Critical review of three seminar readings Essay

Critical review of three seminar readings - Essay Example However, propaganda warfare is not a new tactic. In fact, Sun Tzu in his â€Å"Art of War† (6th Century BC) taught that an essential part of conducting warfare involves deceiving the enemy thus putting him into a disadvantage, ironically but logically, by making him believe that he is in a more advantageous form or position. Critique Indeed, this has been an essential part in the conduct of the cold war wherein Two-time Pulitzer Prize awardee Walter Lippmann argued that their side dwell on what is true and morally upright whilst on the enemy’s was mere propaganda. Well, though most conflicts are seen as a brutal show of force, an equal and sometimes bigger of this plays out using propagandas. As such, even wars are used by politicians and even terrorists to advance their own agendas. Hence, whether willingly or unwillingly, the technical sophistication of mass media has made it probably the most effective conduit for advancing these agendas; and both Bush and Bin Laden has greatly capitalized on this. Thus, Kellner’s critique of US broadcasting networks on his â€Å"Media Propaganda and Spectacle in the War on Iraq: a Critique of U.S. broadcasting network† offers to expose the sins of commission as well as the sins of omission committed by the various networks and taken advantaged of by President George W. Bush. As such, the author launched into an immense rhetoric of lashes against the administration’s ploy to use the War on Iraq through the various US media outfits in an effort to cement itself as the ultimate harbinger of good. In effect, this has set the stage to launch various theatrics such as â€Å"the coalition of the willing†, preemptive strikes and surgical bombings. The author painted a stark picture of a Bush Jr.-driven invasion that seem to be based on the desire to wrap up what his daddy had started and reinforce the United States position as the resident global watch dog (Kellner 2004, p. 330). Of course such an invasion cannot be crafted overnight and against the backdrop of the 9-11 terror attack in late 2001, the architects of war got busy in 2002 to drum up the assault on Iraqi soil. Indeed, war is an ugly business but one cannot argue that though it brings forth economic damages, it can also be profitable for some. Back in the old days, it is the victor that seemingly solely benefits as they thrive from the spoils of war. Nowadays, one does not need for a war’s conclusion but from war itself comes the golden opportunity for media mileage and political leverage. Hence, the exploitation of these opportunities at the expense of Iraq and her people seem to be the center of the paper. Indeed, the facts were stated fully to support the allegations in this paper. However, it would seem that only one side of the story was covered. A quick review of the references used would indicate an inclination on the need to assert the wrongful acts committed during the incursion. There are indeed various areas of concern that may have been committed in this discourse. In effect, the discourse has seemingly singled out President George W. Bush against Saddam Hussein hence bringing about Manicheanism, wherein Bush seems to have been demonized in the critique. The paper likewise went about to decontextualize violence putting heavy emphasis on the attacks made and painting it as irrational while at the same time neglecting the

Political science- short answers- Africa Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Political science- short answers- Africa - Essay Example Structural adjustments directed towards Africa by the IMF, bilateral donors and the World Bank are some of the policies to reach consolidation (Herbst 51). According to Samuel P. Huntington, it is religious and cultural identities that will primarily breed tension and conflict in the world of post- Cold War. Huntington concluded this after surveying various theories relating the mode of global politics. He argued that the idea of different civilizations is key to analyzing the possibility of conflict (Herbst 45). Civilizations differ from each other in terms of language, culture, history, religion and tradition. This has potential for conflict. Huntington gave a memorable slogan regarding Islamic religion which has agitated friction in the western world. It is the â€Å"Islam has bloody borders† slogan that brings fear in his arguments. Huntington concludes that all Asian countries and other Islamic nation are collectively peace haters. The western will come together and consolidate their power to ensure their interests remain. The Islamic nations will too consolidate and challenge the power and values of the West. The western world has had impact great impact in the world civilizations. To remain relevant, they have to consolidate their military power and fight for their interests and values (Herbst 67). According to Huntington, the West plays a critical role in influencing the political and religious institutions in Africa. The West therefore determines the stability and of the social movements activities of these

Issues with Cameras and Privacy in Modern Day Technology

Issues with Cameras and Privacy in Modern Day Technology Scam Cams Nick Doran Introduction and Significance of Issue As a citizen, governmental laws have always played a major role in the way we conduct ourselves. Whether it’s when we vote or when we sit down in our car to travel, they always have a say or way to regulate us. When it comes to the motor vehicle, being a daily driver of suburban and urban areas are stressful enough. Within the last few years, the government has introduced a new X-factor causing many drivers anxiety and even possibly altering a driver’s ability to use their own intuition on being safe and respectful. This new x-factor can come in several forms of traffic violation cameras. The increasing number of cameras being put into effect raises concerns. Having a camera on every street corner leads to concerns about privacy and overreaching by the government in its ability to monitor the movements of people. Even worse, the accuracy and efficacy of these cameras can be called into question, meaning this invasion of privacy does not even have tangible benefits. Thes e cameras are truly an abuse of power by the government, and are an unethical used of technology in our society. A topic that people are very reluctant to realize is how quickly technology has advanced in the recent years. Of course the majority of our society is up to date with the latest version of the iPhone or the newest model of Dr. Dre Beats headphones, but not many people take a second and look around to realize that everything they do from the minute they wake up, to the minute they go to sleep is being monitored. Regardless if it’s the government monitoring them or a computer hacker sitting in his or her basement, your activity and whereabouts are being watched. With every installment of a traffic violation camera, another pair of virtual eyes is watching you. The most common cameras that are being used are Red Light Cameras and Speed Limit Enforcers. Currently, being used in smaller numbers are Bus Lane Cameras and Stop Sign Cameras. With so many flaws in this growing system of cameras, how can we possibly sit back and give away our right to privacy? True Purpose The true reasoning behind the outbreak of these cameras is pretty obvious, revenue. Both state and local government are defending these allegations by claiming that the cameras are for safety. According to the local government of Chicago â€Å"Red Light Camera Enforcement is designed to increase safety on Chicago streets. Cities across the country, and throughout the world, have been using the technology for many years.† (Red Light Camera Enforcement). While this defense seems nice on the surface, many studies have actually shown an increase in rear end collisions due to red light cameras. Drivers are becoming so indecisive and hesitant; the roads are becoming more dangerous. Many drivers are slamming on their breaks when the light turns from yellow to green out of fear of a camera flash following a fine, causing the car behind them to slam into the back of their car. It was found that in certain areas, the yellow light time was actually decreased, often below legal limit, in order to increase the amount of red light offenders. The increase in offenders clearly resulted in greater revenue to the government that issued the cameras. When the goal of increased safety is proven wrong and local governments such as Suffolk County, NY are â€Å"estimated $6.8 million a year† (Brown, J. 2014), it becomes evident that the dollar sign greatly out weights the cameras intended purpose of safety. In retrospect, an extra $6.8 million a year to the county may seem nice, a better plan should be put in place to raise these funds. This plan of traffic violation revenue seems more like a way of taking advantage of a poorly handled situation to get a quick fix of cash. Many individuals and organizations are fed up with these â€Å"scamras† (Werner, A 2012) and are leading successful oppositions of the use of cameras. â€Å"Brothers Michael and Paul Kubosh led a successful rebellion against red light cameras in Houston. The city took the cameras down more than a year ago. The brothers say the only reason cities install the cameras in is to make money. Its estimated that Houston earned $44 million during the four years the cameras were operating.† (Werner,A. 2012). There is no denying that the facts are in the numbers, these cameras are 100% appealing to anyone who rather focus on making money off others mistakes and than protecting us. Smile for the Camera Have you ever looked up on your way out of a grocery store and saw a flat screen television with multiple camera angles of you being displayed? Some may think well, the store has a right to know if someone’s stealing from them, while others may feel uneasy that they are being recorded in their pajama pants. Now think about all the other aspects of your life could have been learned from the time you woke up to the time you walked out of the grocery store by the government or any person or agency with hacking abilities. An outburst of use of Instagram, Twitter and Facebook on your smart phone early in the morning may suggest the time you woke up. The pictures you like and comment on suggest your interests. Software has the ability to turn your smartphone camera on and see through it from 100 miles away. Your neighbors’ security camera catches you walking out of your front door without locking it behind you. Now you get into your car, and every intersection from your home to the store has a camera on it. The cameras know: the route you choose to the store, the make, model, color, year and licenses plate of your car you’re in, if you’re in the car alone or with your kids, and if the camera takes high quality images, it may be able to recognize a wedding band on your finger that’s wrapped around your steering wheel determining if you are married or not. Don’t forget the security camera on the way out of the grocery store that recorded you forgetting to get milk. You may ask, what’s the big deal if the little old lady whole mails me my ticket gets to see pictures and a video of me in my car? The problem is anyone who wants those images badly enough, can get a hold of them. With most new red light camera systems, they are recording video 24/7, meaning all drivers (not just red light runners) are being recorded at all times. The video and still images are stored on privately owned computers servers without any verifiable audit trail of when the video is deleted. Meaning that it is unclear to what really happens to all this information. As a society, where do we draw the line to this invasion of our privacy by our governments? It’s Almost Always Accurate In today’s age we rely heavily on technology and it is safe to say, it doesn’t always work. Technology must be maintained, updated and sometimes restored. Sometimes it can even be defective from the start, â€Å"a setback occurred in 2003 when one vendor, who subsequently went out of business, was found to have provided equipment that was inaccurate. This led to negative publicity, suspension of camera use at three sites, and reimbursements of fines and demerit points to about 90,000 motorists.† (Delany, A. 2005) This is just one of many cases in which this system has failed right off the bat resulting in false accusations to a crime. Many of these cameras are recommended by manufactures, to have regular inspections by specialized technicians. A neglected system can result in similar outcomes as the one stated above. It seems that whatever department assigned to maintain these cameras, often does not. Resulting in thousands of issued tickets to many innocent citi zens that are invalid. Another case of this failed use of technology occurred in Chicago when their camera vendor, Redflex, was â€Å"fundamentally deficient, with little supervision such poor record-keeping that it is difficult to determine why the number of tickets issued spiked during period, as first reported by the Chicago Tribune.† Reflexes’ mishaps with â€Å"one detector at the intersection of Kimball, Lincoln and McCormick avenues was largely nonfunctional for years, meaning that the broken system â€Å"may have failed to have identify as many as 45,444 violations over a four-and-a-half-year period.†Ã¢â‚¬  With an uneducated society on this abuse of technology we quickly pull out are checkbooks to pay off these fines before a warrant is issued to the offender. We are forced to act out of fear rather than fighting for what is wrong and right. Psychology is Stronger then Law â€Å"Although many issues are raised in the numerous and constant debates on the revenue-raising aspects of speed enforcements, one key area of knowledge that can shed some light on it has yet to be highlighted, especially in the research literature. Do we really need to catch offenders to be effective? Can crashes be reduced simply by the presence of police enforcement without the need to issue tickets? Previous research has shown that even plywood replicas of police cars had an effect on driver behavior (Baker and Lawder, 1968) and simply giving a warning also had an effect on driver speed (Ennis, 1967). If the mere presence of police is sufficient to deter speeding, then there is no escape from the revenue-raising allegations† (Tay,R. 2010) The wrong approach is being taken to solve this safety problem. These cameras are not the answer. This plywood cop car study goes to show that the psychological presence of a police officer has a greater impact on how people drive. If a police officers presence if constantly know in a school zone, motorists will subconsciously become alert and be more aware of surroundings. A high majority of people throughout numerous studious have agreed that this would be the more effective method in accomplishing safer roadways for communities. Conclusion It is a hard point to miss that these Scamcams, are exactly that. Their intentions may seem great, but the way our government has chosen to implement them is just outright absurd. The notion that we are installing cameras on almost every major street corner is essentially giving another pair of eyes to whoever has the capability to use them. Whether it’s the national government monitoring, a college student with the self taught capability of hacking, or just your local government sticking you with a revenue boosting fine, you are being watched and there’s no ignoring that. We are allowing a problem to spiral out of control right in front of us. We are allowing our governments to encroach farther into our person space and privacy. Not too mention, they’re making a large sum of money off this program. Are their intentions still to make the streets a safer place or did the find a way to use this safety campaign as a cloak to scamming its people. Our National, State and local governments ethics have always been questioned but now with their scamcams, they have finally crossed the line. References Brown, J. (2014, April 23). Traffic cameras have one purpose: To bring in more money. Newsday. Retrieved from http://www.newsday.com/long-island/columnists/joye-brown/traffic-cameras-have-one-purpose-to-bring-in-more-money-1.7807020?pts=762136 Delany, A., Ward, H., Cameron, M., Williams, A. (2005). Controversies and Speed Cameras: Lessons Learnt Internationally. In Journal of Public Health Policy (4th ed., Vol. 26, pp. 404-415). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan Journals. Hinz, G. (2014, October 14). City inspector general slams red-light camera program. Retrieved from http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20141010/BLOGS02/141019989/city-inspector-general-slams-red-light-camera-program Red Light Camera Enforcement. (2011, April 5). Retrieved November 18, 2014, from http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/cdot/supp_info/red-light_cameraenforcement.html Tay, R. (2010). Speed Cameras: Improving Safety or Raising Revenue? In Journal of Transport Economics and Policy (2nd ed., Vol. 44, pp. 247-257). London: University of Bath and The London School of Economics and Political Science. Werner, A. (2012, January 1). Safety or scam? Red light cameras under scrutiny. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/safety-or-scam-red-light-cameras-under-scrutiny/

