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1. 

   BenderSastre said, 5 months ago

   Forgive me, not a business major. “Surplus Value”?
2. 

   Ms. Ima said, 5 months ago

   Like the ‘happy dance’ Steph does every time one of her books sells?
3. 

   Stephanie McMillan said, 5 months ago

   The surplus value, or profit, created in production is locked inside the commodity until the moment of consumption.

   When you plunk your dollars down to buy the hair dryer or the box of frozen waffles, the capitalist’s goal is realized.
4. 

   Stephanie McMillan said, 5 months ago

   @BenderSastre

   From a previous comment…
   *
   Surplus value: The social process of capital production, which manifests as the theft of labor power (exploitation) during the conversion of nature (extraction of raw materials) into commodities. Surplus value is the essence and purpose of capitalism.
   *
   Surplus value is the portion of exchange value of commodities that is appropriated by the capitalist after underpaying for the labor power it took to make them, plus paying fixed costs such as machinery and inputs. For example, if a worker is paid $2 to produce t-shirts that are sold for $100, and fixed costs associated with their production are $8, then the surplus value is $90.
   *
   Capitalists can pay less than labor power is worth because of their private ownership and control over the means of production. They pay less for the raw materials than they are worth, or steal them outright, by conquering and dominating land and other resources (called “primitive accumulation”).
   *
   Capital: Re-invested surplus value.
   *
   Profit: The revenue left after input costs. It can be the material manifestation of surplus value, or it can be the result of the circulation of capital (for example, through selling services or making unequal trades, buying low and selling high).
   *
   Surplus value and profit are not identical. Surplus value can only be generated through commodity production. Profit can be generated in other ways that do not involve commodity production or surplus value. Capitalism rests on surplus value; other forms of profit are considered false or toxic value.
5. 

   A_Dream4u said, 5 months ago

   Hmmm, sounds like manifest Destiny in a new form!
6. 

   timrinaldo said, 5 months ago

   So, I guess the purchaser is forced to buy the item, and receives no benefit from it? C’mon, she wanted the hair dryer more than she wanted the $20 it cost her. Likewise, the business person wants the $20 more than he wanted the dryer. It’s a win-win, and the means by which tremendous increases in standard of loving, health and well being have been spread throughout the world. Sure, there are greedy capitalists and worse, crony capitalists, but in capitalist economies, customers have a myriad of choices. it’s a dynamic system, producing more mutual good than any other system yet devised. However, as I predict, it’s all about to end in a radical paradigm shift driven by hyper xponentiating technology..
7. 

   timrinaldo said, 5 months ago

   standard of living And exponentiating
8. 

   win said, 5 months ago

   Just shoot me.
9. 

   Harleyquinn said, 5 months ago

   oh no profit. How dare some one expect to get what they believe to be a good value for something only to have another also think they got a good deal on what they sold. And How dare one turn a profit. I mean they might have to reinvest that surplus back into the corporation they have, that could only mean either growth or even someone else being hired to do it all again.
10. 

    starfighter441 said, 5 months ago

    Oh please not the P word. The utter horror that something is sold at more than cost…
11. 

    Night-Gaunt49 said, 5 months ago

    @Harleyquinn

    Surplus profit is when you cheapen the labor and maintain the same price. Quality control is also sacrificed. Even the company could fail but the leadership takes huge amounts of money and leaves it to fail. Current Capitalism in process—-better identified as Extractionism.
12. 

    Harleyquinn said, 5 months ago

    @Night-Gaunt49

    theft of labor power “Capitalism in process—-better identified as Extractionism.”
    oh scary stuff, not really reality but oh so scary..
13. 

    Night-Gaunt49 said, 5 months ago

    @Harleyquinn

    Oh it is reality. Just that you do not want to see it and so you don’t. You either explain it away as a good thing or it doesn’t exist for you.
    -
    And we have the wealth distribution worse than Pakistan. About as bad as it was in 1928.
14. 

    Ms. Ima said, 5 months ago

    So why do $1,000 purses get sold? No one holds a gun to a woman’s head and force her to buy it. She buys it because of ‘want’. Wanting something is a force of being human. Do Marxists imagine that the people are suddenly going to change and not want consumer goods because of a rant about how capitalism is bad? I have yet to see anything that makes me not like capitalism one little bit.
15. 

    Ms. Ima said, 5 months ago

    @Stephanie McMillan

    How much ‘surplus value’ is in your book sales?
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