Questions about unproductive labour in capitalism
Hi all,
Just started vol. 2, and reading marx' description of forms of unproductive labour as labour that is necessary for the capitalist process but does not produce surplus value. This can include salespeople, bookkeepers, managers etc. This makes sense to me in the internal aspects of the individual capital, but am having trouble grasping this on a wider level
For instance, supermarkets. A supermarket operates as a capital, employing wage labour to generate surplus value. However, no commodities are produced, and no value is created, merely a use value essentially equivalent to our aforementioned sales agents whose job is to move commodities thru the market. In this respect, a capital exists without productive labour. Likewise with accountancy firms, employment agencies, universities etc.
Maybe my questions will be answered later in vol. 2, but it doesn't quite make sense to me. Are these businesses not considered capital by Marx? Is the existence of such organizations just an extension of productive capital, acting as a parasite/siphon on value producing firms? Is a society that is majority nonproductive capitals still considered capitalist?
Thanks for any input.