the
capitalist. Marx describes this work as being extremely exhausting to the nervous
system and void of intellectual activity. Factory work robs workers of basic working
conditions like clean air, light, space, and protection. Marx ends this section by asking if
Fourier was wrong when he called factories ‘mitigated jails’?
[edit] Section 5. The Struggle between Worker and Machine
“It took both time and experience before workers learned to distinguish between
machinery and their employment by capital, and therefore to transfer their attacks from
the material instruments of production to the form of society which utilizes those
instruments.”[42]
Marx describes the machine as the instrument of labor for the capitalists’ material mode
of existence. The machine competes with the worker, diminishing the use-value of the
worker’s labor-power. Marx also points out that with the advance in technology of
machines led to the substitution of less skilled work for more skilled work which
ultimately led to a change in wages. During the progression of machinery the numbers
of skilled workers decreased, while child labor flourished, increasing profits for the
capitalist.
[edit] Section 6. The Compensation Theory, With Regard to the Workers Displaced by
Machinery
In this section, Marx sets forth to illuminate the error within the compensation theory of
the political economists. According to this theory, the displacement of workers by
machinery will necessarily “set free” an equal stable, amount of variable capital
previously used for the purchase of labor-power and remains available for the same
purpose. However, Marx argues that the introduction of machinery is simply a shift of
variable capital to constant capital. The capital “set free” cannot be used for
compensation since the displacement of variable capital available becomes embodied in
the machinery purchased.[43]
The capital that may become available for the compensation will always be less than the
total amount of capital previously used to purchase labor-power before the addition of
machinery. Furthermore, the remainder of variable capital available is directed towards
hiring workers with the expertise skills to operate new machinery. Therefore the
conversion of the greater part of the total capital is now used as constant capital, a
reduction of variable capital necessarily follows. As a result of machinery, displaced
workers are not so quickly compensated by employment in other industries but are
forced into an expanding labor-market at a disadvantage and available for greater
capitalist exploitation without the ability to procure the means of subsistence for
survival.[44]
Furthermore, Marx argues that the introduction of machinery may increase
employment in other industries, yet this expansion “has nothing in common with the socalled theory of compensation.”[45] Greater productivity will necessarily generate an
expansion of production into peripheral fields that provide raw materials. Conversely,
machinery introduced to industries that produce raw materials will lead to an increase
in those industries that consume them. The production of greater surplus-value leads to
greater wealth of the ruling classes, an increase in the labor-market, and consequently
the establishment of new industries. As such Marx cites the growth of the domestic
service industry equated to greater servitude by the exploited classes.[46]
[edit] Section 7. Repulsion and Attraction of Workers Through The Development of
Machine Production, Crises in the Cotton Industry
The political economist apology for the displacement of workers by machinery asserts
that there is a corresponding increase in employment. Marx is quick to cite the example
of the silk industry in which an actual decrease of employment appears simultaneously
with an increase of existing machinery. On the other hand an increase in the number of
factory workers employed is the result of “the gradual annexation of neighboring
branches of industry” and “the building of more factories or the extension of old
factories in a given industry.”[47]
Furthermore, Marx argues that an increase in factory workers is relative since the
displacement of workers creates a proportionately wider gap between the increase of
machinery and a proportionate decrease of labor required to operate that
machinery.[48] The constant expansion of capitalism and ensuing technical advances
leads to extension of markets until it reaches all corners of the globe thus creating cycles
of economic prosperity and crisis.[49] Finally, the “repulsion and attraction” of workers
therefore results as a cycle in which there is a constant displacement of workers by
machinery which necessarily leads to increased productivity followed by a relative
expansion of industry and higher employment of labor. This sequence renews itself as
all components of the cycle lead to novel technological innovation for “replacing laborpower.”[50]