relation to their competitors in these same spheres, or in other spheres, who produce without these technological time-save advantages. As Marx states,“ in the same way, a manufacturer who makes use of a new discovery before this has become general sells more cheaply than his competitors and yet still sells above the individual value of his commodity, [ capitalizing on ] … the higher productivity. He thus realizes a surplus profit”[ 71 ]. Subsequently, due to the fact that, according to Marx, value cannot be created in exchange, i. e. in the realm of circulation, but only redistributed there; and due to the fact that value is only scientifically quantifiable value, meaning that total value is a given sum and no more, ultimately means that where there is superior profits in turn somewhere else there is inferior profits. Exchange and scientifically quantifiable value means that the distribution of profits and, in general, social capital are finite sums, distributed through win / lose exchanges, where there are definitive losers and winners in relation to how much each individual, entity and / or sphere receives, pertaining to available profits and, in general, the available finite sums of value, labor-power and social labor-time available.
According to Marx,“ it is the rate of profit that is the driving force in capitalist production, and nothing is produced save what can be produced at a profit”[ 72 ]; as a result, the higher the profit in a sphere of production, i. e. the higher the rate of profit, the higher is production and the amount of capital investment in this sphere. On the other hand, the lower the profit in a sphere of production, i. e. the lower the rate of profit, the lower is production and the amount of capital investment in this sphere. This process, for Marx, is one of equalization, where according to Marx, production is govern by the rate of profit: the higher the profit rate, the more capital investment, the more capital investment, the more growth, the more growth, the greater the cost of production, the greater the cost of production, the less is the profit and the rate of profit, due to rising levels of constant capital, which, ultimately results in capital withdrawals from the sphere of production in favor of another, more profitable, sphere. As Marx states,
The competition between capitalists [ for bigger profits and a bigger slice of pie ]… which is itself this movement of equalization— consists here in their withdrawing capital bit by bit from those spheres where profit is below the average for a long period, and similarly injecting it bit by bit into spheres where it is above this.[ 73 ]
The result is increasing stagnation in spheres where profits and the rates of profit are low, in relation to the general average profit, and increasing productive-animation in spheres where profits and the rates of profit are high. Notwithstanding, as increasing production and capital investments augment in super profitable spheres, driving production costs up, there is simultaneously a slowing down process in rising profits in these spheres, which eventually results in super-profits and high rates of profit leveling-out, decreasing and eventually falling below their initial prices of production. Even with the implementation time-saving and cost-saving-technology, surplus profits cease“ as soon as the exceptional manner of production becomes universal”[ 74 ], in the end, resulting in greater and greater equalization between production prices, profits and profit rates within and between all spheres of production.
According to Marx, this fundamental capitalist process, where capitalists, in their never-ending search for surplus profits, withdraw capital“ from a sphere with a low rate of profit and [ deposit it in ] others that yield higher profit”[ 75 ], results in“ the constant migration, the distribution of capital between the different spheres according to where the profit rate is rising and where it is falling”[ 76 ]. This fundamental capitalist process eventually creates general equalization among all the spheres of production, where, according to Marx, this“ produces a relationship between supply and demand such that the average profit is the same in [ all ] the various … spheres [ of production ]”[ 77 ]. Specifically, general equalization sets-in across all spheres of production, where the insatiable capitalist search for megaprofits itself, pressured by the underlying law of value, manages“ to reduce the profit rate everywhere to the same common and general level”[ 78 ].