For any product, the means of production and labor are necessary for its creation. The Means of Production is the tools, body, and talent necessary for the formation of said product. And it can be divided to the Laborers Means of Production and the Capitalist Means of Production. Say, we take the creation of a movie. The Means of Production would look like the vision, script, and even the talent of the director. Capitalistic Production would look like the camera’s used, the stage lights, and even the little clippy board thing, that directors use. These are tools owned by the studio producing and eventually owning the movie. Now, the labor is the work necessary to actually create the product. And this would be the hours it would take the director and crew to actually make the film. As well as all the years it took the director to even know how to operate the camera.
In the video, “Value” is defined and enhanced by the amount of labor that is put into something (though, some usually associate it with price). The work behind something amasses its value. Because its the time that it cost to make it. Through the Theory of Value, where price is the amount of money a service costs, value is the amount of time put into it.
As I stated above, labor and value are related through The Theory of Value. The concept measures the value of a service through the amount of time it would normally take to labor for said service. The two are related, because labor scales value. The more labor something cost, the most the value skyrockets. And the less labor something costs, the more it falls.
The difference between labor and labor power is that labor power is cost it takes to labor. When you go to work, you sell your labor power for the day. And when you require things like food or clothes, that’s how much it costs. Whereas, labor is the actual work, itself.
Surplus Value is profit made over an initial cost. It’s what directly funds capitalism, and allows owners to continue to own, and expand in their owning. The amount of money paid for someones value and labor, is deducted through things like a salary. But, because of the capitalistic means of production being privately owned, everything a worker labors for, is sold. Covering the profit they paid for you, and giving them a surface value that they get to keep. It’s important, because it’s the heart of class conflict. Which is especially poignant in America and American politics. Playing a role in one of the reasons why separate political parties have conflict amongst each other.
Hi Annette, I love the example that you used and how you explained that the means of production can include the tools, body, and talent necessary to create something. I especially liked how you used creating a movie as your example and broke down what the means of production would actually look like. Even mentioning something as simple as the little clippy board thing that directors use was perfect because it shows that the means of production can include all of the different tools necessary to create the final product. I also liked how you separated those tools from the actual labor of the director and the crew. The cameras, stage lights, and other equipment are necessary to make the movie, but you still need the workers to actually use those tools and put in the work to create it. I think your example made the difference between the means of production and labor really easy to understand.