“ The capitalist does not buy the labourer’s means of subsistence but his labour-power. ”
Karl Marx, Das Kapital (1885). copy citation
| Author | Karl Marx |
|---|---|
| Source | Das Kapital |
| Topic | subsistence power |
| Date | 1885 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Capital-Volume-... |
Context
“that the money which the capitalist pays to the labourer for the use of his labour-power is nothing more or less than the form of the general equivalent for the means of subsistence required by the labourer. To this extent, the variable capital consists in substance of means of subsistence. But in this case, where we are discussing turnover, it is a question of form. The capitalist does not buy the labourer’s means of subsistence but his labour-power. And that which forms the variable part of his capital is not the labourer’s means of subsistence but his labour-power in action. What the capitalist consumes productively in the labour-process is the labour-power itself and not the labourer’s means of subsistence.”
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