Outline of the New Capital (Dialogue between Dr. Qingquan Ma and Marx)

Author: Ma Qingquan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: In the 1980s, human society entered the knowledge economy era in the sense of world history. The essence of the knowledge economy era lies in the application of knowledge products in the direct production process becoming a characteristic phenomenon. It also lies in knowledge, due to its surpassing importance in economic growth, becoming an independent factor of production, alongside labor and capital, and thus a fundamental category in political economy. The basic argument of this book is that the value contribution of labor in creating knowledge products is not measured by the direct expenditure of general human labor, but by the amount of social labor that the knowledge product can release through its direct or indirect application in the social production process. In other words, it equals the amount of general human labor spent by society in producing a certain material product before the knowledge product was created, minus the labor required to produce the same quantity of homogeneous products after its application. This is the amount of social labor saved by the application of the knowledge product. Put simply, the value created by labor in producing material products equals the value it adds directly to the total social labor, which is equivalent to the amount of socially necessary labor time it liberates in the total social labor. The knowledge-based economy is a rational and harmonious society; in such a society, there exist three types of factors of production—knowledge, labor, and capital—as well as the corresponding three basic social classes. Starting from the theory of the value of knowledge products, this book conducts a political economic analysis of various incomes and their sources in the knowledge economy, defines the reasonable boundaries of the ownership claims of the owners of each factor of production on the surplus product, and describes a new microeconomic organizational structure in the knowledge-based economy. The author hopes that the main content of this book will serve as a valuable exploration in developing Marx's labor value theory and researching future socio-economic theories.