Profit arises from labour’s uncommodifiable experiential dimension

Evidence

For the dual nature of Draper’s labour is writ large in every episode of Mad Men. His bosses would love to be able to purchase his ideas without having to tolerate him lounging around the office half drunk. In the language of the previous chapter, they would jump at the opportunity to buy Draper’s experiential labour directly. Only they couldn’t, even if he wanted to sell it to them. Instead, they are forced to buy his commodity labour (i.e. his time and potential) in the hope that, during his inebriated daze, his genius will spontaneously deliver the famed Draper magic. And when it does, their immense profits confirm once again that capital is born out of the capitalists’ inability to buy experiential labour directly. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 127 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

It is not just labour that has a dual nature. The dominant propaganda today and while I was growing up is that profit is the price, or reward, of a thing called capital, and that people who have capital – such as tools, raw materials, money, anything that can be used to produce saleable goods – make a profit by deploying it, in the same way a worker makes a wage by deploying her labour. But the conclusion that profit results from labour’s contradictory twin natures led me to reject this notion, too. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 75 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

There is another aspect that our class lens clarifies. Profit is driven not only by unpaid wage labor but also by the unpaid labor that takes place outside the company and ensures the physical and psychological well-being of the worker. We are talking about domestic work in the home, like cooking and cleaning and mending, as well as health care and schooling through which workers can build skills used in their jobs. These are essential costs for the healthy maintenance of the workforce, but the capitalist does not have to bear them (and may actually profit from delivering these essential services). — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 106 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Gig-economy liberation rhetoric masks new and deeper labor exploitation — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 225; Profit does not reward capital but results from labour’s dual nature — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 75; Capital profits arise because experiential labour cannot be bought directly. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 127 (+10 more)

Related

• Capital profits arise because experiential labour cannot be bought directly. (similarity 0.94)
• Experiential labour cannot be bought directly, only time and potential can (similarity 0.88)
• Profit arises from labour’s dual commodity-and-experiential nature. (similarity 0.88)
• Profit does not reward capital but results from labour’s dual nature (similarity 0.87)
• Capitalism must keep finding uncommodified experience to profit from (similarity 0.84)
• Employers profit precisely because they cannot buy workers’ experience directly. (similarity 0.83)
• Capitalist profit also depends on unpaid domestic labor (similarity 0.81)
• Human labour contains an uncommodifiable part beyond its market price (similarity 0.81)
• Profit only arises because workers produce more value than they are paid. (similarity 0.80)
• Capitalists profit from unpaid reproductive and domestic labor without bearing its costs. (similarity 0.80)
• Advertising retrieved hidden experiential value and thereby transformed capitalism itself (similarity 0.80)
• Capitalism profits most from labor it never commodifies or pays (similarity 0.79)
• Employers capture surplus from labour they cannot actually buy (similarity 0.79)
• Surplus extraction works identically for skilled and unskilled labour (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Capital profits arise because experiential labour cannot be bought directly. #corroborates (0.95) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 127
• Profit does not reward capital but results from labour’s dual nature #corroborates (0.92) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 75
• Capitalist profit also depends on unpaid domestic labor #expands (0.82) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 106
• Domestic labor is unwaged exploitation essential to reproducing capital #expands (0.80) — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 123
• Attention itself constitutes productive labor that generates value #exemplifies (0.72) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 148