Karl’s Quotes

The worker advances his labour to the capitalist; the capitalist does not advance money. Marx says, " It should be noted here that the capitalist 'advances' the capital laid out on wages, to use the mode of speech peculiar to political economy, for different periods, according to whether he pays wages, by the week, by the month, or every three months. In point of fact, the opposite happens. The worker advances the capitalist his labour for a week, a month, or every three months, according to the intervals at which he is paid. If the capitalist did actually buy labour, instead of simply paying for it later, i.e. if he paid the worker for the day, week, month, or three months in advance, then we could speak of an advance for these periods. But since he pays only after the labour has lasted for days, weeks, or months, instead of buying it and paying for the time it is to last, the whole thing is a capitalist quid pro quo, and the advance that the worker makes to the capitalist in the form of labour is transformed into an advance that the capitalist makes to the worker in money." (Capital, part II, p.295, Penguin Classics edition). Another reason capitalism owes its continued existence to the worker!

For Socialism
John Ayers