Wages compensate time but not enthusiasm workers contribute freely

Evidence

My first inkling of such a duality hit me one evening when Mum complained to Dad that, at the fertiliser factory where she worked as a chemist, she got paid for her time but never for her enthusiasm. ‘My wage is crap because my time is cheap,’ she said. ‘My passion to get the right results the bosses get for free!’ — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 65

Categorization

• CANDY: A vivid, humanising anecdote that bites the abstract concept into a memorable moment.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 65
• XREF: connects to: Workers compensated for meaningless rationalized jobs with glittering distractions instead of class consciousness — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 469; Capital raises exploitation by shrinking the paid share of a fixed workday — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 114; The wage only imperfectly reflects the exchange value of labour power — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 790 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• The wage only imperfectly reflects the exchange value of labour power #expands (0.75) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 790