The Forgotten: Uninsured Children Essays -- Health Care

This paper is going to define oppression, describe an oppressed group and a framework. Oppression is defined as â€Å"unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power or a sense of being weighed down in body or mind† (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2010) The oppressed population that I am going to describe is uninsured children with a disability. Typically, children obtain health insurance coverage through their parents. If parents lack health insurance, so will their children. This paper will discuss the social problem of the inability of children with a disability to obtain health insurance. The primary social welfare issue to be addressed is the absence of affordable, comprehensive health insurance for children from birth to eighteen. When a child is uninsured it often means that people will postpone necessary care and forego preventive care - such as childhood immunizations and routine check-ups-completely. Because the uninsured usually have no regular doctor and limited access to prescription medications, they are more likely to be hospitalized for health conditions that could be avoided. One example, regarding this was told by a medical student. American Medical Student Association told a story of a young boy with a heart defect which made him vulnerable to infections. His mother, a janitor, couldn't afford to take him to the dentist when he developed a tooth infection. By the time his pain grew intolerable; his heart was infected with bacteria from the tooth infection. Spiking fevers, fatigue and chest pain developed a few weeks later. He arrived at the ER wit h sub acute bacterial endocarditic, which required six weeks of preventable hospitalization. Damage to the boy's heart was irreversible. The conceptual framework... ..., H. J., & Stoesz, D. (2005). American social welfare policy: a pluralistic approach. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. Merriam-Webster Dictionary, (2010). Retrieved June 1, 2010, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/ Missouri Foundation for Health. (2004). Economic and health benefits of Missouri Medicaid. Retrieved June 4, 2010, from http://www.mffh.org National Coalition of Healthcare. (2004). Facts on health insurance coverage. Retrieved April19, 2005, from http://www.nchc.org/facts/coverage.pdf National Coalition of Healthcare. (2004). Health insurance cost. Retrieved February 3, 2005, from http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml National Health Policy Forum. (2005). The basics: Medicaid. Retrieved June 1, 2010, from http://www.nhpf.org United States Department of Labor. (2010) Retrieved June 4, 2010 from http://www.dol.gov/

Outsourcing and insourcing and their roles within a telecommunications context

Outsourcing is the process in which an organization transfers ownership of a business process to another company. In other words, it is the process in which a company contracts the services of another company in performing a specific task which would otherwise have been undertaken by in-house employees. Many large companies distribute some of their processes like payroll processing and call center services to separate companies which specialize in them.Insourcing is the opposite of outsourcing and it involves the transfer of specific processes within an organization’s operational framework to an internal but totally stand-alone unit which specializes only in that particular process. Insourcing is practiced by organizations who wish to have more control of critical processes and is intended to give the organizations a higher probability of instilling required levels of competence in employees or units serving in specific areas of operation. Within the telecommunications framewo rk, outsourcing and insourcing find wide applications.Many companies prefer to contract the services of separate companies which specialize in call center operations to offer customer support. Outsourcing I also used in telecommunications in installation. If a telecommunications company is in the process of installing infrastructure, it will most likely contract a company which deals with installation to offer this service. Outsourcing is the preferred mode of executing processes which do not occur continuously. Insourcing is used to execute telecommunications processes that occur continuously and need to be monitored in real time by the company.These could include network management, billing and sales. I prefer outsourcing since it delegates the responsibility of specialized processes to people who are sufficiently competent in that particular process as they only specialize in it. Outsourcing minimizes the expenditure incurred in training a specialized unit to perform specific tas ks which could only happen occasionally, and it also leaves the traditional workforce in an organization with ample time to deal with other priorities. The firm does not need to cater for employee benefits of the people assigned these tasks.

