surplus

Examples of surplus in the following topics:

• Lenski's Synthesis

  • People who farm for subsistence often have no surplus goods—they consume all of the crops they produce.
  • The crops they produce are surplus goods, traded for economic gain.
  • This new division of labor led to surplus goods and the accumulation of possessions.
  • According to Lenski, inequality is the result of increasing surplus—some individuals will have ownership of surplus goods, others will not.
  • In these societies, there are few surplus goods.

• Societal Development

  • Because hunter-gatherers tend to be nomadic, they generally do not have the possibility to store surplus food.
  • The relationship between surplus and technology may not seem obvious, initially, but surplus is clearly the forerunner of technological development.
  • One additional outcome of surplus that is included in the diagram is inequality.
  • Inequality will be discussed in much greater detail later in this book, but it is important to note that as soon as there is surplus, there will be greater surplus for some people, and some people - as evidenced in most developed societies today - may not have access to enough resources despite the exist of a surplus within the larger society.
  • Those with more surplus have an economic advantage relative to those with less surplus as they have greater bargaining power and in many cases - et voilà, social inequality is born.

• Uses of the concept

  • The two "roles" are defined by the relation between them (i.e. capitalists expropriate surplus value from the labor power of workers).

• The Four Social Revolutions

  • Given that hunter-gatherers tend to be nomadic, they generally cannot store surplus food.
  • In a pastoralist society, there is an increased likelihood of surplus food, which, in turn, often results in greater population densities and the development of both social hierarchies and divisions of labor.

• Capitalism

  • Also during this period, the surplus generated by the rise of commercial agriculture encouraged increased mechanization of agriculture.
  • This difference in values, he argues, constitutes surplus value, which the capitalists extract and accumulate.
  • The extraction of surplus value from workers is called exploitation.
  • In his book Capital, Marx argues that the capitalist mode of production is distinguished by how the owners of capital extract this surplus from workers: all prior class societies had extracted surplus labor, but capitalism was new in doing so via the sale-value of produced commodities.
  • For Marx, this cycle of the extraction of the surplus value by the owners of capital or the bourgeoisie becomes the basis of class struggle.

• The Earliest Cities

  • Agriculture is believed to be a pre-requisite for cities, which help preserve surplus production and create economies of scale.

• Work and Alienation

  • Workers become autonomous, self-realized human beings, but are directed and diverted into goals and activities dictated by the bourgeoisie, who own the means of production in order to extract from workers the maximal amount of surplus value possible within the current state of competition between industrialists.

• Age and Income

  • For about 20 years following that, the Social Security Trust Fund, which is the money that was collected when there was a surplus in tax revenue, will make up the difference in payments.

• Social Security Legislation

  • According to analyses of the program, for about twenty years after 2017, the Social Security Trust Fund, or the amount of money that went into a special fund when there was a surplus in revenue, will make up the difference in payments.

• Social class in America

  • There was not a surplus of goods.
  • This new division of labor led to surplus of goods.