Sales dealing capital: the labor of delivery under the yoke of platform capital

Abstract

Delivery labor has been the subject of a multitude of descriptive articles. Marxian theoretical approaches, on the other hand, have taken for granted that delivery labor is wage labor and that digital platforms represent a new and higher form of real subsumption of labor to capital. The present article restricts its analysis to the delivery of food and grocery shopping. Differently from the mainstream Marxian view, we argue that labor’s revenue accrues not from wages but from an activity of simple commodity circulation, that is the sale of transportation. Platform capital subsumes the first phase of the circuit C – M – C of the deliverer to its own activity as Sales Dealing Capital. Its profits derive not from the exploitation of labor but from a fraction of the profits of restaurants and supermarkets. It is argued, moreover, that the whole process has all the appearances of labor’s exploitation because lower transportation fares increase the size of the market and, thus, platform profits.

Keywords:
Delivery; Labor; Sales dealing capital