An Introduction to Marxist Economic Theory

An Introduction to Marxist ECONOMIC THEORY Ernest Mandel 2 An IntroductIon to MArxIst EconoMIc ) was the most influential exponent of Marxist economic theory in the Western world during the second half of the 20th century, and is best known for his masterful two-volume work Marxist Economic Theory (1962) and his brilliant Late Capitalism (1972).In the former, he demonstrated that it was possible, on the basis of the contemporary data, to reconstitute the whole economic system of Karl Marx 100 years after the first publication of Marx’s Capital. In the latter work, Mandel provided an explanation of the causes of the 20-year â€Å"wave† of rapid growth of the world capitalist economy after World War II, which also demonstrated that it would soon be followed by an indeterminately â€Å"long wave† of much slower economic growth, and recurrent social and political crises in the developed capitalist countries.Late Capitalism also provided the first comprehensive analys is of the new features of global capitalism that emerged in the post-war period and that are still with us today — transnational corporations as the dominant form of capitalist business organisation, the enormous growth of the services sector, the crucial role of state expenditure in propping up an economic system marked by financial instability, long-term stagnation punctuated by speculative booms, mindless consumerism and accelerating environmental destruction.This pamphlet, which was first published in French in 1964, provides a concise exposition of the elementary princples of Marxist economic theory. In the first section, Mandel elucidates the basic categories of Marx’s economic doctrine from the emergence of the social surplus product to the labour theory of value. In the second section, he explains the basic laws of motion of capitalism and its inherent contradictions.In the final second, he applies these to some of the new features exhibited by the new stage of imperialist capitalism that emerged after the second world war, which at the time he termed â€Å"neo-capitalism†. In his more mature work Late Capitalism, Mandel abandoned this term in favour of the designation â€Å"late capitalism†, explaining in the introduction to 4 An IntroductIon to MArxIst EconoMIc thEory that work that the designation â€Å"neo-capitalism† could be falsely â€Å"interpreted to imply either a radical continuity or discontinuity with traditional capitalism†.Instead, Mandel stressed that the â€Å"era of late capitalism is not a new epoch of capitalist development [but] merely a further development of the imperialist, monopoly-capitalist epoch† with â€Å"the characteristics of the imperialist epoch enumerated by Lenin† at the beginning of the 20th century remaining â€Å"fully valid for late capitalism†.? I. thE thEory of VAluE And surplus VAluE In the last analysis, every step forward in the history of civili sation has been brought about by an increase in the productivity of labour.As long as a given group of men barely produced enough to keep itself alive, as long as there was no surplus over and above this necessary product, it was impossible for a division of labour to take place and for artisans, artists or scholars to make their appearance. Under these conditions, the technical prerequisites for such specialisation could not possibly be attained. socIAl surplus product As long as the productivity of labour remains at a level where one man can only produce enough for his own subsistence, social division does not take place and any social differentiation within society is impossible.Under these conditions, all men are producers and they are all on the same economic level. Every increase in the productivity of labour beyond this low point makes a small surplus possible, and once there is a surplus of products, once man’s two hands can produce more than is needed for his own sub sistence, then the conditions have been set for a struggle over how this surplus will be shared. From this point on, the total output of a social group no longer consists solely of labour necessary for the subsistence of the producers.Some of this labour output may now be used to release a section of society from having to work for its own subsistence. Whenever this situation arises, a section of society can become a ruling class, whose outstanding characteristic is its emancipation from the need of First presented at an educational weekend organised by the Paris Federation of the United Socialist Party in 1963 and subsequently published in Les Cahiers du Centre d’Etudes Socialistes, February 1964. 6 An IntroductIon to MArxIst EconoMIc thEory working for its own subsistence.Thereafter, the labour of the producers can be divided into two parts. A part of this labour continues to be used for the subsistence of the producers themselves and we call this part necessary labour; the other part is used to maintain the ruling class and we give it the name surplus labour. Let us illustrate this by the very clear example of plantation slavery, as it existed in certain regions and periods of the Roman Empire, or as we find it in the West Indies and the islands of Portuguese Africa starting with the 17th century, on the great plantations which were established there.In these tropical areas, even the slave’s food was generally not provided by the master; the slave had to produce this himself by working a tiny plot of ground on Sundays and the products from this labour constituted his store of food. On six days of the week the slave worked on the plantation and received in return none of the products of his labour. This is the labour which creates a social surplus product, surrendered by the slave as soon as it is produced and belonging solely to the slavemaster.The work week, which in this case is seven days, can be divided into two parts: the work of one day, Sunday, constitutes necessary labour, that labour which provides the products for the subsistence of the slave and his family; the work of the other six days is surplus labour and all of its products go to the master, are used for his sustenance and his enrichment as well. The great domains of the early Middle Ages furnish us with another illustration. The land of these domains was divided into three parts: the communal lands consisting of forest, meadows, swamps, etc. the land worked by the serf for his own and his family’s subsistence; and finally, the land worked by the serf in order to maintain the feudal lord. The work week during this period was usually six days, not seven. It was divided into two equal parts: the serf worked three days on the land from which the yield belonged to him; the other three days he worked on the feudal lord’s land, without remuneration, supplying free labour to the ruling class. The products of each of these two very different types o f labour can be defined in different terms.When the producer is performing necessary labour, he is producing a necessary product. When he is performing surplus labour, he is producing a social surplus product. Thus, social surplus product is that part of social production which is produced by the labouring class but appropriated by the ruling class, regardless of the form the social surplus product may assume, whether this be one of natural products, or commodities to be sold, or money. Surplus value is simply the monetary form of the social surplus product. The Theory of Value and Surplus Value When the ruling class appropriates the part of society’s production previously defined as â€Å"surplus product† exclusively in the monetary form, then we use the term â€Å"surplus value† instead of â€Å"surplus product†. As we shall see later on, however, the above only constitutes a preliminary approach to the definition of surplus value. How does social surpl us product come into existence? It arises as a consequence of a gratuitous appropriation, that is, an appropriation without compensation, by a ruling class of a part of the production of a producing class.When the slave worked six days a week on a plantation and the total product of his labour was taken by the master without any compensation to the slave, the origin of the social surplus product here is in the gratuitous labour, the uncompensated labour, supplied by the slave to the master. When the serf worked three days a week on the lord’s land, the origin of this income, of this social surplus product, is also to be found in the uncompensated labour, the gratuitous labour, furnished by the serf.We will see further on that the origin of capitalist surplus value, that is to say, the revenue of the bourgeois class in capitalist society, is exactly the same: it is uncompensated labour, gratuitous labour, which the proletarian, the wage worker, gives the capitalist without rec eiving any value in exchange. coMModItIEs, usE VAluE And ExchAngE VAluE We have now developed several basic definitions which will be used throughout this exposition. A number of others must be added at this point. Every product of human labour normally possesses utility; it must be able to satisfy a human need.We may therefore say that every product of human labour has a use value. The term â€Å"use value† will, however, be used in two different senses. We will speak of the use value of a commodity; we will also talk about use values, as when we refer, for example, to a society in which only use values are produced, that is to say, where products are created for direct consumption either by the producers themselves or by ruling classes which appropriate them. Together with this use value, a product of human labour can also have another value, an exchange value.It may be produced for exchange on the market place, for the purpose of being sold, rather than for direct consumpt ion by the producers or by wealthy classes. A mass of products which has been created for the purpose of being sold can no longer be considered as the production of simple use values; it is now a production of commodities. The commodity, therefore, is a product created to be exchanged on the market, as opposed to one which has been made for direct consumption. Every 8 An IntroductIon to MArxIst EconoMIc thEory commodity must have both a use value and an exchange value.It must have a use value or else nobody would buy it, since a purchaser would be concerned with its ultimate consumption, with satisfying some want of his by this purchase. A commodity without a use value to anyone would consequently be unsaleable, would constitute useless production, would have no exchange value precisely because it had no use value. On the other hand, every product which has use value does not necessarily have exchange value. It has an exchange value only to the extent that the society itself, in whi ch the commodity is produced, is founded on exchange, is a society where exchange is common practice.Are there societies where products do not have exchange value? The basis for exchange value, and a fortiori for trade and the market place, is constituted by a given degree of development of the division of labour. In order for products not to be directly consumed by their producers, it is essential that everybody should not be engaged in turning out the same thing. If a particular community has no division of labour, or only its most rudimentary form, then it is clear that no reason for exchange exists. Normally, a wheat farmer has nothing to exchange with another wheat farmer.But as soon as a division of labour exists, as soon as there is contact between social groups producing different use values, then exchange can come about, at first on an occasional basis, subsequently on a more permanent one. In this way, little by little, products which are made to be exchanged, commodities, make their appearance alongside those products which are simply made for the direct consumption of their producers. In capitalist society, commodity production, the production of exchange values, has reached its greatest development.It is the first society in human history where the major part of production consists of commodities. It is not true, however, that all production under capitalism is commodity production. Two classes of products still remain simple use value. The first group consists of all things produced by the peasantry for its own consumption, everything directly consumed on the farms where it is produced. Such production for self-consumption by the farmer exists even in advanced capitalist countries like the United States, although it constitutes only a small part of total agricultural production.In general, the more backward the agriculture of a country, the greater is the fraction of agricultural production going for self-consumption. This factor makes it extreme ly difficult to calculate the exact national income of such countries. The second group of products in capitalist society which are not commodities but remain simple use value consists of all things produced in the home. Despite the fact that considerable human labour goes into this type of household The Theory of Value and Surplus Value 9 production, it still remains a production of use values and not of commodities.Every time a soup is made or a button sewn on a garment, it constitutes production, but it is not production for the market. The appearance of commodity production and its subsequent regularisation and generalisation have radically transformed the way men labour and how they organise society. thE MArxIst thEory of AlIEnAtIon You have no doubt already heard about the Marxist theory of alienation. The emergence, regularisation and generalisation of commodity production are directly related to the expanding character of this phenomenon of alienation.We cannot dwell on this aspect of the question here but it is extremely important to call attention to it, since the history of trade covers far more than the capitalist era. It also includes small-scale commodity production, which we will discuss later. There is also a postcapitalist society based on commodities, a transitional society between capitalism and socialism, such as present-day Soviet society, for the latter still rests in very large measure on the foundations of exchange value production.Once we have grasped certain fundamental characteristics of a society based on commodities, we can readily see why it is impossible to surmount certain phenomena of alienation in the transitional period between capitalism and socialism, as in Soviet society, for example. Obviously this phenomenon of alienation does not exist — at least in the same