Class, Productive and Unproductive Labour - Journal of Alternative ...

Class, Productive and Unproductive Labour: Divisions in the Global Working Class?expressed in figure 1.Figure 1 – Distribution of value between spheresIt is theoretically possible to imagine a situation wherebythe middle circle for ‘capitalists’ does not exist, such as if allcompanies were under a form of socialized ownership withall profits to be distributed in the form of wages without anyexpansion to the capital base as depicted in figure 2. Suchan illustration draws out the contradiction between thecirculation/social reproduction spheres and the productionsphere. What is evident is that the less surplus valueextracted from the production sphere, the less value isavailable to compensate the circulation and socialreproduction spheres.Figure 2 – Hypothetical Distribution of Value betweenSpheres if no Capitalist Sphere36