Capitalists maintain and increase their wealth because once they have the money they can make investments, they can have everything. It’s like a loop so they would buy whatever they need for their business and when they get more money they improve everything else, this makes them gain more wealth as time goes by. They have their business, with good improvements, after this they profit more than what they started with. This keeps on going and keep their wealth

1. M-C-M’ [Money – Commodity – Money’], or as the author Pierre Jalee refers to it in “How Capitalism Works,” the general formula of capital, is the formula by which capitalists maintain and grow their wealth.

In a system without capitalists, markets function on a C-M-C [Commodity – Money – Commodity] formula. That is, the laborer creates a good or “commodity” to sell for money which is then exchanged for other needed commodities. In this case, money exists primarily as a representation of the value of their sold goods. The laborer is not seeking to amass money so much as they are looking to trade their labor for the labor of others; currency simply enables the indirect trade of goods and services.

Capitalists invert the formula, using their existing money (M) to purchase or produce commodities (C) that they then sell for more money than they had previously, recognized as M’. This profit is generated by the exploitation of labor in the production of the commodities. By leveraging their existing wealth to control the means of production, and thereby the livelihood of the worker, they are able to purchase the labor power of the worker at a rate favorable to them. The capitalist then benefits off the surplus value of the worker’s labor power. That is to say, the worker generates more value for the capitalist than they are paid for their labor. M’ can also be expressed as M + m, where m represents the surplus value of the labor generated by their investment of capital.

In order to be successful and maintain their wealth, the capitalist must continuously receive more from their investments than they put in, enough to sustain their own needs and, ideally, to grow the amount of capital available for future investments.

M-C-M′ means that a capitalist will start with money and uses it to buy things needed to make products, including labor power. The products are then sold to get more money than they started with. The extra money is the surplus value created through the workers labor. By doing this process consistently, capitalists can continue making more money and increase their wealth. 

The means of production are the things people use to make products, like machines, tools, buildings, and land. For example a restaurant’s kitchen and cooking equipment are means of production. Labor is the work people do to make a product or provide a service. For example, a cook’s work in a restaurant is labor. Value means how much something is worth. Something can have value because people spend time and effort making it. Labor and value are connected because workers help create value through their work.

Labor is the actual work a person does. Labor power is a person’s ability to work. For example a person’s ability to work at a store is their labor power while the work they actually do at the store is their labor.

Surplus value is the extra value created by workers that is not given back to them as wages. For example a worker may help a business make more money than the amount the worker receives in pay. Surplus value is important because it helps us understand the relationship between workers and business owners.

As Pierre Jalée explains in “How Capitalism Works,”

the difference between the formulas is from what I understand is that In the simple formula, you sell what you make to buy what you need. In contrast, in the capitalist M-C-M, the main difference is that products are bought to be sold at a higher price than what was paid. The capitalist does not make the product simply, because they have money, they buy the products and the work of others to resell them for more money to the customers and keep the profit, or surplus value. This profit comes from exploiting the workforce, which produces more value than what they receive in their pay. To increase absolute surplus value, the capitalist makes the workday longer. A very clear example today in 2026 is the debate about reducing the workweek from 5 to 4 days: people want to work fewer days, but the capitalist system resists because it does not want to lose production hours.

On the other hand, in relative surplus value, the capitalist gives the worker better machines so they can increase productivity and make the products faster. However, the capitalist does not reduce their time or pay them more; they have to finish the full shift to generate more profit for the owner and not for the worker.

Nowadays, most first-world and capitalist countries have a strong workforce because people are highly educated, with master’s degrees and PhDs, but struggle to have the physical workforce they need. What is interesting is that when they get this workforce from immigrants, for example, they still do not give them a good quality of life. Even so, these workers do not fight for their rights, and the capitalist keeps winning and making profits.

When Jalée writes about the transformation of money, I also thought that capitalism needs us to reproduce in large numbers. This creates a cycle where our housing, healthcare, and food are also controlled by these capitalist bosses, ensuring they never earn less.

Workers will never earn more even if they work more, surplus value, in this context, is the tool that the capitalist system manages carefully and smartly, controlling the valuable time of surplus labor.

An investor needs their money to double or triple, and they usually do this by investing in machinery, materials, and labor power. I find this dehumanizing because it treats a living, feeling human being as just another resource, trapped in the capitalist system since birth.

When a person grows up and can legally join a company or corporation, they work at least 8 hours, even though according to the author they cover their wage in 4 hours; the other 4 hours are pure profit for the company, and the worker gets nothing extra from it.

