Why is the problem of overproduction frequently occurring in modern society? Why does overproduction cause serious social problems? What does overproduction really mean? If we don't understand this, we won't be able to understand the economic phenomena we are currently facing.
In the agrarian society, our ancestors have always faced a state of material scarcity, which is of course determined by the level of development of the productive forces, in this situation, the vast majority of people can intuitively feel the constraints of nature on us, and economic theories are also based on this normalized scarcity.
However, since we entered the industrial society, overproduction has become the norm in society, and we can certainly understand it as the result of the development of productive forces, but this surplus is by no means a comprehensive absolute surplus, but a structural relative surplus. Only by understanding the basic logic behind structural relative surplus can we understand why overproduction has caused serious social problems and even triggered two world wars.
After our ancestors constructed the basic framework of society, the emergence of the social division of labor divided the entire production process into two dimensions: supply and consumption, and from then on, the purpose of our labor is no longer just for our own needs but to meet the needs of society, and we can achieve a better life by exchanging our labor products in the market.
This is certainly a great revolution that has rapidly distanced us from other higher animals and improved our quality of life.
In modern society, no one can live independently from others, even Thoreau on the shore of Walden Lake and Robinson on the desert island cannot really get rid of the fruits of other people's labor, our common labor will make the world better and better, we can live a better life as long as we strive to improve our own production capacity with our own ingenuity.
However, overproduction breaks all this, which means that the fruits of our hard work may not be cared for and we cannot obtain the means of subsistence we need.
When we understand the concept of economics, we will find the hidden institutional problem, from which someone can withhold part of the labor product of the two sides of the exchange, and if the cost of managing the market is taken into account, if we control these necessary transaction costs within a certain range, it is acceptable and reasonable. This is also where the rationality and necessity of taxation lie after the emergence of classes and states, without which there will be no sustainability, and if this causes chaos in social order, our losses will be even greater.
With the increase of labor surplus, it is becoming more and more difficult for us to intuitively grasp the boundary between the necessary cost and the unnecessary cost of market clearance, when some countries achieve industrialization, the profit space of artificial manipulation of the market may be theoretically extended to infinity if the rights and interests of workers are not considered, which makes the control of social resources become the first priority of almost all economies, and huge benefits** The competition for resources and markets will pull human society back into the savage jungle of Hobbes, and World War II will be inevitable.
After World War II, the competition between countries and nations became a part of the world order, and we can actually see it as a new variant of the form of war, and finance capital became the main source of power for the competition between controlling countriesThe non-worker not only appropriates all the benefits of economic activity, that is, all the surplus value, but also inhumanly deducts the necessary costs paid by the laborer in the labor process.
An economic crisis is inevitable when non-workers are unable to fully consume the products of their labor.
By recognizing this clearly, we will no longer be deceived by some shameless public knowledge, and we will be grateful to those who have made a lot of money from the fruits of our labor, nor will we bow down to the so-called developed countries in the West, while ignoring the vast number of poor friends in Asia, Africa and Latin America around us, who are in fact indispensable labor partners in our pursuit of happiness.