• Finiteacorn@lemmygrad.ml
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    5 days ago

    The machine increases the exploitation of the worker by reducing the amount of labor hours it takes to make a thing.

    For a simple example suppose holes in the ground have a value, if a capitalist pays a worker to dig holes and the worker can dig 1 hole an hour with a shovel but 2 with an excavator then while paying for the same 1 hour of work the worker will create twice the value for the capitalist.

    But really the distinction is mostly semantic and it doesn’t matter much whether Marx was right and the machines create no value or some other economists were right and it takes machines/tools as well as labor to create value hardly matter because either way the capitalist brings nothing to the table.