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Marxian critique of political economy |
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Capital is a central concept in Marxian critique of political economy, and in Marxian thought more generally.
Marxists view capital as a social relation reproduced by the continuous expenditure of wage labour. Labour and capital are viewed as historically specific[clarification needed] forms of social relations.[1][2][3][4]
Marx stated that "Capital is dead labour, that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks."[5]
The analysis of the production process as a whole, namely, as a reproduction process, removed the illusion of the autonomy of value, revealing that capital entirely consists of objectified labour. Workers are faced with their own labour, objectified in means of production and of subsistence, which becomes capital, thus recreating the conditions for their exploitation.
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