this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2025
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They are both chains occurring in the same economy, but there is a difference.
In other words, C-M-C is performed by the working classes to fulfill their needs whereas M-C-M is performed by the bourgeois to accumulate capital. The second and third panels accurately describe Marx's analysis of C-M-C and M-C-M.
Please note that I'm only commenting on this. I know nothing about the game this post is related to and I'm not commenting on the use of AI.
Except here, M-C-M is described as occurring "Over the sea", it implies that they represent different systems. The only difference between these two systems is the state that "regulates capital". Implying capital is still a thing. Implying the M-C-M cycle also takes place. In the "good" system, and the first explanation of it was misleading and led nowhere. This is still a system where work is a commodity.
M-C-M and M-C-M' are different. The M' adds a profit into the system.
The C in M-C-M is actually hiding C = (I+L) which is adding the labor value to the input goods to create the commodity.
M' changes this formula by setting C = (I+L+P) where profit is introduced. This profit can only be extracted from living labor, since the input commodity already has reified labor value in it and can't be made to change.
So (I+L~real~) = (I+L~wages~+P)
Even though M-C-M implies equivalent labor value exchange, dealing with this relation by nature will create the ground for M-C-M' to arise since there are those in that value chain who don't experience C-M-C primarily, and they will want to extract value from M-C-M. Marx floated the idea of labor tokens, but even fake money can be abused during exchange to extract value from labor.
Yes, exactly this. C-M-C and M-C-M' (which is what the comic says) are not just the same thing from a different perspective. Also, not every economy where commodity production exists is the same. C-M-C and M-C-M obviously predate capitalism by a long time.
Yes, hence Marx saying about M-C-M "Its driving and motivating force, its determining purpose, is therefore exchange-value". How to avoid or mitigate this during the socialist transition is obviously one of the biggest debates of the communist movement.
And what the comic is saying is that the two governments structure their economies around catering for a different one of those two appraoches. You can have M-C-M' and C-M-C occur in the same economy, but the degree to which they each occur is vastly influenced by government and regulation.