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Labour power (in German: ''Arbeitskraft''; in French: ''force de travail'') is a crucial concept used by Karl Marx in his critique of capitalist political economy. Marx distinguished between the capacity to do work, ''labour power'', from the physical act of working, ''labour''. Labour power exists in any kind of society, but on what terms it is traded or combined with means of production to produce goods and services has historically varied greatly. Under capitalism, according to Marx, the ''productive powers of labour'' appear as the ''creative power of capital''. Indeed, "labour power at work" becomes a component of capital, it functions as working capital. Work becomes just work, workers become an abstract labour force, and the control over work becomes mainly a management prerogative. ==Definition== Marx introduces the concept in chapter 6 of the first volume of ''Capital'', as follows: :"By labour-power or capacity for labour is to be understood the aggregate of those mental and physical capabilities existing in a human being, which he exercises whenever he produces a use-value of any description."〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Economic Manuscripts: Capital Vol. I - Chapter Six )〕 He adds further on that: :"Labour-power, however, becomes a reality only by its exercise; it sets itself in action only by working. But thereby a definite quantity of human muscle, nerve. brain, &c., is wasted, and these require to be restored."〔 A much shorter, to-the-point explanation of labour-power can be found in the introduction and second chapter of Marx's ''Wage Labour and Capital''.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Wage Labour and Capital )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Labour power」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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