What the market does is merely direct labor and resources into elite control

Evidence

For markets and private property give economic elites a degree of power in the United States comparable to that enjoyed by a state socialist elite through direct political channels. The decisions of U.S. business leaders become operational only insofar as natural resources and labor can be quickly, effectively, and cheaply drawn into their sphere of control. To this end, flexible and responsive markets are necessary in a private ownership econ­ omy, although hardly sufficient in themselves. Finally, the market in labor will not operate when workers have attractive alternatives to wage employ­ ment. The fact that workers do not own the tools and equipment they use and the fact that there is an absence of alternative sources of livelihood in­ sure that most individuals must offer their services through the labor market. — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 604

Categorization

• XREF: Bowles’ labor-market-as-power claim parallels the informal contracting arguments from earlier readings (Milgrom, Bernstein) where institutions substitute for unavailable alternatives. — connects to: Market relations are real yet structurally unable to express the underlying social labor; Market ideology conceals exploitation by making exchange stand in for production; Labor is the commodity whose surplus value is expropriated and realized through market exchange (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Labor is the commodity whose surplus value is expropriated and realized through market exchange #expands (0.82)
• Market relations are real yet structurally unable to express the underlying social labor #expands (0.80)
• Market relations are real yet systematically hide their basis in production #expands (0.80) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 890
• Capitalism’s socialized labor is experienced by individuals as alien market relations #expands (0.78) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 889
• Market ideology conceals exploitation by making exchange stand in for production #expands (0.72)