form — in a society where commodity production is unknown and where the life of the individual and his social activity are united in the most elementa ry way. Man works, but generally not by himself; most often he is part of a collective group having a more or less organic structure.His labour is a direct transformation of material things. All of this means that labour activity, the act of production, the act of consumption, and the relations between the individual and his society are ruled by a condition of equilibrium which has relative stability and permanence. We should not, of course, embellish the picture of primitive society, which was subject to pressures and periodic catastrophes because of its extreme poverty. Its equilibrium was constantly endangered by scarcity, hunger, natural disasters, etc.But in the periods between catastrophes, especially after agriculture had attained a certain degree of development and when climatic conditions were favourable, this kind of society endowed all human activities with a large degree of unity, harmony and stability. Such disastrous consequences of the division of labour as the elimin ation of all aesthetic activity, artistic inspiration and creative activity from the act 10 An IntroductIon to MArxIst EconoMIc thEory of production and the substitution of purely mechanical and repetitive tasks were nonexistent in primitive society.On the contrary, most of the arts, music, sculpture, painting, the dance, were originally linked to production, to labour. The desire to give an attractive and appealing form to products which were to be used either by the individual, his family, or larger kinship groups, found a normal, harmonious and organic expression within the framework of the day’s work. Labour was not looked upon as an obligation imposed from without, first of all because it was far less intense, far less exhausting than under capitalism today. It conformed more closely to the rhythms of the human organism as well as to the rhythms of nature.The number of working days per year rarely exceeded 150 to 200, whereas under capitalism the figure is dangerously cl ose to 300 and sometimes even greater. Furthermore, there was a unity between the producer, his product and its consumption, since he generally produced for his own use or for those close to him, so that his work possessed a directly functional aspect. Modern alienation originates basically in the cleavage between the producer and his product, resulting both from the division of labour and commodity production.In other words, it is the consequence of working for the market, for unknown consumers, instead of for consumption by the producer himself. The other side of the picture is that a society which only produces use values, that is, goods which will be consumed directly by their producers, has always in the past been an impoverished society. Not only was it subject to the hazards of nature but it also had to set very narrow limits to man’s wants, since these had to conform exactly to its degree of poverty and limited variety of products.Not all human wants are innate to man . There is a constant interaction between production and wants, between the development of the productive forces and the rise of new wants. Only in a society where labour productivity will be developed to its highest point, where an infinite variety of products will be available, will it be possible for man to experience a continuous expansion of his wants, a development of his own unlimited potential, an integrated development of his humanity. thE lAw of VAluEOne of the consequences of the appearance and progressive generalisation of commodity production is that labour itself begins to take on regular and measurable characteristics; in other words, it ceases to be an activity tied to the rhythms of nature and according with man’s own physiological rhythms. Up to the 19th century and possibly even into the 20th, the peasants in various regions of Western Europe did not work in a regulated way, that is to The Theory of Value and Surplus Value 11 say, they did not work with the same intensity every month of the year.There were periods in the work year when they worked very hard and other periods, particularly during the winter, when all activity virtually came to a halt. It was in the most backward agricultural areas of most of the capitalist countries that capitalist society, in the course of its development, found a most attractive source of reserve manpower, for here was a labour force available for four to six months a year at much lower wages, in view of the fact that a part of its subsistence was provided by its agricultural activity.When we look at the more highly developed and prosperous farms, those bordering the big cities, for example, and which are basically on the road to becoming industrialised, we see that work is much more regular and the amount of expended labour much greater, being distributed in a regular way throughout the year, with dead seasons progressively eliminated. This holds true not only for our times but even as early as the Middle Ages, at least from the 12th century on.The closer we get to the cities, that is to say, to the marketplace, the more the peasant’s labour becomes labour for the market, that is to say, commodity production, and the more regulated and more or less stable his labour becomes, just as if he were working inside an industrial enterprise. Expressed another way, the more generalised commodity production becomes, the greater the regulation of labour and the more society becomes organised on the basis of an accounting system founded on labour.When we examine the already fairly advanced division of labour within a commune at the beginning of commercial and craft development in the Middle Ages, or the collectives in such civilisations as the Byzantine, Arab, Hindu, Chinese and Japanese, certain common factors emerge. We are struck by the fact that a very advanced integration of agriculture and various craft techniques exists and that regularity of labour is true for the countrysi de as well as the city, so that an accounting system in terms of labour, in labour-hours, has become the force governing all the activity and even the very structure of the collectives.In the chapter on the law of value in my Marxist Economic Theory, I give a whole series of examples of this accounting system in work-hours. There are Indian villages where a certain caste holds a monopoly of the blacksmith craft but continues to work the land at the same time in order to feed itself. The rule which has been established is this: when a blacksmith is engaged to make a tool or weapon for a farm, the client supplies the raw materials and also works the blacksmith’s land during the whole period that the latter is engaged in making the implement.Here is a very transparent way of stating that exchange is governed by an equivalence in work-hours. In the Japanese villages of the Middle Ages, an accounting system in work- 12 An IntroductIon to MArxIst EconoMIc thEory hours, in the liter al sense of the term, existed inside the village community. The village accountant kept a kind of great book in which he entered the number of hours of work done by villagers on each others’ fields, since agriculture was still mainly based on cooperative labour, with harvesting, farm construction and stock breeding being done in common.The number of work-hours furnished by the members of one household to the members of another was very carefully tallied. At the end of the year, the exchanges had to balance, that is, the members of household B were required to have given household A exactly the same number of work-hours which members of household A had given household B during the year. The Japanese even refined things to the point — almost 1000 years ago! where they took into account that children provided a smaller quantity of labour than adults, so that an hour of child labour was â€Å"worth† only a half-hour of adult labour. A whole system of accounting was set up along these lines. There is another example which gives us a direct insight into this accounting system based on labour-time: the conversion of feudal rent from one form to another. In feudal society, the agricultural surplus product could take three different forms: rent in the form of labour (the corvee), rent in kind, and money rent.When a change is made from the corvee to rent in kind, obviously a process of conversion takes place. Instead of giving the lord three days of labour per week, the peasant now gives him a certain quantity of wheat, livestock, etc. , on a seasonal basis. A second conversion takes place in the changeover from rent in kind to money rent. These two conversions must be based on a fairly rigorous accounting in work-hours if one of the two parties does not care to suffer a loss in the process.For example, if at the time the first conversion was effected, the peasant gave the lord a quantity of wheat which required only 75 workdays of labour, whereas p reviously he had given the lord 150 workdays of labour in the same year, then this conversion of labour-rent into rent in kind would result in the sudden impoverishment of the lord and a rapid enrichment of the serfs. The landlords — you can depend on them! — were careful to see to it when the conversion was made that the different forms of rent were closely equivalent. Of course the conversion could eventually turn out to be bad one for one of the participating classes, for example, against the landlords, if a sharp rise in agricultural prices occurred after rent was converted from rent in kind to money rent, but such a result would be historical in character and not directly attributable to the conversion per se. The origin of this economy based on an accounting in labour-time is also clearly apparent in the division of labour within the village as it existed The Theory of Value and Surplus Value 13 between agriculture and the crafts. For a long time the division rem ained quite rudimentary.A section of the peasantry continued to produce part of its own clothing for a protracted historical period, which in Western Europe extended almost a thousand years; that is, from the beginning of the medieval cities right up to the 19th century. The technique of making clothing was certainly no mystery to the cultivator of the soil. As soon as a regular system of exchange between the farmer and textile craftsman was established, standard equivalents were likewise established — for example, an ell of cloth [a measure varying from 27 to 48 inches] would be exchanged for 10 pounds of butter, not for 100 pounds.Obviously the peasants knew, on the basis of their own experience, the approximate labour-time needed to produce a given quantity of cloth. Had there not been a more or less exact equivalence between the time needed to produce the cloth and the time needed to produce the butter for which it was exchanged, there would have been an immediate shift i n the division of labour.If cloth production were more lucrative than butter production, the butter producers would switch to producing cloth. Since society here was only at the threshold of an extreme division of labour, that is to say, it was still at a point where the boundaries between different techniques were not clearly marked, the passage from one economic activity to another was still possible, particularly when striking material gains were possible by means of such a change.In the cities of the Middle Ages as well, a very skilfully calculated equilibrium existed between the various crafts and was written into the charters which specified almost to the minute the amount of labour-time necessary for the production of different articles. It is inconceivable that under such conditions a shoemaker or blacksmith might get the same amount of money for a product which took half the labour-time which a weaver or other artisan might require in order to get the same amount of money f or his products.Here again we clearly see the mechanism of an accounting system in workhours, a society functioning on the basis of an economy of labour-time, which is generally characteristic of the whole phase which we call small-scale commodity production. This is the phase intervening between a purely natural economy, in which only use values are produced, and capitalist society, in which commodity production expands without limit. dEtErMInAtIon of thE ExchAngE VAluE of coMModItIEsOnce we have determined that the production and exchange of commodities becomes regular and generalised in a society based on an economy of labourtime, on an accounting system in work-hours, we can readily understand why 14 An IntroductIon to MArxIst EconoMIc thEory the exchange of commodities, in its origins and inherent nature, rests on this fundamental basis of an accounting system in work-hours and consequently follows this general rule: the exchange value of a commodity is determined by the quanti ty of labour necessary to produce it.The quantity of labour is measured by the length of time it takes to produce the commodity. This general definition of the labour theory of value is the basis of both classical bourgeois political economy from the 17th century to the beginning of the 19th century, from William Petty to Ricardo; and Marxist economic theory, which took over the theory of labour value and perfected it. However, the general definition must be qualified in several respects.In the first place, not all men are endowed with the same capacity for work, with the same strength or the same degree of skill at their trade. If the exchange value of commodities depended only on the quantity of labour expended individually, that is, on the quantity of labour expended by each individual in the production of a commodity, we would arrive at this absurdity: the lazier or more incompetent the producer, and the larger the number of hours he would spend in making a pair of shoes, the gr eater would be the value of the shoes!This is obviously impossible since exchange value is not a moral reward for mere willingness to work but an objective bond set up between independent producers in order to equalise the various crafts in a society based both on a division of labour and an economy of labour-time. In such a society wasted labour receives no compensation; on the contrary, it is automatically penalised. Whoever puts more time into producing a pair of shoes than the average necessary hours — an average determined by the average productivity of labour and recorded in the Guild Charters, for example! such