A business doesn’t need to profit for there to be surplus-value extraction. Describing profits as unpaid wages helps simplify things, but it creates the impression that only profitable corporations exploit, which isn’t true. In the M-C(mp +L)…P…C’-M’ circuit, the exploitation already happens by P, production, even if commodities C’ cannot actually be sold for M’, or do so slowly.
A business doesn’t need to profit for there to be surplus-value extraction. Describing profits as unpaid wages helps simplify things, but it creates the impression that only profitable corporations exploit, which isn’t true. In the M-C(mp +L)…P…C’-M’ circuit, the exploitation already happens by P, production, even if commodities C’ cannot actually be sold for M’, or do so slowly.