Mary Edna Tobias Marcy

Name: Shop Talks on Economics — How Profits are Made
Author: Mary Edna Tobias Marcy

Shop Talks on Economics — How Profits are Made (1911)

Summary

“Shop Talks on Economics — How Profits are Made”, published in 1911, is a work by Mary Edna Tobias Marcy. It explores elements such as labor, capitalist and wage.

Quotes from Shop Talks on Economics — How Profits are Made (Mary Edna Tobias Marcy)

Mary Edna Tobias Marcy, Shop Talks on Economics — How Profits are Made (1911)

“ But men and women who have nothing to sell but their labor-power have no choice in the matter. They are compelled to sell their strength or labor-power in order to get wages to live. Capitalists, on the other hand, employ them for the sole purpose of taking profits. Capitalists are forced to give the working class enough to live and work on, but they try by every means at their command to prolong the working day into ten, or even twelve hours, in order that more surplus products, or surplus value, may remain for themselves. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mary Edna Tobias Marcy, Shop Talks on Economics — How Profits are Made (1911)

“ But intelligent workmen and women are not content with selling their laboring-power at its value. They are coming more and more to demand the value of their products. We are growing weary of being mere commodities, compelled to sell ourselves, for wages at the regular "market price." We are weary of receiving a product of two hours of labor for products containing ten hours of our labor. We are tired of living on meagre wages while we pile up millions for the capitalist class. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mary Edna Tobias Marcy, Shop Talks on Economics — How Profits are Made (1911)

“ For the things he gets for his labor-power contain only two hours of labor, while the things he produces, and which are claimed by the capitalist, contain ten hours of labor.
The miner sells his labor-power and, naturally, the capitalist desires to use it as profitably (for himself) as possible. If the wage-worker demanded commodities in exchange for his products, containing an equal quantity of labor, he would no longer be a wage-worker, for capitalists would no longer employ him. There would be nothing—no surplus value—left for the capitalists. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mary Edna Tobias Marcy, Shop Talks on Economics — How Profits are Made (1911)

“ Socialists propose the ownership, in common, of the mines, mills, factories and land, of all the productive industries, by the workers of the world.
When you and I and our comrades own the factory in which we work, we will no longer need to turn over to anybody the commodities we have produced. We shall be joint owners of the things we have made socially. We shall demand labor for labor in the exchange of commodities. This is the kernel of socialism. It proposes to make men and women of us instead of commodities to be bought and sold upon the cheapest market as men buy shoes or cows. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mary Edna Tobias Marcy, Shop Talks on Economics — How Profits are Made (1911)

“ The rate of surplus value, all other circumstances remaining the same, will depend on the proportion between that part of the working day necessary to reproduce the value of the laboring-power and the surplus time or surplus labor performed for the capitalist. It will, therefore, depend on the ratio in which the working day is prolonged over and above that extent, by working which the working man would only reproduce the value of his laboring-power or replace his wages. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mary Edna Tobias Marcy, Shop Talks on Economics — How Profits are Made (1911)

“ In two hours, however, the miner has produced enough value to pay his own wages, but the boss, having bought the laboring-power by the day, may be able to make the wage-worker work ten hours daily. The miner needs only to work two hours to produce a value of $2.00 to reproduce his labor-power. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mary Edna Tobias Marcy, Shop Talks on Economics — How Profits are Made (1911)

“ We propose to own the commodities we produce ourselves and to exchange commodities containing a certain quantity of necessary social labor, for other commodities representing an equal quantity of necessary social labor.
You and I work for the boss because he owns the factory or mine or railroad or the mill. Ownership of the means of production and distribution (the factories, land, mines, mills—the machinery that produces things) makes masters of capitalists and wage-workers of you and me. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mary Edna Tobias Marcy, Shop Talks on Economics — How Profits are Made (1911)

“ Will you be able to save any more money in Alaska at $6.00 a day than you would in California at $3.00 a day? Why not? Who pays the difference in the high prices of the necessities of life? YOU or YOUR BOSS? ”

Mary Edna Tobias Marcy

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Quotes from Shop Talks on Economics — How Profits are Made (Mary Edna Tobias Marcy)

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