Notes

Capitalistscanalsoincreasetheirrelativesurplusvalue,Thjs.slemsfromincreasingtheproductivityof
labor by instituting time-saving procedures. Witir a decrease in the time and thus the cost of production' a
capitalist is able to produce more goods.that in tum can be sold for a lower price' This will enable him to
undersellhiscompetitorsandcaptur"ulu'g".shareofthemarket.Forinstance,productioneffrciencycan
be improved as capitalists specialize their iabor force by reorganizing workers and the allocation of tasks'
Specialization simplifies a worker's role in the production proc-ess 'o1hut'
rather than performing a variety
of tasks, his contrtution is reduced to on" o. two operations. often this entails adopting an assembly line
systemof-u.r.rf*turingsuchasHenryForddidwhenherevolutionizedtheautomobileindustryinthe
earlytwentiethcentury.However,althoughspecializationincreasesefficiencybyenablingmoreproducts
to be produced in less iime, it also leads to the routinization of labor and the workers'loss of self-fulfilment'
Similarly, in their competition for markets, capitalists can turn to more sophisticated machines and
technology to enable laboiers to produce ,-no..'gooa' in less time' To the extent that mechanized productiondecreasesthenecessarylabortime,sutplusvalueisincreased,alongwiththelevelofworkeralienation and exPloilation'
Althoughamachinemaybeabletorun24hoursaday(anddoesnotneedinsuranceorbathroom
breaks), mechanized production has its costs' In the shorl r'un' it can lead to a reduction in profits' despite
thehighervolumeofproductivity,becausemachinestaketheplaceofworkerswhoarethecapitalists'