The Post-Industrial, Post-Modern Theory of Value and Surplus-Value (Deconstructing the Marxist Fetishism of value) | Page 10

etc. and circulating constant capital: materials of production, such as raw and ancillary materials, semi-finished goods, etc. [ Finally ] Just as with the value of any individual commodity, so that of the total annual product of each department also breaks down into C + V + S, [ that is, constant capital plus variable capital plus surplus value, surplus value being the excess surplus created in production via a surplus of unpaid labor. Surplus value is the profit made via the application of constant and variable capital upon each other in production ].[ 29 ]

The two departments are composed of varying sizes of constant capital and variable capital that produce varying sizes of surplus value. Specifically, the two departments are individual composites of c + v + s, which comprise the annual social capital for each individual department; and together, the annual social capital for capitalist society in general.

So, staying true to Marx’ s terminology, our first departmental economic model is described without numbers, and is solely comprised of constant capital( C), variable capital( V) and surplus value produced by workers( S) in a simple straightforward form, i. e., c + v + s equals total value, for each of the two departments. Moreover, both departments added up together form the total annual price, namely the total sum of the social capital produced in a year, where both total price and total value equal one another akin to Marx’ s initial formulation. According to Marx, this is a simple reproduction model, simple reproduction being where“ the surplus value that is periodically produced and realized is consumed individually, i. e. unproductively, by … the capitalist”[ 30 ], meaning that it is not reinvested into the production process so as to develop it. The point of this first departmental economic model is to start small and build towards a more complex economic model. The basic diagram is:

It is important to note that department 1 produces the means of production for both department 1 and department 2, while department 2 produces the means of consumption for both the capitalists and workers in both department 1 and 2, namely, department 2 is in charge of producing the consumer goods slated for consumption by all capitalists and all workers found in both departments. The departments exchange with one another in order to both reproduce and accumulate capital both on a unified social scale and within each of their individual departments. As a result, both department 1 and 2 are central in the reproduction of laborpower and the capital / labor relation at the center of the capitalist modes of production, consumption and distribution. As Marx states,

the capitalist process of production [ comprised of two giant departments ]… seen as a total, connected process, i. e. a process of reproduction, produces not only commodities, not only surplus-value, but produces and reproduces the capital-relation itself; on the one hand the capitalist, on the other the wage-labourer.[ 31 ]

The capital / labor relation is the central pivot from which capital reproduces itself, expands its logic and its exploitive modes of capitalist production, consumption and distribution over labor. Without this core relationship, capital would dissolve due to the fact that, for Marx,“ capital perishes if it does not exploit labor-power”[ 32 ].

All the same, in order to have simple reproduction take place between the two departments, aside from the fact that total value and total price must equalize, the total variable capital of department 1 and 2 combined must equal the total constant capital of department 2, so as to indicate that workers and capitalists