a person has wasted human labour, worked to no avail for a certain number of hours. He will receive nothing in exchange for these wasted hours. Expressed another way, the exchange value of a commodity is not determined by the quantity of labour expended by each individual producer engaged in the production of this commodity but by the quantity of labour socially necessary to produce it. The expression â€Å"socially necessary† means: the quantity of labour necessary under the average conditions of labour productivity existing in a given country at a given time.The above qualification has very important applications when we examine the functioning of capitalist society more closely. Another clarifying statement must be added here. Just what do we mean by a â€Å"quantity of labour†? Workers differ in their qualifications. Is there complete equality between one person’s hour of work and everybody else’s, regardless of such differences in skills? Once again the question is not a moral one but has The Theory of Value and Surplus Value 15 o do with the internal logic of a society based on an equality between skills, an equality in the marketplace, and where any disruption of this equality would immediately destroy the social equilibrium. What would happen, for example, if an hour’s work by an unskilled laboure r was worth as much as an hour’s work by a skilled craftsman, who had spent four to six years as an apprentice in acquiring his skill? Obviously, no one would want to become skilled. The hours of work spent in learning a craft would be wasted hours since the craftsman would not be compensated for them after becoming qualified.In an economy founded on an accounting system of work-hours, the young will desire to become skilled only if the time lost during their training period is subsequently paid for. Our definition of the exchange value of a commodity must therefore be completed as follows: â€Å"An hour of labour by a skilled worker must be considered as complex labour, as compound labour, as a multiple of an hour of unskilled labour; the coefficient of multiplication obviously cannot be an arbitrary one but must be based on the cost of acquiring a given skill. It should be pointed out, in passing, that there was always a certain fuzziness in the prevailing explanation of c ompound labour in the Soviet Union under Stalin which has persisted to this very day. It is claimed that compensation for work should be based on the quantity and quality of the work, but the concept of quality is no longer understood in the Marxist sense of the term, that is to say, as a quality measurable quantitatively by means of a specific coefficient of multiplication. On the contrary, the idea of quality is used in the ourgeois ideological sense, according to which the quality of labour is supposed to be determined by its social usefulness, and this is used to justify the incomes of marshals, ballerinas and industrial managers, which are ten times higher than the incomes of unskilled labourers. Such a theory belongs in the domain of apologetics despite its widespread use to justify the enormous differences in income which existed under Stalin and continue to exist in the Soviet Union today, although to a lesser extent.The exchange value of a commodity, then, is determined by the quantity of labour socially necessary for its production, with skilled labour being taken as a multiple of simple labour and the coefficient of multiplication being a reasonably measurable quantity. This is the kernel of the Marxist theory of value and the basis for all Marxist economic theory in general.Similarly, the theory of social surplus product and surplus labour, which we discussed at the beginning of this work, constitutes the basis for all Marxist sociology and is the bridge connecting Marx’s sociological and historical analysis, his theory of classes and the development of society 16 An IntroductIon to MArxIst EconoMIc thEory generally, to Marxist economic theory, and more precisely, to the Marxist analysis of all commodity-producing societies of a precapitalist, capitalist and postcapitalist character. hAt Is socIAlly nEcEssAry lAbour? A short while back I stated that the particular definition of the quantity of socially necessary labour for producing a commod ity had a very special and extremely important application in the analysis of capitalist society. I think it will be more useful to deal with this point now although logically it might belong to a later section of this presentation. The totality of all commodities produced in a country at a given time has been produced to satisfy the wants of the sum total of the members of this society.Any article which did not satisfy somebody’s needs, which had no use value for anyone, would be a priori unsaleable, would have no exchange value, would not constitute a commodity but simply a product of caprice or the idle jest of some producer. From another angle, the sum total of buying power which exists in this given society at a given moment and which is not to be hoarded but spent in the market, must be used to buy the sum total of commodities produced, if there is to be economic equilibrium.This equilibrium therefore implies that the sum total of social production, of the available pro ductive forces in this society, of its available work-hours, has been distributed among the various sectors of industry in the same proportions as consumers distribute their buying power in satisfying their various wants. When the distribution of productive forces no longer corresponds to this division in wants, the economic equilibrium is destroyed and both overproduction and underproduction appear side by side.Let us give a rather commonplace example: toward the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, a city like Paris had a coach-building industry, which together with associated harness trades employed thousands or even tens of thousands of workers. In the same period the automobile industry was emerging and although still quite small it already numbered some scores of manufacturers employing several thousands of workers. Now what is the process taking place during this period? On the one hand, the number of carriages begins to decline and on the other, the number of a utomobiles begins to increase.The production of carriages and carriage equipment therefore shows a trend toward exceeding social needs, as these are reflected in the manner in which the inhabitants of Paris are dividing their buying power; on the other side of the picture, the production of automobiles is below social needs, for from the time the industry was launched until the advent The Theory of Value and Surplus Value 17 of mass production, a climate of scarcity existed in this industry. The supply of automobiles on the market was never equal to the demand. How do we express these phenomena in terms of the labour theory of value?We can say that in the carriage industry more labour is expended than is socially necessary, that a part of the labour expended by the sum total of companies in the carriage industry is socially wasted labour, which no longer finds an equivalent on the marketplace and is consequently producing unsaleable goods. In capitalist society, when goods are unsal eable it means that an investment of human labour has been made in a specific industrial branch which turns out to be socially unnecessary labour, that is to say, it is labour which finds no equivalent in buying power in the marketplace.Labour which is not socially necessary is wasted labour; it is labour which produces no value. We can see from this that the concept of socially necessary labour embraces a whole series of phenomena. For the products of the carriage industry, supply exceeds demand, prices fall and goods remain unsaleable. The reverse is true in the automobile industry where demand exceeds supply, causing prices to rise and under-production to exist. To be satisfied with these commonplaces about supply and demand, however, means stopping at the psychological and individual aspects of the problem.On the other hand, if we probe into the deeper social and collective side of the problem, we begin to understand what lies below the surface in a society organised on the basi s of an economy of labour-time. The meaning of supply exceeding demand is that capitalist production, which is anarchistic, unplanned and unorganised, has anarchistically invested or expended more labour hours in an industrial branch than are socially necessary, so that a whole segment of labour-hours turns out to be pure loss, so much wasted human labour which remains unrequited by society.Conversely, an industrial sector where demand continues to be greater than supply can be considered as an underdeveloped sector in terms of social needs; it is therefore a sector expending fewer hours of labour than are socially necessary and it receives a bonus from society in order to stimulate an increase in production and achieve an equilibrium with social needs. This is one aspect of the problem of socially necessary labour in the capitalist system. The other aspect of the problem is more directly related to changes in the productivity of labour.It is the same thing but makes an abstraction of social needs, of the â€Å"use value† aspect of production. In capitalist society the productivity of labour is constantly changing. Generally speaking, there are always three types of enterprises (or industrial sectors): those which are technologically right at the social average; those which 18 An IntroductIon to MArxIst EconoMIc thEory are backward, obsolete, on the downgrade, below the social average; and those which are technologically advanced and above average in productivity.What do we mean when we say a sector or an enterprise is technologically backward and has a productivity of labour which is below the average? Such a branch or enterprise is analogous to our previously mentioned lazy shoemaker, that is, it is one which takes five hours to produce a specific quantity of goods in a period when the average social productivity demands that it be done in three hours. The two extra hours of expended labour are a total loss, a waste of social labour.A portion of the t otal amount of labour available to society having thus been wasted by an enterprise, it will receive nothing from society to compensate it. Concretely it means that the selling prices in this industry or enterprise, which is operating below average productivity, approach its production costs or even fall below them, that is to say, the enterprise is operating at a very low rate of profit or even at a loss. On the other hand, an enterprise or industrial sector with an above average level of productivity (like the shoemaker who can produce two pairs of shoes n three hours when the social average is one pair per three hours) economises in its expenditure of social labour and therefore makes a surplus profit, that is to say, the difference between its costs and selling prices will be greater than the average profit. The pursuit of this surplus profit is, of course, the driving force behind the entire capitalist economy. Every capitalist enterprise is forced by competition to try to get greater profits, for this is the only way it can constantly improve its technology and labour productivity.Consequently all firms are forced to take this same direction, and this of course implies that what at one time was an aboveaverage productivity winds up as the new average productivity, whereupon the surplus profit disappears. All the strategy of capitalist industry stems from this desire on the part of every enterprise to achieve a rate of productivity superior to the national average and thereby make a surplus profit, and this in turn provokes a movement which causes the surplus profit to disappear, by virtue of the trend for the average rate of labour productivity to rise continuously.This is the mechanism in the tendency for profit rates to become equalised. thE orIgIn And nAturE of surplus VAluE And now, what is surplus value? When we consider it from the viewpoint of the Marxist theory of value, the answer is readily found. Surplus value is simply the monetary form of th e social surplus product, that is to say, it is the monetary form of that part of the worker’s production which he surrenders to the owner of the means of production without receiving anything in return. The Theory of Value and Surplus Value 19 How is this surrender accomplished in practice within capitalist society?It takes place through the process of exchange, like all important operations in capitalist society, which are always relations of exchange. The capitalist buys the labour-power of the worker, and in exchange for this wage, he appropriates the entire production of that worker, all the newly produced value which has been incorporated into the value of this production. We can therefore say from here on that surplus value is the difference between the value produced by the worker and the value of his own labourpower. What is the value of labour-power?In capitalist society, labour-power is a commodity, and like the value of any other commodity, its value is the quanti ty of labour socially necessary to produce and reproduce it, that is to say, the living costs of the worker in the wide meaning of the term. The concept of a minimum living wage or of an average wage is not a physiologically rigid one but incorporates wants which change with advances in the productivity of labour. These wants tend to increase parallel with the progress in technique and they are consequently not comparable with any degree of accuracy for different periods.The minimum living wage of 1830 cannot be compared quantitatively with that of 1960, as the theoreticians of the French Communist party have learned to their sorrow. There is no valid way of comparing the price of a motorcycle in 1960 with the price of a certain number of kilograms of meat in 1830 in order to come up with a conclusion that the first â€Å"is worth† less than the second. Having made this reservation, we can now repeat that the living cost of labour-power constitutes its value and that surplus value is the difference between this living cost and the value created by this labour-power.The value produced by labour-power can be measured in a simple way by the length of time it is used. If a worker works 10 hours, he produces a value of 10 hours of work. If the worker’s living costs, that is to say, the equivalent of his wage, is also 10 hours of work, then no surplus value would result. This is only