Socially necessary labor, based on Marxist economic ideology, is the fundamental source of value. Value is a fraction of the social total. Philosophically essential work reflects the amount of labor needed by a worker who possesses average skills and efficiency, with ordinary tools of production required to produce a given product. The critical aspects of the socially necessary labor are the average level of tools or technologies, the average intensity of work, and ordinary skills and efficiency of production. For instance, if an average worker with average skills, ability, and tools of production takes one hour to produce a commodity while unskilled worker takes two hours to complete the same task, then he would only have created a value worth one hour about socially necessary labor time. In other words, any excess hours, which the unskilled worker takes to produce the commodity, do not contribute any social value.
Marxist views value as a social element and not as a private practice. Thus, the amount can only emanate from people organized into a society. Socially necessary labor aims to summarize the fundamental aspect of value as it relates to labor time captured in terms of social importance and not merely as labor time. Therefore, any effort consumed on private agendas such as hobbies does not add any value under socially necessary labor (Marx 1).
From a capitalist perspective, competitive forces are responsible for determining socially necessary labor within a country through the interaction of the law of market value. The fundamental constituents of socially necessary labor have an element of social value derived from a commodity, which determines the extent of a commodity’s social worth.
Labor expenditure on the average labor power of a society determines the expenditure on socially necessary labor. In this case, the production of a commodity must not exceed the average required by society, as well as socially required (Marx 1). In socialist setup, social labor division must account for social performance based on the earlier developed plans among different areas of an economy. Therefore, any socially necessary labor, which aims to serve a social purpose, relies on a planned law of comparative development of the state economy as the major controller of social production. Thus, the law of development must work in tandem with the primary economic law of socialism, as well as other laws of economics.
The labor of all workers in every socialist venture to which divisions for the production of specific goods are assigned forms a significant constituent of the total social labor power. Thus, during planning, this labor forms a part of the total social labor power of a society. That is, socially necessary labor is important to society and must be utilized in the manufacturing of commodities that people require.
Labor productivity has improved. Consequently, the socially necessary labor needed for a single unit of output has declined, the social value of products has fallen, too, and people now economized their social work. However, in a profit-driven society, a social labor economy can only provide benefits to entrepreneurs. Capitalists must struggle to lower the costs of manufacturing to maximize returns on their investments. On the contrary, socialism economy will increase the production of commodities and services as required by society. Savings on costs of labor from relying on socially necessary work would reduce the social value of goods and result in lower prices for benefits of community.
Works Cited
Marx, Karl. Capital, Volume One. 1999. Web.