# Marx's Key Insight: Capitalism's Surplus

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/economic-update-with-richard-d-wolff-216633/marx-s-key-insight-capitalism-s-surplus
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/economic-update-with-richard-d-wolff-216633/marx-s-key-insight-capitalism-s-surplus.md
Podcast: [Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff](https://stenobird.com/podcast/economic-update-with-richard-d-wolff-216633)
Published: 2026-07-05T19:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://economicupdate.libsyn.com/marxs-key-insight-capitalisms-surplus
Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/economicupdate/Economic_Update__Marxs_Key_Insight__Capitalisms_Surplus.mp4?dest-id=398074
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/economic-update-with-richard-d-wolff-216633/episodes/marx-s-key-insight-capitalism-s-surplus
Duration seconds: 1943

## Resource

The central concept of Marx's contribution to a critical understanding of the capitalist economic system - the entry point into his distinctive analysis - is "the surplus." Today's show is devoted to making clear (1) what the surplus is, (2) how and why the surplus is central to understanding capitalism's key features, and (3) how the surplus explains such flaws in capitalism, such as the endless class struggles it provokes and the extreme inequalities of wealth and income it generates.

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## Transcript

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