A brief analysis of deepening and developing labor and labor value theory
Paper keywords: Deepening and developing labor labor value theory
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Paper abstract: More than a hundred years have passed since the creation of Marx's labor theory of value, and the face of the world has undergone earth-shaking changes. What we are facing now is a brand new international and domestic environment, and our tasks have also undergone fundamental changes. Therefore, Marx’s labor and labor theory of value need development and even more innovation. The new practice of reform and opening up requires deepening the understanding of labor and the labor theory of value, developing labor and the labor theory of value, deepening the reform of the income distribution system, and at the same time, encouraging capital, technology and other production factors to participate in income distribution.
1. The new practice of reform and opening up requires a deepened understanding of labor and the labor theory of value
China is in the transition period from a traditional planned economy to a market economy. At the same time, it is sweeping the world. The wave of technological innovation and knowledge economy is booming. China faces the multiple tasks of reforming and revitalizing its economy and catching up with and surpassing developed countries in the world. Many new situations and characteristics have emerged in economic development that are different from those in the middle of the last century, posing challenges to traditional labor, labor value theory and income distribution theory.
1.1 The living labor content in social products is decreasing day by day. Due to the application and development of mechanization and automation in production, the living labor content contained in unit products, whether material products or immaterial products, has been greatly reduced. On the one hand, the same amount of living labor can today create several, dozens, or even hundreds of times more products than in the past; on the other hand, the same amount of products requires less and less living labor to produce. Wealth and its value are growing. With the extraordinary development of new science and technology and the arrival of the new economic era, this trend will surely be further strengthened.
1.2 The content of social production factors has greatly increased as a result of technological progress and economic development, which has greatly changed the importance of different production factors in production. The traditional "three factors" have been replaced by "many Replaced by "factors", factors that were considered insignificant in the past have gradually become independent production factors and begun to play an important and irreplaceable role. For example, in the past, people regarded labor, capital, and land as the three factors in production. But now, the importance of knowledge, technology, entrepreneurship, information and other factors in production and management is increasing day by day, and they are becoming more and more scarce and expensive, and their role has greatly exceeded the direct labor of workers. It can be seen that contemporary commodity production and economic development have greatly exceeded the scope of the three elements.
1.3 The original meaning of the non-material production sector is accelerating the development of the modern market economy, which will inevitably lead to the increasing upgrading and replacement of the industrial structure, and the industrial structure has an accelerating trend of becoming increasingly sophisticated. This law has caused tremendous changes in the traditional industrial structure. More than a hundred years ago, the material production department-two major departments, namely the I department (the department that produces the means of daily life) and the Nth department (the department that produces the means of production) department), its proportion in the total labor force in contemporary society is increasingly declining. On the contrary, the science and technology industry, information consulting industry, finance and insurance industry, and many non-material production sectors that serve production and life account for an increasing share in the national economy. In Western developed countries, labor in the tertiary industry accounts for 60% to 70% of the total labor force. Since the reform and opening up, China's tertiary industry has also achieved rapid development. In contemporary economic scientific research, the labor of the tertiary industry is recognized as productive labor, which not only creates value, but also creates greater value than the primary industry (agricultural sector) and the secondary industry (processing industry sector).
1.4 The ability of scientific and technological innovation has increasingly become the backbone of competition between countries. Science and technology in the contemporary world are changing with each passing day. The strength of scientific and technological innovation capabilities has become an important indicator of a country's comprehensive national strength.
Regarding the important role of science and technology, "the same amount of labor force, in the same working time, can produce dozens or hundreds of times more products than in the past. Social productivity has such a huge development, labor productivity has such a large improvement What does it rely on to improve? The most important thing is to rely on the power of science and technology." It is in this sense that xxx creatively made an incisive statement that "science and technology are the primary productive forces." Practice has and will continue to prove that the labor of scientific and technological personnel, including not only the labor of natural science workers, but also the labor of social science workers, is a very complex spiritual labor that can create a lot of value, and it is necessary to mobilize the labor of this part of the labor force. Enthusiasm and creativity must rely on stronger incentives and income distribution policies.
1.5 International competition in production and management capabilities between enterprises, led by entrepreneurial talents, has become a concentrated and direct manifestation of competition between countries. A simple and intuitive fact is that the stronger the economy, the more powerful the economy. The more countries a country has, the more excellent companies it has with international competitiveness. Whether a country can have a group of internationally competitive and long-lasting multinational enterprises and enterprise groups, as well as a subsequent large number of innovative and dynamic small and medium-sized enterprises, is crucial to the country's economic development and economic growth. It's important. So, where do such many outstanding enterprises come from? How do they form? Practices at home and abroad, both positive and negative, have repeatedly proven that only by cultivating a large number of outstanding, market-oriented, and innovative enterprises on the basis of continuous innovation in the enterprise system A professional team of entrepreneurs and giving full play to their talents is a reliable and convenient way to form a large number of outstanding enterprises. So, the key question now becomes how to cultivate a team of entrepreneurs. This requires us to fully evaluate and encourage entrepreneurs' management efforts. This is another major choice we face.
2 Develop labor and the labor theory of value, and deepen the reform of the income distribution system
"The world situation is changing with each passing day, especially the rapid development of modern science and technology. The current year is worth the ancient times in the past If we do not inherit and develop Marxism with new ideas and viewpoints in society for decades, centuries or even longer, we are not true Marxist-Leninists. This is the requirement and spur of the times and the people for theoretical researchers. It is the duty of theoretical researchers.
