Marx, the Master of Sarcasm and Wit

Δάνειο από το blog  http://mrmetalman1000.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/polemic-in-capital.html?spref=bl

One of the reasons Capital, Vol. 1 is, despite its intimidating subject matter and length, the level of rhetoric used in the argument. Some moments are just plain funny. Examples are abound, but one I recently read deserves mention.


In a section of chapter 24, Marx is criticizing the 'abstinence theory of accumulation': supposedly, the way capitalists convert surplus-value (which is loosely considered as profit, but we're not there yet) into more capital is by not consuming the former, but instead through purchasing more means of production, machinery, labor, etc. This 'abstinence' was considered by bourgeois economists at the time to be a virtue, a reason why a capitalists and his society can prosper. Quoting Courcelle-Seneuil, "conservation of a capital requires a constant effort to resist the temptation of consuming it", Marx retorts:

The simple dictates of humanity therefore plainly enjoin the release of the capitalist from his martyrdom and his temptation, in the same way as the slave-owners of Georgia, U.S.A, have recently been delivered by the abolition of slavery from the painful dilemma over whether they should squander the surplus product extracted by means of the whip from their Negro slaves entirely in champagne, or whether they should reconvert a part of it into more Negroes and more land. (pg. 745)

As though existing social arrangements, along with their respective ills, organized under the logic of capital are merely due to the magnanimous economic leaders of the day. Keep reading.