“ Labour-power exists only as a capacity, or power of the living individual. ”
Karl Marx, Das Kapital (1867). copy citation
Author | Karl Marx |
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Source | Das Kapital |
Topic | power labour |
Date | 1867 |
Language | English |
Reference | |
Note | Translated by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling |
Weblink | https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Capital-Volume-... |
Context
“The value of labour-power is determined, as in the case of every other commodity, by the labour-time necessary for the production, and consequently also the reproduction, of this special article. So far as it has value, it represents no more than a definite quantity of the average labour of society incorporated in it. Labour-power exists only as a capacity, or power of the living individual. Its production consequently pre-supposes his existence. Given the individual, the production of labour-power consists in his reproduction of himself or his maintenance. For his maintenance he requires a given quantity of the means of subsistence.”
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