Trabajo productivo e improductivo en la

sociedad de la información

Peter Fleissner Economía politica| Universidad tecnológica de Viena (TUW), Austria

Productive and Unproductive Labour in the Information Society

2

Trabajo productivo e improductivo

Contenido1. ¿Qué clase de cosas hay en el

mercado?2. Trabajo

productivo/improductivoa) Adam Smithb) Carlos Marx

3. Como describir un sistema económico por los métodos entrada-salida?

4. Trabajo productivo e improductivo en el marco de Wassily Leontief

5. Trabajo productivo e improductivo en la sociedad de la información

6. Sumario

Content1. What kind of things are on the

market?2. Productive/unproductive labour

a) Adam Smithb) Carlos Marx

3. How to describe an economic system by input-output methods?

4. Productive and unproductive labour within the framework of Wassily Leontief

5. Productive and unproductive labour in the Information society

6. Summary

Productive and Unproductive Labour

Trabajo productivo e improductivo > Peter Fleissner

3Trabajo productivo e improductivo > Peter Fleissner

Objects (commodities)– labour is reified in them, can be accumulated or resold – have value in use for the purchaser – value in exchange for the seller

Processes (services)– consumed in production, cannot be accumulated – have value in use for the purchaser– have a price in the market

Labour-power (potential to work)– consumed in production, cannot be accumulated – result is either object or process – its price: costs of reproduction

1. What kinds of „things“ are available on the market?

4Trabajo productivo e improductivo > Peter Fleissner

There is one sort of labour which adds to the value of the subject upon which it is bestowed: there is another which has no such effect.  The former, as it produces a value, may be called productive; the latter, unproductive labour. The labour of a menial servant, on the contrary, adds to the value of nothing.  Though the manufacturer has his wages advanced to him by his master, he, in reality, costs him no expense, the value of those wages being generally restored, together with a profit ... A man grows rich by employing a multitude of manufacturers: he grows poor, by maintaining a multitude of menial servants”

Smith, Adam (1789): An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book II, Chapter III, Of the Accumulation of Capital, or of Productive and Unproductive Labour, http://www.econlib.org/LIBRARY/Smith/smWN.html

2a. What is productive and unproductive labour?Adam Smith:

5Trabajo productivo e improductivo > Peter Fleissner

Productive labour, in its meaning for capitalist production, is wage-labour which, exchanged against the variable part of capital (the part of the capital that is spent on wages), reproduces not only this part of the capital (or the value of its own labour-power), but in addition produces surplus-value for the capitalist. It is only thereby that commodity or money is transformed into capital, is produced as capital. Only that wage-labour is productive which produces capital. (This is the same as saying that it reproduces on an enlarged scale the sum of value expended on it, or that it gives in return more labour than it receives in the form of wages.  Consequently, only that labour-power is productive which produces a value greater than its own.)

Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Werke (1862-63): MEW 26.1 122ffhttp://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1863/theories-surplus-value/ch04.htm

2b. What is productive and unproductive labour?Karl Marx:

3. Input-output matrix

6Trabajo productivo e improductivo > Peter Fleissner

Zij

sectors (columns)se

ctor

s (r

ows)

1 2 ... j .... n 1

2

i...

..

. ... n

Z =

Zij : commodities of a value of Zij are sold by sector i to sector j(or identically: an amount of Zij is boughtby sector j from sector i)

sum of purchases = sum of sales

for each i:sum of row i = sum of column i

1‘ Z = (Z 1)‘

<- sales of sector i ->

<-

purc

hase

s o

f se

ctor

j ->

7Trabajo productivo e improductivo > Peter Fleissner

Economics transactions (purchases and sales)between n sectors for three groups of goods:Intermediary goods, consumption, and investment

Marxian terminology in terms of labour time:

w = c + n = c + v + m

total value (w) = constant circulating capital (c) + life labour (n) = constant circulating capital (c), variable capital (v), surplus value (m)

Z C SA= + +

Z = A + C + SSplitting Z

8Trabajo productivo e improductivo > Peter Fleissner

Horizontal sums: sales of Vertical sums:sector i of intermediary goods, purchasesconsumer goods and surplus (intermediaryProducts goods and

labour costs) + profits of sector j

Z C SA= + +

Horizontal and vertical sums are equal – the sum of purchases is equal to the sum of sales

S

C

A

Z

+

+

=

9Trabajo productivo e improductivo > Peter Fleissner

Vertical sums: costs of inputs(intermediary goods and labour costs) + profits

Marxian terms: constant capital c + value added n =constant capital c + variable capitalv + surplus value m = value w

Important for Marx‘s concepts:He didn‘t deal with the horizontal sums

Marxian terms: Vertical sums only

S

C

A

Z

+

+

=

c + v +

m =

w

c + n =

w

4. What is productive and unproductive labour?in terms of Wassiliy Leontief:

• Surplus-Matrix S is split into commodities and services.

• There is an essential difference between sectors of commodity production and services:

• Services have zeros in their surplus matrices

commodity-production

services-production

S21 is empty

S22 is empty

S11<>0 S12<> 0

S =

S11 S12

serv

ices

-pr

oduc

tion

com

mod

itypr

oduc

tion

Sur

plus

val

ue

Surplus matrix Spartitioned

Marx: „profit making“productive labour: sum of column > 0unproductive labour:sum of column = 0

Smith: „value creating“productive labour:sum of row > 0unproductive labour:sum of row = 0

commodity-production

services-production

S21 is empty

S22 is empty

5. The role of digital media in the information society

From the point of view of capitalistic economy, live human activities have an intrinsic problem: They can be sold only once, they are volatile and can neither be stored nor accumulated.• A large part of human activities consists in live acts

(speaking, singing, dancing, writing, creating poetry, researching, programming etc). They represent pure use values (in economic language they are services). Many acts of human culture are of this type.

• Information technology is able to transform processes into – either into commodities– or into marketable services

The role of digital media in the information society

Like by a time machine digital media allow to freeze live cultural activities on a large scale and to reify them in a physical object (data carrier). By that they transform use values from a volatile form into a stable material one (e.g. DVD, CD-ROM, HardDisk, Memory chip, USB-Stick etc.)

But digital technology allows also to produce copies of the frozen activities very cheaply and to distribute them world wide via the Internet.

On this basis no market can be established. It is not possible to make profits. To allow this, another innovation is needed ->

The role of the Law in the information society

To enable the establishment of a market and to create full fledged commodities out of volatile services, capitalist countries developed the instrument of the Law and appropriate technologies to restrict the possibility of copying. The EU and the US established legal instruments against breaking copy-protection mechanisms.

By this interaction of technology and laws use values are first reified in digital carriers, second by copy-protection they are transformed into commodities which have also exchange value. By ID Codes, licences, keys etc. each copy is individualized and can be distributed like traditional commodities, as if they were material products.

A large scale global market for digital carriers is enabled, and also a secondary market for freezing and unfreezing technologies (like DVD players, iPod etc).

6. Summary: information society Commercialisation and commodification

outputno marketpersonal activity

marketprofitable activity

goods = material products

processes = services

mobile communication, but also cooking, singing, dancing and working

texts, audios, videos design, software, patents

reification by DICT

commercialisation

commodification

Productive andunproductive labour

Trabajo productivo

e improductivo

fleissner@arrakis.esEconomía politica

TU Wien

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