Owner or innovator: The attribution and nature of surplus value – A discussion with Professor Samuel Hollander

Abstract

The method of doing research from the abstract to the concrete can throw light on many topics we touch upon and hence our emphasis on it. The capitalists are the personification of productive relations. In modern industrial society, the capitalists not only gain surplus value via their ownership of capital, they also participate in management, supervision, etc., and some of these tasks also create value. Surplus value can be divided into different parts and takes various forms. In the real world, the income of the capitalists comes from many sources; however, in the antagonistic productive relation of capitalism, the plunder of the surplus labor of the working class by the non-productive class via their monopoly of the means of production will never change.

Keywords:

• labor theory of value
• capitalist
• surplus value
• exploitation