The surplus-value produced by prolonging the length of the working-day under the condition that the necessary labor-time is constant. Under the capitalist system, a workers’ working-day are divided into two parts: the necessary labor-time and the surplus labor-time. Under the condition that the necessary labor time is fixed, the lengthening of the working-day will correspondingly increase the surplus labor-time and hence the rate of surplus-value. The longer the surplus labor-time, the more absolute surplus-value is appropriated by the capitalist without compensation. Marx said that the prolongation of the working-day beyond the point at which the laborer would have produced just an equivalent for the value of his labor-power, and the appropriation of that surplus-labor by capital, this is production of absolute surplus-value. It constitutes the general base of the capitalist system, and the starting-point for the production of relative surplus-value…
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