a special case of the more general rule: when the sum total of labour product is equal to the product required to feed and maintain the producer, there is no social surplus product.But in the capitalist system, the degree of labour productivity is such that the living costs of the worker are always less than the quantity of newly created value. This means that a worker who labours for 10 hours does not need the equivalent of 10 hours of labour in order to support himself in accordance with the average needs of the times. His equivalent wage is always only a fraction of his day’s labour; everything beyond this fraction is surplus value, free labour supplied by the worker and appropriated by the capitalist without an equivalent offset.If this difference did not exist, of course, then no employer would hire 20 An IntroductIon to MArxIst EconoMIc thEory any worker, since such a purchase of labour-power would bring no profit to the buyer. thE VAlIdIty of thE lAbour thEory of VAluE To conclude, we present three traditional proofs of the labour theory of value. The first of these is the analytical proof, which proceeds by breaking down the price of a commodity into its constituent elements and demonstrating that if the process is extended far enough, only labour will be found.The price of every commodity can be reduced to a certain number of components: the amortisation of machinery and buildings, which we call the renewal of fixed capital; the price of raw materials and accessory products; wages; and finally, everything which is surplus value, such as profit, rent, taxes, etc. So far as the last two components are concerned, wages and surplus value, it has already been shown that they are labour pure and simple. With regard to raw materials, most of their price is largely reducible to labour; for example, more than 60% of the mining cost of coal consists of wages.If we start by breaking down the average manufacturing cost of commodities into 40% for wages, 20% surplus value, 30% for raw materials and 10% in fixed capital; and if we assume that 60% of the cost of raw materials can be reduced to labour, then we already have 78% of the total cost reduced to labour. The rest of the cost of raw materials breaks down into the cost of other raw materials — reducible in turn to 60% labour — plus the cost of amortising machinery. The price of machinery consists to a large degree of labour (for example, 40%) and raw materials (for example, 40% also).The share of labour in the average cost of all commodities thus passes suc cessively to 83%, 87%, 89. 5%, etc. It is obvious that the further this breakdown is carried, the more the entire cost tends to be reduced to labour, and to labour alone. The second proof is the logical proof, and is the one presented in the beginning of Marx’s Capital. It has perplexed quite a few readers, for it is certainly not the simplest pedagogical approach to the question. Marx poses the question in the following way. The number of commodities is very great.They are interchangeable, which means that they must have a common quality, because everything which is interchangeable is comparable and everything which is comparable must have at least one quality in common. Things which have no quality in common are, by definition, not comparable with each other. Let us inspect each of these commodities. What qualities do they possess? The Theory of Value and Surplus Value 21 First of all, they have an infinite set of natural qualities: weight, length, density, colour, size, mo lecular nature; in short, all their natural physical, chemical and other qualities.Is there any one of the physical qualities which can be the basis for comparing them as commodities, for serving as the common measure of their exchange value? Could it be weight? Obviously not, since a pound of butter does not have the same value as a pound of gold. Is it volume or length? Examples will immediately show that it is none of these. In short, all those things which make up the natural quality of a commodity, everything which is a physical or chemical quality of this commodity, certainly determines its use value, its relative usefulness, but not its exchange value.Exchange value must consequently be abstracted from everything that consists of a natural physical quality in the commodity. A common quality must be found in all of these commodities which is not physical. Marx’s conclusion is that the only common quality in these commodities which is not physical is their quality of bei ng the products of human labour, of abstract human labour. Human labour can be thought of in two different ways. It can be considered as specific concrete labour, such as the labour of the baker, butcher, shoemaker, weaver, blacksmith, etc.But so long as it is thought of as specific concrete work, it is being viewed in its aspect of labour which produces only use values. Under these conditions we are concerning ourselves only with the physical qualities of commodities and these are precisely the qualities which are not comparable. The only thing which commodities have in common from the viewpoint of exchanging them is that they are all produced by abstract human labour, that is to say, by producers who are related to each other on a basis of equivalence as a result of the fact that they are all producing goods for exchange.The common quality of commodities, consequently, resides in the fact that they are the products of abstract human labour and it is this which supplies the measure of their exchange value, of their exchangeability. It is, consequently, the quality of socially necessary labour in the production of commodities which determines their exchange value. Let us immediately add that Marx’s reasoning here is both abstract and difficult and is at least subject to questioning, a point which many opponents of Marxism have seized upon and sought to use, without any marked success, however.Is the fact that all commodities are produced by abstract human labour really the only quality which they have in common, apart from their natural qualities? There are not a few writers who thought they had discovered others. In general, 22 An IntroductIon to MArxIst EconoMIc thEory however, these have always been reducible either to physical qualities or to the fact that they are products of abstract labour. A third and final proof of the correctness of the labour theory of value is the proof by reduction to the absurd. It is, moreover, the most elegant and most à ¢â‚¬Å"modern† of the proofs.Imagine for a moment a society in which living human labour has completely disappeared, that is to say, a society in which all production has been 100% automated. Of course, so long as we remain in the current intermediate stage, in which some labour is already completely automated, that is to say, a stage in which plants employing no workers exist alongside others in which human labour is still utilised, there is no special theoretical problem, since it is merely a question of the transfer of surplus value from one enterprise to another.It is an illustration of the law of equalisation of the profit rate, which will be explored later on. But let us imagine that this development has been pushed to its extreme and human labour has been completely eliminated from all forms of production and services. Can value continue to exist under these conditions? Can there be a society where nobody has an income but commodities continue to have a value and to be s old? Obviously such a situation would be absurd. A huge mass of products would be produced without this production creating any income, since no human being would be involved in this production.But someone would want to â€Å"sell† these products for which there were no longer any buyers! It is obvious that the distribution of products in such a society would no longer be effected in the form of a sale of commodities and as a matter of fact selling would become all the more absurd because of the abundance produced by general automation. Expressed another way, a society in which human labour would be totally eliminated from production, in the most general sense of the term, with services included, would be a society in which exchange value had also been eliminated.This proves the validity of the theory, for at the moment human labour disappears from production, value, too, disappears with it. II. cApItAl And cApItAlIsM cApItAl In prEcApItAlIst socIEty Between primitive society founded on a natural economy in which production is limited to use values destined for self-consumption by their producers, and capitalist society, there stretches a long period in human history, embracing essentially all human civilisations, which came to a halt before reaching the frontiers of capitalism.Marxism defines them as societies in which small-scale commodity production prevailed. A society of this kind is already familiar with the production of commodities, of goods designed for exchange on the market and not for direct consumption by the producers, but such commodity production has not yet become generalised, as is the case in capitalist society. In a society founded on small-scale commodity production, two kinds of economic operations are carried out.The peasants and artisans who bring their products to market wish to sell goods whose use value they themselves cannot use in order to obtain money, means of exchange, for the acquisition of other goods, whose use value i s either necessary to them or deemed more important than the use value of the goods they own. The peasant brings wheat to the marketplace which he sells for money; with this money he buys, let us say, cloth. The artisan brings his cloth to the market, which he sells for money; with this money he buys, let us say, wheat.What we have here, then, is the operation: selling in order to buy . C ommodity—Money—Commodity, C —M—C w hich has this essential character: the value of the two extremes in this formula is, by definition, exactly the same. But within small-scale commodity production there appears, alongside the artisan and small peasant, another personage, who executes a different kind of economic operation. Instead of selling in order to buy, he buys in order to sell. This type of person goes to market without any commodities; he is an owner of money.Money cannot be sold; but it can be used to buy, and that is what he does: buys in order to sell, in order to resell: M—C—M’. There is a fundamental difference between the two types of operation. The 24 An IntroductIon to MArxIst EconoMIc thEory second operation makes no sense if upon its completion we are confronted by exactly the same value as we had at the beginning. No one buys a commodity in order to sell it for exactly the same price he paid for it. The operation â€Å"buy in order to sell† makes sense only if the sale brings a supplementary value, a surplus value.That is why we state here, by way of definition. M’ is greater than M and is made up of M+m; m being the surplus value, the amount of increase in the value of M. We now define capital as a value which is increased by a surplus value, whether this occurs in the course of commodity circulation, as in the example just given, or in production, as is the case in the capitalist system. Capital, therefore, is every value which is augmented by a surplus value; it therefore exists not only in ca pitalist society but in any society founded on small-scale commodity production as well.For this reason it is necessary to distinguish very clearly between the life of capital and that of the capitalist mode of production, of capitalist society. Capital is far older than the capitalist mode of production. The former probably goes back some 3000 years, whereas the latter is barely 200 years old. What form does capital take in precapitalist society? It is basically usury capital and merchant or commercial capital. The passage from precapitalist society into capitalist society is characterised by the penetration of capital into the sphere of production.The capitalist mode of production is the first mode of production, the first form of social organisation, in which capital is not limited to the sole role of an intermediary and exploiter of non-capitalist forms of production, of small-scale commodity production. In the capitalist mode of production, capital takes over the means of produ ction and penetrates directly into production itself. orIgIns of thE cApItAlIst ModE of productIon What are the origins of the capitalist mode of production?What are the origins of capitalist society as it has developed over the past 200 years? They lie first of all in the separation of the producers from their means of production. Subsequently, it is the establishment of these means of production as a monopoly in the hands of a single social class, the bourgeoisie. And finally, it is the appearance of another social class which has been separated from its means of production and therefore has no other resources for its subsistence than the sale of its labour-power to the class which has monopolised the means of production.Let us consider each of these origins of the capitalist mode of production, which are at the same time the fundamental characteristics of the capitalist Capital and Capitalism 25 system as well. First characteristic: separation of the producer from his means of pr oduction. This is the fundamental condition for existence of the capitalist system but it is also the one which is generally the most poorly understood. Let us use an example which may seem paradoxical since it is taken from the early Middle Ages, which was characterised by serfdom.We know that the mass of peasant-producers were serfs bound to the soil. But when we say that the serf was bound to the soil, we imply that the soil was also â€Å"bound† to the serf, that is, he belonged to a social class which always had a base for supplying its needs, enough land to work so that the individual serf could meet the needs of a household even though he worked with the most primitive implements. We are not viewing people condemned to death by starvation if they do not sell their labour-power.In such a society, there is no economic compulsion to hire out one’s arms, to sell one’s labour-power to a capitalist. We can express this another way by stating that the capitalist system cannot develop in a society of this kind. This general truth also has a modern application in the way colonialists introduced capitalism into the African countries during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Let us look at the livin

