Socialist Sonnet No. 112

 Value

 

A nail or a nuclear reactor.

Each is a product of human labour,

Raw materials transformed by neighbour

And neighbour into something rather more

Useful than ore and unharnessed energy.

Both are products of all the work required

In their making. Workers only being hired

For rather less than whatever may be

The value they create, the difference,

When the total value is divided,

Is taken by those who have provided

The means whereby work works its immense

Power to create. Though those means come through

Workers previously creating their value.

 

D. A.