Law of Maximum Profit

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The law of maximum profit was a temporary theorem of Marxism-Leninism . This law was developed by Josef Stalin , which he formulated for the first time in his 1952 book " The Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR ". In the course of de-Stalinization , the law disappeared from the official ideology of the Eastern Bloc .

definition

According to the opinion of the time, the law of maximum profit constitutes the basic law of modern capitalism . Stalin wrote:

“The most important features and requirements of the basic economic law of modern capitalism could be formulated roughly as follows: Securing the capitalist maximum profit through the exploitation, ruin and impoverishment of the majority of the population of the given country, through enslavement and systematic plundering of the peoples of other countries, especially the backward countries , and finally through wars and the militarization of the national economy, which serve to secure maximum profits. "

Reason

According to this law, the achievement of maximum profit becomes an objective necessity for the individual capitalists in order to guarantee the expanded reproduction of their capital, since the average profit - and also the extra profit - is no longer sufficient for the following 7 reasons:

  1. Even the issue of shares cannot raise the sums of capital that are necessary for the establishment of modern large-scale enterprises.
  2. Due to the sudden development of capitalism, which is expressed in the law of the unevenness of the economic and political development of the capitalist countries , the moral wear and tear of production facilities increases sharply, which have to be renewed more quickly, although they have not yet paid for themselves.
  3. The chronic underutilization of production facilities as a result of the population's lack of purchasing power reduces profits.
  4. High circulation costs as a result of capitalist competition (advertising, stock market speculation, trading agencies, corruption) of up to 50% inhibit profit.
  5. The periodic economic crises reduce profit.
  6. The police function of the state and the costs of the existence of social democracy and the trade unions to suppress the class struggle weigh on taxes and thus on profits.
  7. The bourgeoisie's parasitic luxury consumption weighs on profits.

The means to generate the maximum profit are as follows:

  1. Increase in exploitation
  2. Targeted ruin and impoverishment of the small producers of goods
  3. Enslavement and systematic looting of colonies and dependent countries, etc. a. through non-equivalent exchange of goods
  4. Armament
  5. War to conquer sales markets, raw material sources and investment spheres

The category of maximum profit does not mean that every capitalist achieves it, but that it is won in hard disputes among one another. Capitalists who fail to get there are shipwrecked and swallowed up by stronger groups.

literature

  • Richard B. Day : Cold War Capitalism The View From Moscow 1945-1975 . Taylor & Francis 1995.
  • Josef Stalin : Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR . tape 15 , 7. The question of the basic economic laws of modern capitalism and socialism ( stalinwerke.de ).

Individual evidence

  1. Quoted in: Richard B. Day: Cold War Capitalism The View From Moscow 1945-1975 . Taylor & Francis 1995, pp. 120 f. German ( Memento of the original from September 25, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stalinwerke.de
  2. ^ S. Tjulpanow : The basic economic law of modern capitalism . Berlin 1955. p. 26 ff.
  3. ^ Richard B. Day: Cold War Capitalism The View From Moscow 1945-1975 . Taylor & Francis 1995, p. 132 ff.