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Capitalism Is Historically Transitory
- Marx frames capitalism as a transitory system that, like slavery and feudalism, is born, evolves, and will pass away.
- He focuses on how societies organize the surplus produced by workers and uses that to argue capitalism can be replaced by a better system.
Surplus Explains Social Allocation
- Every society requires a surplus: workers produce more than they consume so nonworking people (children, sick, elderly) can be sustained.
- The key difference between systems is who appropriates and controls that surplus.
Chair Factory Night Guard Example
- Wolff gives the US example: roughly 155 million in the labor force means about half the population produces surplus to sustain the rest.
- He illustrates appropriation with a chair factory hiring a night guard paid from surplus though he doesn't produce chairs.