Why did Marx say that capitalist exploitation depends on squeezing the surplus value of workers?

Surplus value refers to the difference between the value created by labor and the remuneration of labor among the new values produced by laborers and exploited by the ruling class under the exploitation system, that is, "labor created by laborers and occupied by the bourgeoisie without compensation".

Marx put forward the theory of surplus value, its basic point of view is:

(1) Capitalists earn profits mainly by forcing workers to work longer hours;

(2) Only the living labor of industrial workers can create new value, while other production factors and employees in non-productive industries such as commercial services cannot create new value.

In the early days of capitalism, expanding information was mainly manual labor, and capitalists often used the method of extending working hours to extract more surplus value. In addition, capitalists also extract surplus value by improving the labor intensity of workers.

Increasing labor intensity means that workers spend more labor in the same working day, which is actually equivalent to extending the working day. This is a hidden form of extending the working day.

The minimum limit of working days cannot be less than or equal to the necessary working hours. If there is no surplus labor time to produce surplus value, capital production will cease to exist. Therefore, workers' working days must be longer than necessary.

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