Meerwaardigheid

Meerwaardigheid is a term with historical roots, primarily associated with the economic and social theories of Karl Marx. It describes the surplus value created by a worker beyond the value of their labor power, which is the cost of maintaining the worker. In Marxist economics, profit is seen as arising from this surplus value, which is appropriated by the capitalist. The worker is paid a wage that covers their subsistence needs, but the value they produce during their working hours exceeds this wage. This excess value is the "meerwaarde" or surplus value.

Marx argued that this surplus value is the source of capitalist exploitation. The capitalist invests capital in the means of production and labor power. Through the labor of the workers, new value is created. A portion of this new value is returned to the worker in the form of wages, while the remainder is kept by the capitalist as profit. This profit, according to the theory, is essentially unpaid labor. The intensity of labor, the length of the working day, and the productivity of labor are all factors that can influence the amount of meerwaarde generated. The concept is central to understanding Marx's critique of capitalism and his theory of class struggle.