Who made your breakfast today?

 

By Steve Halpern

Recently I’ve been listening to the Marxist Professor David Harvey. Harvey used to introduce the students in his class to Marxism by asking the question: “Who made your breakfast today?” 

This sounds like a strait forward question that shouldn’t be difficult to answer. We all have an idea of what the answer to this question is, but we rarely, if ever, discuss the entirety of that answer. So, let’s take a look at who made our breakfast today.

We might reflexively say that we made our breakfast in the kitchen, or had it in a restaurant, or food truck, or on the run. Then, I have to ask: Who made those kitchens, and how did that food get into those kitchens? 

Well, there were factory workers who made the refrigerators, ovens, microwaves, and toasters. Then, there were the farm workers who picked the crops, and food processing workers who packaged the food. Then, there were the transport workers who brought that food to market. 

In order for all of this to happen, there needs to be electrical power plants. Those power plants run on fuel provided by coal miners, uranium workers, or natural gas workers. All these workers need food, clothing, housing, and health care. Education is necessary so people will have all the skills necessary to carry out all these tasks. 

During the winter, there is a lot of food that comes from other countries. Crude oil is shipped on supertankers from around the world. Then, you might say that you would like a cup of coffee.

In 1987 I spent a month in Nicaragua on a coffee plantation. This is only one of the coffee plantations from all over the world that provide us with our morning brew. 

Before the Sandinistas took power in Nicaragua, the workers on that plantation never saw a light bulb. The bathrooms were outhouses, and the people had no direct access to water. Wood needed to be collected every day, so there would be fuel to cook. In the month I spent on this plantation, three children died of easily preventable diseases. In the world, the United Nations estimates that 30,000 children die every day of preventable diseases.

Why don’t we think about who makes our breakfast?

So, looking at these facts, we might say: Well, we care about our families and friends. The workers who perform all those tasks receive a wage, and we all pay for our breakfast. So, why think about the million or more workers who toil every day to make sure we have breakfast?

We can begin to answer that question with two of the architects of the capitalist system, David Ricardo and Adam Smith. Both Smith and Ricardo supported the “labor theory of value.” This theory argues that all wealth is derived from human labor. Both Ricardo and Smith profited from this system and didn’t have a problem with it.

Then, Karl Marx took a look at this labor theory of value. Marx didn’t look at this theory from the viewpoint of the profiteers, but from the viewpoint of the workers. Looking at this theory from this perspective, Marx noticed a clear problem.

Marx argued that there is use value and then there is exchange value. Use value is the money paid to workers to produce a commodity. Exchange value is the price we pay for that same commodity. Marx noticed that there is a big difference between these two forms of value. As a result, many workers struggle to survive, while capitalists routinely possess obscene amounts of money.

So, when we look at the labor theory of value in this way, we see a clear problem. In order to change the relationship between capitalists and workers, there needs to be a completely different political economic system. Clearly, writing to government officials will not change the relationship between workers and capitalists. So, the answer posed by the question raised in the labor theory of value is that we all need to become revolutionaries in order to begin to live in a rational society.

Well, the capitalists and their economists in the world did not like that answer. So, they responded to Marx’s analysis of capitalism by not talking about the labor theory of value any more. 

This is one of the reasons who we don’t think about the question of: Who made our breakfast? Thinking about the million or more people who worked to make our breakfast possible has become an abstraction. Even in the most prestigious universities, Nobel Prize winning economists like Milton Friedman will not talk about the question of: Who made your breakfast today? 

Then, there are other facts we might look at. I believe we all need and want eight basic things. These include, food, clothing, housing, transportation, communication, health care, education, and exposure to culture, like music, art, sports etc.… 

In all the major cities of the world there are, what appears to be forests of skyscrapers. Some of the enterprises in those skyscrapers include, banks, insurance companies, advertising agencies, corporate law firms, as well as corporate administrative offices. 

Thinking about those enterprises we might conclude that none of them contribute to the value of those commodities we need and want. You can’t produce food, or clothing, or housing from a desk. Yet when we purchase any commodity, the cost of all those enterprises is factored into the price we pay. This is another difference between the use value and the exchange value.    

Why is this important?

There are many people in the world who encourage us to contribute to charities to aid people who routinely experience poverty. Well, charities have been around for hundreds of years. Yet, today there are 30,000 children of die of preventable diseases every day. There is another problem with that approach.

Today, it is becoming more and more difficult to pay for education, health care, housing, as well as all of our living expenses. On top of this we see routine discrimination with respect to Black people, Latinos, Native Americans, immigrants, and women. These problems are not merely the result of mistaken or insensitive government policies. 

The problem can be traced to that labor theory of value. While working people produce all wealth, a tiny minority of capitalists profit from this system. The government routinely runs the country in a way that will provide capitalists with literally everything they want.

Marx argued that there is only one way to escape from this capitalist trap. That is to put in place a government dedicated to producing goods and services people need and want. Then, we all would know who made our breakfast. Then, we would be doing everything in our power to make sure that all those workers who make our breakfast are treated with the human dignity working people deserve. 

So, the next time someone asks you to support a capitalist politician, or pay an exorbitant price for a commodity, you might ask the question: Who made your breakfast today?