theory

You're now the most powerful Marxist

I remember briefly studying a part of Volume II in uni and being intimidated beyond belief, an unedited, unreleased volume of Capital is always a terrifying thing. I guess this is my signal to pick it up again.

I’m using voicedreamreader to read volume one during breaks at work and I’m finding myself really enjoying it, like it’s something I look forward to now. Basically I’m getting fucked at work, and Marx helps me understand how and why I’m getting fucked at work. Then I sometimes test out his ideas on my lib coworkers to see what they think (while avoiding any triggering language).

I’m particularly fascinated with how surplus value and profit isn’t quite the same thing. I had always assumed they were the same. Also how capitalists constantly try to reduce the prices of their commodities because you get the highest surplus value from being able to sell the largest amounts of cheapest goods. I’m still shaky on this so anyone who wants to should correct me.

I might have skipped the first third of the book (the hard part) but I plan to go back and read it eventually. Then I’ll check out the next volumes…

The angry historical parts that come after the first third are some of Marx’s best writing IMO. In other books he’s always writing like a Hegelian economist I guess (and there’s plenty of that in Capital) but sometimes he writes in a very plain, hilarious, and often furious and biting style that is much easier to understand than usual.

I have been terrified since trying to read it years ago. That you were able to get something out of it has inspired me to try again, thank you

I did some spreadsheet maths to understand some of the reproduction stuff, it did clarify, and also I found some mistakes. Seems like Marx was actually not great at math, lmao.

Vol 3 has more stuff about the credit system, but I think that part was heavily edited, or actually authored by Engels.