Let us take, first of all, the words "proceeds of labor" in the sense of the product of labor; then the
co-operative proceeds of labor are the total social product.
From this must now be deducted: First, cover for replacement of the means of production used up.
Second, additional portion for expansion of production. Third, reserve or insurance funds to provide
against accidents, dislocations caused by natural calamities, etc.
These deductions from the "undiminished" proceeds of labor are an economic necessity, and their
magnitude is to be determined according to available means and forces, and partly by computation of
probabilities, but they are in no way calculable by equity.
There remains the other part of the total product, intended to serve as means of consumption.
Before this is divided among the individuals, there has to be deducted again, from it: First, the general
costs of administration not belonging to production. This part will, from the outset, be very considerably
restricted in comparison with present-day society, and it diminishes in proportion as the new society
develops. Second, that which is intended for the common satisfaction of needs, such as schools, health
services, etc. From the outset, this part grows considerably in comparison with present-day society, and it
grows in proportion as the new society develops. Third, funds for those unable to work, etc., in short, for
what is included under so-called official poor relief today.
Only now do we come to the "distribution" which the program, under Lassallean influence, alone has in
view in its narrow fashion -- namely, to that part of the means of consumption which is divided among
the individual producers of the co-operative society.
The "undiminished" proceeds of labor have already unnoticeably become converted into the
"diminished" proceeds, although what the producer is deprived of in his capacity as a private individual
benefits him directly or indirectly in his capacity as a member of society.
Just as the phrase of the "undiminished" proceeds of labor has disappeared, so now does the phrase of the
"proceeds of labor" disappear altogether.
Within the co-operative society based on common ownership of the means of production, the producers
do not exchange their products; just as little does the labor employed on the products appear here as the
value of these products, as a material quality possessed by them, since now, in contrast to capitalist
society, individual labor no longer exists in an indirect fashion but directly as a component part of total
labor. The phrase "proceeds of labor", objectionable also today on account of its ambiguity, thus loses all
meaning.
What we have to deal with here is a communist society, not as it has developed on its own foundations,
but, on the contrary, just as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect,
economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose
womb it emerges. Accordingly, the individual producer receives back from society -- after the deductions
have been made -- exactly what he gives to it. What he has given to it is his individual quantum of labor.
For example, the social working day consists of the sum of the individual hours of work; the individual
labor time of the individual producer is the part of the social working day contributed by him, his share in
it. He receives a certificate from society that he has furnished such-and-such an amount of labor (after
deducting his labor for the common funds); and with this certificate, he draws from the social stock of
means of consumption as much as the same amount of labor cost. The same amount of labor which he
has given to society in one form, he receives back in another.
Here, obviously, the same principle prevails as that which regulates the exchange of commodities, as far
as this is exchange of equal values. Content and form are changed, because under the altered
circumstances no one can give anything except his labor, and because, on the other hand, nothing can
pass to the ownership of individuals, except individual means of consumption.
