this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025
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Supply is the quantity and quality of a commodity. Demand is the want or need of a commodity. Demand is easy to increase or decrease, it's just how many people are asking for the thing. Supply can be increased through increasing quantity or quality, both of which require labor to be performed on raw materials or commodities to turn them into commodities in demand.
This is where Marx comes in. There is a discrepancy in capitalism between supply and demand, because prices should change based on where they intersect. This doesn't happen, which caused Marx and Engles to ask "why?" The conclusion is the labor done to increase supply isn't being compensated correctly. This missing piece for when demand goes up while supply goes down but the price doesn't change is profit. That's where profits are coming from.
What capitalist and their economists don't like is disregarded. They say Marxist analysis is wrong because of the claim profit is the stolen intersection between supply and demand. This doesn't solve the contradiction, however, so they come up with "models" and woo-woo mysticism to try and explain the discrepancy. These models and predictions aren't accurate because if they were, they could predict what happens in the stock market, making a lot of money.
Marx correctly identified the underlying problem why supply & demand don't line up like they should, but this means capitalists are stealing from their workers. Capitalists don't want to admit this, so you'll see them making all kinds of wild claims to explain away the contradictions.