"accumulation"

JW Mason's recent post links to his 8-page PDF on "how Marxists think about capital and capitalism". This part got my attention right away:

The answer is, capital is an ongoing process where:

• Money is used to acquire tools and raw materials – the “means of production”
• ... and to hire wage labor.
• The hired labor works with the tools and materials
• ... under the direction of the capitalist
• ... to make more goods for sale
• ... with the goal of acquiring more money.

People sometimes think of capital as money, or as machinery, buildings, etc.; but in this perspective it isn’t either of those things.

First reaction: I like it. Mason also writes:

From the list above, we can see that a number of conditions have to come together for capital to exist. First, we need private property and markets. Second, we need wage labor. Third, we need an employer who controls the production process. Fourth, we need goods produced for sale, rather than for the use of the producer. And finally, we need accumulation – the endless pursuit of more money – to be a goal in itself.

And finally, we need accumulation to be a goal in itslf. Yes. That reminded me of something I said:

Job creation was never more than a method which enabled accumulation to proceed.

For Mason, the idea comes from Marx; for me it comes from Adam Smith:

As soon as stock has accumulated in the hands of particular persons, some of them will naturally employ it in setting to work industrious people, whom they will supply with materials and subsistence, in order to make a profit by the sale of their work...

As the cycle of civilization brings us ever closer to the end of the capitalist era, it is important to remember how that era began.