Thread by @420GHz

Superprofits under capitalism aren’t just “big profits.” They are extraordinary gains extracted above the average profit rate, reflecting structural power, monopoly control, and global inequalities. A Marxist lens helps see how wealth concentrates and exploitation persists. 🧵⬇️

2/ Ordinary profits come from surplus value—capitalists paying workers less than the value they produce. Superprofits go beyond that, arising from monopoly power, patents, global labor exploitation, and financial maneuvers. They show the true mechanics of capitalist extraction.

3/ Monopoly power is key. Companies like Apple, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft dominate markets, controlling platforms, IP, and networks. They capture enormous profits while laborers in manufacturing, logistics, or content moderation are underpaid and overworked.

4/ Pharmaceuticals exploit legal monopolies too. Essential medicines like insulin or cancer treatments cost pennies to produce but are sold at astronomical prices. Patents and IP protections allow corporations to extract superprofits from life-saving goods.

5/ Energy and oil companies also generate superprofits. During crises or supply shocks, firms like ExxonMobil or Shell can earn extraordinary returns by controlling access to fossil fuels. These profits aren’t about efficiency—they’re about resource control and global dependency.

6/ Financialization creates another pathway. Hedge funds, investment banks, and private equity extract wealth via speculation, leverage, and debt instruments. Though detached from direct labor, these superprofits still depend on the exploitation inherent in capitalism.

7/ Global supply chains amplify superprofit extraction. Fast fashion brands like H&M, Zara, and Shein pay workers in developing countries subsistence wages while selling garments at massive markups in rich markets. Unequal exchange underpins these extraordinary gains.

8/ The gig economy is a modern twist. Platforms like Uber or DoorDash shift costs and risks onto workers, who remain independent contractors without protections. The companies pocket surplus value from precarious labor, creating new forms of superprofit extraction.

9/ Superprofits aren’t anomalies—they’re structural. They concentrate wealth, deepen inequality, and incentivize expansionist and extractive behavior globally. They reveal capitalism’s contradictions: immense wealth for few, precarity for many.

10/ Marxist analysis helps understand these dynamics. Superprofits are not about innovation or productivity alone—they are about control, exploitation, and systemic power. Recognizing this is key to imagining alternatives based on equity, social welfare, and collective ownership.

11/ From Big Tech to pharmaceuticals, energy, finance, and global supply chains, superprofits show how capitalism sustains itself by concentrating wealth and extracting value from labor worldwide. They are both a symptom and a driver of systemic inequality.

12/ Understanding superprofits equips us to critique the structural mechanisms of capitalism and fight for systemic change. Wealth above the norm isn’t luck—it’s the product of exploitation and structural power.

💡 Final thought: Superprofits aren’t incidental—they are capitalism’s core. They emerge from market control, labor exploitation, and global inequality, revealing the system’s necessity for wealth concentration and injustice.

📢 Engage: Superprofits aren’t just greed—they reveal how capitalism exploits labor, controls markets, and concentrates wealth. Understanding them is the first step to fighting back.

🔍 "Superprofits under Capitalism: Contemporary Manifestations and Exploitation"

Read full article on Substack: futuredude.substack.com/p/superprofits…