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The Capitalist Form of Household Production: Subsidy, Anachronism, or Something Else?
Munro, Kirstin
2025
Abstract
Some Marxists now take for granted the notion that household production represents a necessary subsidy to the capitalist class–and as a consequence, that the commodity labour-power is paid less than its value. This contradicts the position taken by Michael Heinrich in Die Wissenschaft vom Wert, that workers are paid for the commodity labour-power at its value. In his rebuttal of this “subsidy” claim present in much of Marxist Feminism, Heinrich takes a wrong turn when he calls household production “a pre-capitalist relic.” In this response, I show that the capitalist form of household production is not an anachronism because it must include not only domestic labour but also commodities purchased with the wage. This interpretation strengthens Heinrich’s stance that household production is not a subsidy and the purchase of the commodity labour-power by capitalists involves an exchange of equivalents.
Source
Kirstin Munro, "The Capitalist Form of Household Production: Subsidy, Anachronism, or Something Else?" in: "Etica & Politica / Ethics & Politics (2025) XXVII/1", EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, Trieste, 2025, pp. 261-270
Languages
en
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
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