LABOR-POWER (Marx) : the abstraction of human labor into something that can be exchanged for money. The relation of labor-power to the actual labor of a private individual is analogous the relation of exchange-value to use-value. The system of labor-power relies on the belief that the laborer chooses freely to enter into a contractual relationship with an employer, who purchases that worker's labor power as a commodity and then owns the goods produced by that worker. However, the worker is exploited insofar as he has no other option: the capitalist owns all the means of production. Also, the capitalist seeks to achieve the highest possible rate of surplus-value, which "depends, in the first place, on the degree of exploitation of labour-power" (747). The capitalist seeks to provide the laborer only enough money to subsist and to produce more laborers (through child-bearing).