2.1 Theoretical research should broaden the connotation and extension of the category of labor. In Marx’s era, only labor in the material production department and direct labor in the material production department were included. It is completely understandable that service industry labor such as transportation, postal telecommunications and commodity warehousing was regarded as productive labor, because the service industry played an insignificant role in the national economy at that time. However, with the development of science and technology, economy and society. , especially today at the turn of the century, the development of financial, insurance and other service industries has advanced by leaps and bounds, and has become the hub of the national economy; effective government services have received increasing attention and are playing an increasingly important role in promoting economic development; The knowledge economy is beginning to emerge, and the wave of innovation is spreading all over the world; the new economy characterized by knowledge innovation is changing people's production and lifestyle with unprecedented depth and breadth. All this shows the importance of the service industry in the national economy. The nature of labor is increasing day by day. In the definition of productive labor and unproductive labor, we should bravely break away from the fetters and constraints of the narrow definition and scope of the past.
2,2 Promote theoretically. Production factors equally participate in income distribution. Traditional economic theory denies or underestimates the contribution of other factors other than labor in value creation. Although my country's reform practice has made breakthroughs in this regard, it has not established a complete distribution by factors. mechanism, and establish an incentive mechanism that is commensurate with this constraint mechanism. The history of economic development and business operations in various countries around the world has proven that a cheap entrepreneurial system will inevitably lead to high business operating costs, the key of which are gray and black costs. . This also shows that the cheap entrepreneurial system is not cost-effective. "It does not pay attention to material benefits and it works for a few advanced elements. It works for a while but not for a long time."
2.3 We should actively explore incentives and constraints for workers who are difficult to supervise. This group of workers includes not only the above-mentioned scientific and technological workers and entrepreneurs, but also senior civil servants, medical personnel, educators, etc. wait. The human capital of this part of the labor force has been or will undergo long-term or large-scale investment and training. Under the conditions of the market economy, whether they are business managers or scientific and technological researchers, their human capital faces great risks and uncertainty. Certainty. The characteristics of its labor are: it engages in complex intellectual labor, and the production results are mostly knowledge products and service products. The intrinsic quality of its products is difficult to observe; compared with physical labor or simple labor, its level of effort is more difficult to supervise; compared with a person Compared with the laziness and slackness of workers operating machines, their personal laziness and slackness will cause greater and wider social damage. Therefore, in terms of income distribution, they should be given more incentives to enable them to achieve self-supervision and self-motivation to a considerable extent. For example, we should implement the annual salary system and stock option system for senior corporate managers, further implement the patent system and technical shares for scientific and technological personnel, etc. Of course, all of this is inseparable from the norms and constraints of laws and regulations in all aspects of society.
2.4 Establish a system in which "the market mainly manages efficiency and the government mainly manages fairness". "Prioritizing efficiency while taking into account fairness" is my country's income distribution goal. The realization of this goal depends on the establishment of a system where the market mainly manages efficiency. ", the government mainly manages fairness" system, which is the inevitable division of labor and cooperation between the government and the market under the conditions of market economy. Market-oriented economic reform and opening up to the outside world have broken the traditional egalitarian distribution model. The income gap between urban and rural residents, between regions, between industries, and between employees of different ownership types is gradually widening. To a large extent, this is the result of the continuous deepening of the market-oriented reform process and reflects the distribution goal of giving priority to efficiency. Practice has proved that although the market mechanism can regulate and stabilize income levels through the flow of production factors, especially labor factors, between departments and regions, the market mechanism cannot achieve fair distribution of income in essence. Today, when the role of the market mechanism has been fully exerted, it is necessary to establish a system in which "the market mainly manages efficiency and the government mainly manages fairness", using the power and authority of the government to regulate income tax, inheritance tax, and transfer payments. Establish and improve laws and systems such as social assistance and social security to achieve "efficiency first while taking into account fairness", thereby ultimately achieving the socialist goal of "all people are prosperous" that xxx has repeatedly emphasized.
In the era of reform and opening up, theoretical workers shoulder important historical missions, and the rich practice of reform constantly calls for the innovation and development of the theoretical system. However, in our country, due to various reasons, theoretical innovation and development is much more difficult than practical innovation and development, and the road is much more tortuous and long. In this regard, the innovation and development of the traditional labor theory of value is representative. Therefore, deepening the understanding of labor and the labor theory of value will surely push my country's theoretical research to a new realm and new peak.
3 Encourage production factors such as capital and technology to participate in income distribution
Implement a distribution system in which distribution according to work is the main body and multiple distribution methods coexist, and distribution according to work and distribution according to production factors are Combined. Encourage production factors such as capital and technology to participate in income distribution. With the development of productive forces, scientific and technological work and business management, as important forms of labor, play an increasingly important role in social production. Under the new historical conditions, we must deepen our understanding of labor and the labor theory of value. This is a major breakthrough and development of socialist distribution theory.
3.1 The implementation of distribution according to production factors does not violate the labor theory of value. The factors of production refer to all inputs necessary for human beings to engage in production activities, including capital, labor force, technology, entrepreneurial talent, land, information, etc. Distribution according to production factors means that various factors should participate in income distribution and receive corresponding rewards according to the size of their contribution in the production process. Some people believe that according to the labor theory of value, commodity value is uniquely created by human living labor, so the distribution of value should also be carried out among workers.
In fact, the labor theory of value involves the issue of value creation, which belongs to the category of productivity; while distribution according to production factors is a distribution issue, which belongs to the category of production relations. Just like sports athletes, entertainment stars, and state agency staff do not create value, but they participate in distribution. Although some factors of production do not create value, they are essential to the production process, so they must also participate in income distribution. Here, ownership of factors of production is the basis for distribution. Value distribution should not only be seen as a consequence of value creation, but should be understood from the perspective of promoting further value creation. ;