Marx and poverty or the influence of the increase of capital to the working class

• Autor(a) principal: Escurra, María Fernanda
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Textos & contextos (Porto Alegre)
• Texto Completo: https://revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br/ojs/index.php/fass/article/view/31472
• topic: Capitalist accumulation. Surplus population. Theory of pauperization. Law of the tendency.; Acumulação capitalista. População excedente. Teoria da pauperização. Lei tendencial.

The article initially discusses the wide use of the “General Law of Capitalist Accumulation” in studies on poverty from a Marxist perspective, presented by Marx in Chapter XXIII of Capital, vol. I. Such studies seem to consider that in this chapter the specific goal of Marx is to discuss the issue of poverty. Then, the article argues that the Law actually does not consist in a “theory of impoverishment” developed by Marx. In opposition to this rather usual interpretation, it sustains that, after the presentation of the tendency of the law characteristic of the dynamics of capitalism, Marx’s goal in that chapter is to examine the influence that the increase of capital has on the fate of the working class. It should be emphasized that in the explanation put forward by Marx questions relative to life and working conditions are examines in broad terms, so that the analysis is not limited to the concern with possible wage increases or improvements in the quality of life as a result of greater access to consumption within this form of social organization.