Capitalist mode of production

The capitalist mode of production is one of the modes of production that Karl Marx defined as stages of historical development, defined by a certain level of development of the productive forces and a particular form of relations of production. According to Marxist theory, it is the next to feudalism and, as implied by the political commitments of some Marxists, its internal logic will lead to its disappearance and replacement by communism.

While in the non-Marxist literature capitalism is usually defined as an economic system, for historical materialism capitalism is a mode of production, that is, a regime or social totality.

Origin of the term

This intellectual construction originates from the thought of Karl Marx and derives from the synthesis and critique of three elements: English classical economics (Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Thomas Malthus), German idealist philosophy (Hegelian dialectic is fundamental) and the labor movement of the first half of the XIX century (represented by authors that Marx described as utopian socialists).

Definition and characterization

The capitalist is the one who organizes production, which in its technical aspect is determined by a level of economic development typical of the industrial era, in which capital has acquired predominance over land, which was the dominant productive force in previous modes of production (slavery and feudalism). The key to the Marxist conception of capitalism lies in the concepts of alienation (the fact that the process and the product of labor become alien to the worker); and of surplus value, that is, the value incorporated by the salaried worker to the product that exceeds the value represented by the salary. For Marx, the benefit of the capitalist lies in this difference in value, since it is he who realizes the value of what is produced by selling it on the market, which generates a price that must be higher than the cost of production if the activity economy has been successful.

Features

The capitalist mode of production is characterized by private ownership of the means of production, the extraction of surplus value created in production by a class of private owners, and the distribution of both capital goods and consumer goods into a primarily market-based economy (referred to as commodity production).

A "mode of production" (German: Produktionsweise) simply means "the distinctive form of production", which could be defined in terms of the way it is socially organized and what kinds of technologies and tools are used. use. Within the framework of the capitalist mode of production.

• both the inputs and outputs of the production are mainly private property, the goods and services purchased in the market has a price.
• production is carried out for exchange and circulation in the market, with the objective of obtaining a net income benefit from it.
• the owners of the means of production (capitalists) are the ruling class (bourgeois) that obtain their income from the surplus product produced by the workers and have freely appropriated by the capitalists.
• A defining characteristic of capitalism is the dependence on wage labor for a large segment of the population; specifically, the working class (proletarian) are not capital owners and has to live with the sale of its workforce in exchange for a wage.

The situation of the worker

The free appearance of the contract between capitalist and worker (which, according to some liberal theories, should be individual and without interference from union collective bargaining or State protective legislation) barely masks the pressure to which the latter is subjected by the existence of an industrial reserve army, which is what Marx calls the unemployed who are willing to replace him. The idea that the free functioning of the market submits wages to a bronze law that prevents them from ascending beyond subsistence limit. Proletarians must take care of the reproduction of labor power themselves or else they die with their disciples. .^{[citation required]}

Capitalist crises

The Marxist critique of capitalism argues that this mode of production contains inherent contradictions that cause cyclical crises.^{[citation needed]} Karl Marx, in his work Capital, bases this opinion arguing that it is increasingly difficult for the capitalist to value his capital. The competitive relations to which the capitalist is subject force him to constantly and increasingly implement new and better machinery to increase labor productivity and, in this way, sell his merchandise at a lower price than his direct competitors.. In this way, the “living labor” component (the hiring of workers) decreases, giving rise to what Marx calls the “industrial reserve army”, that is, a considerable part of the working class that remains waiting for a job. This forced latency that capitalism imposes on the working class makes this "army" become, on the one hand, an important mass of poor and indigent and, on the other hand, the cause of the impossibility of rapidly rising wages. (due to surplus labor supply).