1) The first M is the money a capitalist commits at the beginning. They have to buy buildings, machines, equipment and materials in order to produce. But they also need to buy labor power, by getting workers to do labor for them. They pay the workers a wage in exchange for their labor power. Next, the workers produce the commodities, represented by the C. These commodities are then sold. However, the worker only gets paid their wage, no matter how much money is earned. This surplus value is then used to repeat the cycle, which is how capitalists maintain and increase their wealth.

In small‑scale commodity production, Jalee explains the formula CMC: you sell a commodity (C) to get money (M) so you can buy another commodity (C) that you actually need. This is how small producers live. they make something, sell it, and use the money to meet their needs. The goal is use, not profit. In contrast, MCM’ describes capitalist production. Here, someone starts with money (M), buys commodities (C), usually labor power and raw materials, and ends with more money (M). The key is the prime mark (M). It means the capitalist ends with more money than they started with. That “extra” is surplus value, the profit created by workers. Jalee calls M‑C‑M the general formula of capital because it shows that the purpose of capitalist production is not to satisfy needs, but to increase money.

Jalee explains that money becomes capital only when it is used to buy labor power, because labor power can create more value than it costs. Workers are paid for only part of the day and thats for the time needed to reproduce their wage, but they work longer than that. The extra hours they work, which Jalee calls surplus labor, create value that the capitalist keeps as profit. This is how surplus value is extracted. Because capitalists continuously use money to buy labor power and take the surplus created by workers, their money grows and they remain wealthy as a class. Workers, who do not own the means of production, must keep selling their labor power, which keeps them dependent. Buying labor power, extracting surplus labor, and turning it into surplus value is what transforms money into capital and keeps the capitalist class in power.

I understand M-C-M’ as basically how capitalists use the money they already have to make even more money. The first M is the money they start with. They use that money to buy C, which can include things like machines, materials, buildings, and labor power. Then those things are used to make products that can be sold. The last M’ is the money they end up with, and it should be more than what they started with. The reading explains that the difference between M and M’ is the profit, or surplus value. To me, this is how capitalists keep building their wealth: they don’t just make money and stop there. They put that money back into the process so they can buy more, produce more, and sell more. The reading says they can keep putting their money back into circulation, which allows their capital to keep growing. Labor is a big part of this too because workers help create the new value in the products being made. So basically, the capitalist starts with money, uses it to produce something, sells it for more money, and then repeats the process.

The diagram M–C–M′ explains how money can be transformed into capital and used to create more money. The M represents the money a capitalist starts with. That money is then used to purchase C, or commodities, which can include buildings, machinery, raw materials, and labor power. After those commodities are used in the production process and the finished products are sold, the capitalist ends with M′, which represents the original money plus additional money, or surplus value. The reading explains that M′ must be greater than the original M because the purpose of this process is to increase capital rather than simply exchange one item for another. 

This is different from C–M–C, or small-scale commodity production. In that process, a person makes a commodity, sells it for money, and then uses that money to purchase another commodity they need. For example, the reading describes a farmer selling vegetables to buy cloth. The main purpose is consumption rather than increasing wealth. With M–C–M′, the purpose is different because the capitalist begins with money and uses it with the goal of ending with more money than they started with. The process can then be repeated, allowing capital to continue increasing. 

Labor power is especially important to understanding where that additional value comes from. The capitalist purchases a worker’s labor power along with the other things necessary for production. Labor power is different from the actual labor performed because it represents the worker’s ability to work. Once that labor power is put to use, workers can create new value through their work. This leads to surplus labor, which occurs when workers continue producing value after they have already created enough value to account for their wages. The additional value created during that time becomes surplus value, which contributes to the capitalist’s profit.

Overall, I understand M–C–M′ as a cycle that helps explain how capitalists maintain and increase their wealth. They use existing money to purchase what is needed for production, including labor power, and the production process creates commodities that can be sold for more money. Part of the additional value comes from the surplus labor performed by workers. The capitalist can then put that increased amount of money back into the process and repeat the cycle. This is why the reading describes M–C–M′ as the general formula of capital and why labor power and surplus value are so important for understanding the relationship between workers and the capitalist class.

1. MCM‘ shows how capitalist maintain and increase their wealth by using money to make more money. M is the money The capitalist starts with. the capitalist uses this money to buy commodities (C) such as buildings machines, materials, and labor power. These things are used in the production process to create products that can be sold. after the products are sold the capitalist receives M’ which is more money than they originally started with the capitalist can then put that money back into circulation and repeat the process. This allows them to continuously increase their capital and wealth.