Marx finds himself with an economic dilemma ? capitalism and its systematic ability to maintain a profit. With this quandary Marx finds himself with the conclusion that a profit produced by a capitalist system intrinsically relies upon an exploitative relationship between that of the capitalist and the worker.
The labour power produced by the worker is likened to that of a commodity, which like any other commodity on the market can be sold, bought and exchanged ? and like any other commodity, labour power has its very own value.
?The labour [?] that forms the substance of value is homogeneous human labour, expenditure of uniform labour power' (M.461).
According to Marx's theory the worker must create the value of his or labour through hours worked (this idea is induced by a greater scheme of rations for exchange which will be explained later in the essay) and exchange those hours worked, for other commodities with similar hours worked upon, Jonathan Wolff explains this as ?a worker needs a basket of commodities in order to survive' he goes on to explain that what makes up the basket, is fours hours worth of labour, for the worker to be able to obtain this much needed basket, he or she must create the equivalent value of labour.
However a capitalist society does not work on a system in which a worker, labours for what is needed and only that, a worker instead according to Marx hires out his or her own labour like the commodity it is to the capitalist, because of this, a worker, will in reality labour for as long as he or she is contracted to do so.
Therefore the first four hours laboured have created the necessary means for the worker to obtain the goods, i.e. other commodities that will allow him or her to survive, hours after that, ...