buy custom Small Business essay

buy custom Small Business essay Small businesses are easy to start and develop as compared to large ones. A business is said to be small depending on various factors, which differ from one country to the other. In the U.S., a business is regarded as small if it has less than 500 employees. Other criteria are asset, sales and annual profits. They are vital to any countries economy through providing employment, revenue among others. The following paper is a description of the concepts, general terms and statistics of small business. It also outlines the benefits the small businesses have on the economy. I will refer to the U.S economy throughout this paper. Small Businesses A small business is a business in which ownership and operation are privately managed, and whose sales volume is relatively low. Whether a business is small, is usually determined by the number of employees, which are the same time ranges from one country to the other. In the U.S., companies with less than 500 employees are classified as small businesses. Other criteria for small business classification are net profit, assets and sales. A study in the US by Small Business Administration (SBA), indicated that 99.9% of businesses in the U.S operate with less than 500 employees, qualifying them as small businesses. Small businesses in the U.S. are quite influential in job creation nd innovation. Characteristics of small businesses Spirit of entrepreneurship- Optimism, motivation, enthusiasm and desire to succeed, characterize small businesses owners. Most are not scared about taking risks. This could be attributed to the amount of money invested as compared to large businesses. There are also favorable legislation in place which encourages the establishment of small businesses. Managerial skills- Leading, planning, organizing, controlling major business activities define management. Small business owners in most cases mostly possess only one of the managerial skills. Managerial skills are limited, especially in important areas of the business such as sales and marketing, finance, insurance, technical, and production. Funding- Small businesses suffer from limited funding, yet they need money for maximization of opportunities through financing growth. This could be attributed to lack of collateral, with securing an unsecured loan from banks being almost impossible. Benefits of small businesses to the economy Small businesses provide many job opportunities, especially due to the low skills required. In US, for instance, small businesses have employed more than half of employees in the private sector. They can be more productive relatively and can, therefore, compete with large firms in offering decent jobs. Small businesses have created more than 60% of jobs per year for the last one decade. This could be attributed to the ease of setting up a small business, with little capital needed, also cheap labor. 50% of non farm private Gross Domestic Product has been created by the small businesses. These businesses are also employers to more than 41% of high-tech workers like engineers and scientists. 45% of the total payroll of the US private sector is paid by small businesses. These businesses have their shortcomings too, the major one being lack of proper business plans. A business plan enables one to roll out the plan and strategize wisely before start a business. There are also numerous requirements from the government authorities before one set out for the business venture. The major hurdle, though, is financing the businesses. Most banks prefer to give loans to businesses that are already developed, because, as such, they have collateral. Small businesses do not have a property to give out to the banks as collateral. Conclusion Small businesses are vital to the economies of many countries, especially the developed ones. They provide employment and generate revenue contributing to the GDP. In US, for instance, small businesses generate more than half of non-farm, private gross domestic product. Buy custom Small Business essay

Eisenhower Doctrine Definition and Analysis

Eisenhower Doctrine Definition and Analysis The Eisenhower Doctrine was an official expression of U.S. foreign policy delivered to a joint session of Congress by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on January 5, 1957. Eisenhower’s proposal called for a more proactive economic and military role on the part of the United States in the increasingly tense situation threatening peace in the Middle East at the time. Under the Eisenhower Doctrine, any Middle Eastern country being threatened by armed aggression from any other country could request and receive economic assistance and/or military assistance from the United States. In a â€Å"Special Message to the Congress on the Situation in the Middle East,† Eisenhower tacitly pointed to the Soviet Union as the most likely aggressor in the Middle East by promising the commitment of U.S. forces â€Å"to secure and protect the territorial integrity and political independence of such nations, requesting such aid against overt armed aggression from any nation controlled by international communism.† Key Takeaways: Eisenhower Doctrine Adopted in 1957, the Eisenhower Doctrine was a key aspect of U.S. foreign policy under the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.The Eisenhower Doctrine promised U.S. economic and military combat assistance to any Middle Eastern country facing armed aggression.The intent of the Eisenhower Doctrine was to prevent the Soviet Union from spreading communism throughout the Middle East.   Background The rapid deterioration of stability in the Middle East during 1956 greatly concerned the Eisenhower administration. In July 1956, as Egypt’s anti-Western leader Gamal Nasser established ever-closer ties to the Soviet Union, both the U.S. and the United Kingdom cut off their support for the construction of the Aswan High Dam on the Nile River. In response, Egypt, aided by the Soviet Union, seized and nationalized the Suez Canal intending to use ship passage fees to fund the dam. In October 1956, armed forces of Israel, Britain, and France invaded Egypt and pushed toward the Suez Canal. When the Soviet Union threatened to join the conflict in support of Nasser, its already delicate relationship with the United States crumbled. Israeli Tanks Occupy Gaza During Suez Canal Crisis of 1956. Hulton Archive / Getty Images Though Israel, Britain, and France had withdrawn their troops by early 1957, the Suez Crisis left the Middle East dangerously fragmented. Regarding the crisis as a major escalation of the Cold War on the part of the Soviet Union, Eisenhower feared the Middle East could fall victim to the spread of communism. In the summer of 1958, the Eisenhower Doctrine was tested when civil strife- rather than Soviet aggression- in Lebanon drove Lebanese president Camille Chamoun to request U.S. assistance. Under the terms of the Eisenhower Doctrine, nearly 15,000 U.S. troops were sent to put down the disturbances. With its actions in Lebanon, the U.S. confirmed its long-term commitment to protecting its interests in the Middle East. Eisenhower Foreign Policy President Eisenhower brought what he called a â€Å"New Look† to U.S. foreign policy, emphasizing the need to respond to the spread of communism. In that context, Eisenhower’s foreign policy was greatly influenced by his staunch anti-communist Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. To Dulles, all nations were either part of the â€Å"Free World† or part of the communist Soviet bloc; there was no middle-ground. Believing that political efforts alone would not stop Soviet expansion, Eisenhower and Dulles adopted a policy known as Massive Retaliation, a scenario in which the U.S would be prepared to use atomic weapons if it or any of its allies were attacked.  Ã‚   Along with the threat of communist expansion in the region, Eisenhower knew the Middle East held a large percentage of the world’s oil reserves, which were badly needed by the U.S. and its allies. During the 1956 Suez Crisis, Eisenhower had objected to the actions of U.S. allies- Britain and France, thus establishing the U.S. as the lone western military power in the Middle East. This position meant that America’s oil security was more at risk should the Soviet Union succeed in imposing its political will in the region.   Impact and Legacy of the Eisenhower Doctrine The Eisenhower Doctrine’s promise of U.S. military intervention in the Middle East was not universally embraced. Both Egypt and Syria, supported by the Soviet Union, strongly objected to it. Most of the Arab nations- fearing Israeli â€Å"Zionist imperialism† more than Soviet communism- were at best skeptical of the Eisenhower Doctrine. Egypt continued to accept money and arms from the U.S. until the Six-Day War in 1967. In practice, the Eisenhower Doctrine simply continued the existing U.S. commitment of military support for Greece and Turkey pledged by the Truman Doctrine of 1947. In the United States, some newspapers objected to the Eisenhower Doctrine, arguing that the cost and the extent of American involvement were left open-ended and vague. While the doctrine itself did not mention any specific funding, Eisenhower told Congress he would seek $200 million (about $1.8 billion in 2019 dollars) for economic and military aid in both 1958 and 1959. Eisenhower contended that his proposal was the only way to address the â€Å"power-hungry communists.† Congress voted overwhelmingly to adopt the Eisenhower Doctrine. In the long run, the Eisenhower Doctrine failed to succeed in containing communism. Indeed, the foreign policies of future presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, and Reagan all embodied similar doctrines. It was not until December 1991 that the Reagan Doctrine, combined with economic and political unrest within the Soviet bloc itself, brought the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. Sources The Eisenhower Doctrine, 1957. U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian.Foreign Policy Under President Eisenhower. U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian.Elghossain, Anthony. When the Marines Came to Lebanon. The New Republic (July 25, 2018).Hahn, Peter L. (2006). Securing the Middle East: The Eisenhower Doctrine of 1957. Presidential Studies Quarterly.Pach, Chester J., Jr. Dwight D. Eisenhower: Foreign Affairs. University of Virginia, Miller Center.

