Capital: Critique of Political Economy

Main Ideas

• Theory of Surplus Value: Marx analyzes how capitalists derive profit by exploiting workers' labor, asserting that surplus value is the source of capitalist profit.
• Commodity and Value: Marx investigates the nature of commodities, their value and exchange value, as well as the role of labor in creating value.
• Capital and Its Accumulation: Marx describes the process of capital accumulation and its impact on the economy and society, including the concentration of capital and centralization of production.
• Class Struggle: Marx emphasizes the inevitability of conflict between classes, particularly between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, as the driving force of historical development.
• Commodity Fetishism: Marx introduces the concept of commodity fetishism, explaining how social relations between people take the form of relations between things in a capitalist society.
• Overproduction Crises: Marx analyzes the cyclical economic crises characteristic of capitalism and their causes, such as overproduction and lack of consumption.
• Historical Materialism: Marx applies a materialist approach to historical analysis, arguing that economic structures determine the development of society and its superstructures.