Surplus Value - Appropriation From Production

Appropriation From Production

Both in Das Kapital and in preparatory manuscripts such as the Grundrisse and Results of the immediate process of production, Marx shows how commerce by stages transforms a non-capitalist production process into a capitalist production process, integrating it fully into markets, so that all inputs and outputs become marketed goods or services. When that process is complete, the whole of production has become simultaneously a labor process creating use-values and a valorisation process creating new value, and more specifically a surplus-value appropriated as net income (see also capital accumulation).

In fact, Marx argues that the whole purpose of production in this situation becomes the growth of capital, i.e. that production of output becomes conditional on capital accumulation. If production becomes unprofitable, capital will be withdrawn from production sooner or later.

This means, systemically, that the main driving force of capitalism becomes the quest to maximise the appropriation of surplus-value augmenting the stock of capital. The overriding motive behind efforts to economise resources and labor is to obtain the maximum possible increase in income and capital assets ("business growth"), and provide a steady or growing return on investment.