Androids History

Apps can be downloaded from third-party sites or through online stores such as Google Play (formerly Android Market), the app store run by Google. In June 2012, there were more than 600,000 apps available for Android, and the estimated number of applications downloaded from Google Play was 20 billion. Android became the world’s leading smart phone platform at the end of 2010. For the first quarter of 2012, Android had a 59% smart phone market share worldwide. At the half of 2012, there were 400 million devices activated and 1 million activations per day. Analysts point to the advantage to Android of being a multi-channel, multi-carrier OS. HISTORY: Android, Inc. was founded in Palo Alto, California, United States in October 2003 by Andy Rubin,Rich Miner Nick Sears and Chris White to develop. Google acquired Android Inc. on August 17, 2005, making Android Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of Google. VERSION HISTORY: Android has been updated frequently since the original release of Astro, with each fixing bugs and adding new features. Each version after Astro and Bender is named in alphabetical order. List of Android version code names: ? Android consists of a kernel based on the Linux kernel 2. 6, with middleware, libraries and APIs written in C and application software running on an application framework which includes Java-compatible libraries based on Apache Harmony. Android uses the Dalvik virtual machine with just-in-time compilation. The main hardware platform for Android is the ARM architecture

Gone With The Wind Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Gone With The Wind - Research Proposal Example A good example of copyright issue that raised much debate is the relationship between Gone With The Wind (GWTW) and The Wind Done Gone (TWDG). Hence, this research will evaluate the copyright issues surrounding the conflict between GWTW and TWDG with reference to fair use and transformative elements. Research Question Does the re-write GWTW in the form of TWDG amounts to infringement of the copyright laws, and if so, does it violate the freedom of speech? Significance/ Discussion The significance of this research is to evaluate, and eventually understand the issues surrounding copyright laws. This is because copyright laws have certain exceptions, such as if the re-write of a given literary text is a satire or parody. No doubt, there are inadequate copyright laws that are effective in protecting the rights and creativity of the original authors. The big argument is that if the laws were stricter then they would violate the right to freedom of speech. According to Thampapillai in the article, The Novel as Social Satire: 60 Years Later, the Wind done Gone and the Limitations of Fair Use, the exceptions that parody or satire based re-writes do not amount to infringement promotes the freedom of speech that allows individuals to write what they think (Thampapillai). However, in some cases the copyright and freedom of speech may conflict, begging the question of which one should take precedence. This may take into account the utilitarian theory, which would advocate for the side that results in maximum benefits. For instance, it supports protection because it preserves the creativity of the authors. In the case of GWTW, Randall’s TWDG delivers the slavery story airbrushed by GWTW whereby it brings the accounts through a slave’s perspectives. Furthermore, the text draws some information from GWTW, which makes it re-write the GWTW story in a better way. Therefore, the aim of this research is to evaluate the relationship between GWTW and TWDG with regard t o copyright laws and all its related issues. The research will use several factors to evaluate in order to prove infringement or not. These factors include nature of the copyrighted work, effect on the potential market, and amount of suitability and finally use is for nonprofit educational nature or for commercial nature. These will help in evaluating whether the re-write in the case of GWTW amounts to infringement. Literature review In this research, I will present my arguments about copyright laws and issues surrounding using six texts or sources. In the first source, An Empirical Study of US Copyright Fair Use Opinions, Beebe explores the public perceptions on fair use and the copyright law in general. I will use this source to in my research to draw information on the status of copyright law of fair use with regard to the perspective of the public (Beebe 584). The main point of research will be whether fair use is beneficial of harmful to the literary industry, and how it can be regulated. This source will also provide information that I will use to compare the copyright law in the United States and that of Australia. The second source that I will use in the research is, â€Å"Free Speech and Intellectual Value†, an article by Bollinger, in which he explores the issue of free speech in relation to copyright law that my limit free speech (438). It will help me in understanding how promotion of free

Dawn Spray Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Dawn Spray - Term Paper Example The main customers of the spray will be individuals who disregard bad odors coming from their hair after exposing to indecent occasions. The spray will cover all types of gender rating from women to men despite their age and color or race. However, women are the vulnerable group that expose themselves to bad odors during cooking or during other occasions that expose their hair to contamination. The spray contains different scents that suit different customers depending on their preferences. The spray will be available in mango, strawberry, apple, jojoba, apricot, sweet almond, and menthol scents. With the varied scents, customers assure themselves of healthy and fresh hair free from bad odor. The business plan of the dawn spray involves five divisions, which include marketing structure, advertising structure, competition, constraints, and supplies. With such plan, the business plan will develop its journey to better achievement. Dawn spray will be the epitome of sprays production in the country. However, such greater aspirations do not depend on the existence of other spray producing companies. Dawn spray’s success will depend on the cost effectiveness and production strategies. The market platform for the dawn spray comprises of youthful individuals of age between 18 and 35 years. The specified market platform exists because most youthful individuals despise bad odor from their hair. In most cases, they value their hair than anything else. Such individuals will be part of the major market base of the spray. Additionally, youthful individuals carry the stem of trending activities in the world. Making them as the key buyers of the product will initiate a chance to know what they really want. In most cases, youths tend to copy their friends styles and fashions. Once one youth buys a spray, other youths will copy, and it will become a worldwide product within a short period (Micheaux, 2000). Additionally, the company will focus on teens of age between

Outline macro journal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Outline macro journal - Essay Example They obtained more than five hundred information pieces in relation to the background of students, as well as the facilities and resources available in their schools (Heyneman & Loxley 1163). Data was collected from Uganda from sixty-one primary schools spread across five districts and three urban areas of Kampala, Mbale, and Jinja through primary leaving examination performances, inventories of facilities by the principals, and questionnaires (Heyneman & Loxley 1166). In El Salvador, they selected 595 schools based on their location and number of students after which they tested 50% of the students in these schools in social studies, math, and science. They also collected data from Bolivia, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Paraguay, and Brazil under the ECIEL auspices, obtaining information on attitudinal characteristics and background. Data from Egypt included school quality and achievement information and was collected from 1.250 students in 5th and 6th grade attending sixty schools picked at random. Finally, they also collected data from Botswana with regards to reading and math comprehension for 3rd, 5th, and 7th grade students, as well as inventories on facilitie s, principals, and teachers (Heyneman & Loxley 1168). Due to the similarity of each study’s design, the authors examined societal differences at varying economic development levels. Comparing the studies that they got their data from raised several concerns regarding the achievement tests’ intent, the test questions’ content, the sample populations, administration of the studies, and the sample representation (Heyneman & Loxley 1169). In their own methodological procedures, their country samples involved some five hundred independent measures of education. 300 experts in 18 countries using 14 languages in 10,000 institutions with 260,000 students and 50, 000 teachers, carried out the data they used. 45 items in the questionnaire referred to the opportunity for students