Correctly understand and grasp the characteristics and behavior laws of capital

　　The Central Economic Work Conference clearly pointed out that it is necessary to correctly understand and grasp the characteristics and behavior laws of capital. As an important factor of production, a correct understanding and grasp of the characteristics and behavior laws of capital will not only help capital to play a greater, better and more effective role under the socialist system, but also be an inevitable requirement for accelerating the improvement of Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s market economy theory and practice. From the formation background and function mode of capital, the duality that runs through all social production links, such as production, distribution, circulation, consumption and competition, is the fundamental characteristic of capital. To correctly understand and grasp the behavior law of capital should be based on giving full play to the enthusiasm of capital in the five major links and restraining its negativity.

　　From the production link, the expansion of capital has duality, which can not only promote economic growth, but also curb the potential of economic growth.On the one hand, the expansion of capital is an important driving force to improve the level of productivity and promote economic growth. Because it is closely related to the birth and outbreak of the industrial revolution, the capitalist system plays an irreplaceable role in stimulating the enthusiasm of the whole society for production. The fundamental reason for this phenomenon is the large-scale and rapid expansion of capital driven by profit targets, which has greatly released the productivity of the whole society. On the other hand, due to the profit-seeking nature of capital, the expansion of capital in real economic activities is often disordered and over-expanded, which directly leads to the over-commercialization of a large number of industries involving basic people’s livelihood. For example, industries such as medical care, education and old-age care should be public welfare industries in which the government plays a leading role, and their functional orientation is to serve and meet the basic life and development needs of ordinary residents. However, driven by the interests of over-expansion of capital, the functional orientation of these industries to serve the people is alienated to improve economic efficiency as the primary goal. In the long run, the living and production costs of the whole country will greatly increase, and the residents’ happiness will not only decline rapidly, but also the sustainable development potential of the whole country will face a huge impact.

　　From the distribution link, the composition of capital has duality, which not only helps to make a big "cake", but also hinders the reasonable division of "cake"From the material form, capital consists of a certain number of means of production and labor, while from the value form, capital consists of a certain number of constant capital and variable capital, the former is the technical composition of capital and the latter is the value composition. Marx called this relationship between the value composition of capital, which is determined by the composition of capital technology and reflects the change of the composition of capital technology, the organic composition of capital. In the specific production process, in order to pursue as many profits as possible and save themselves and beat their opponents in the fierce competition, capitalists always try their best to improve production technology and adopt new production equipment, which makes the constant capital proportion and organic composition of capital representing technology and equipment show a rising trend, and the production efficiency and final total output will also increase accordingly, which is an important way to make a big cake. However, the increase in the proportion of constant capital means that the substitution effect of machines on labor is enhanced, the overall demand for labor in the production process is gradually decreasing, the dominant position of capital elements in the "cake" link will become stronger and stronger, and the income share of capital elements and labor elements will gradually increase, which will eventually lead to a huge gap between the rich and the poor. As Picchetti put forward in Capital in the 21st Century, because the rate of return of capital factors is higher than the economic growth rate, the free market economy-oriented distribution system will lead to a solidified gap between the rich and the poor. It can be seen that the improvement of the organic composition of capital will not only enlarge the "cake", but also make the share of "cake" tilt to the capital elements and lead to the widening income gap.

　　From the point of circulation, the turnover of capital has duality, which not only helps to expedite the circulation of the economic system, but also leads to excessive virtualization of the real economy.According to Marx’s capital turnover theory, one of the important factors that determine capital profit is the length of production cycle. The longer the production cycle, the longer it takes for capital to complete a single cycle, and the lower the number of cycles that can be realized and the total profit obtained within a fixed period. In this context, capital will reduce the production cycle time by continuously expanding the spatial scope of industrial cooperation, improving the division of labor in different sectors of the industry, and adopting advanced production technology and transportation technology, so as to complete more cycles and obtain more total profits. However, from the essence of capital turnover, the above means can not reduce the production cycle time indefinitely. The fundamental reason is that the decisive factor that determines the length of production cycle time is the proportion of production capital: if the proportion of working objects such as raw materials, fuels and auxiliary materials and working capital used to buy labor force is large in all capital, the production cycle speed will be fast; On the other hand, if the fixed capital ratio used to purchase labor materials such as factories, machines, equipment and tools is significant, the speed of production cycle will be slow. In this context, if capital enters the real industry that needs to invest a lot of fixed capital, no matter what cooperation, division of labor mode and production technology are adopted, compared with the virtual economy industry that hardly depends on fixed capital investment, the number of cycles it can complete and the total profit it gets will be less than that of the virtual economy industry under the same conditions. Therefore, in order to get more profits faster,Of course, we will continue to take effective measures to break the obstruction of the economic system and speed up the economic production cycle, thus reducing the production cycle time. However, the restriction of fixed capital on the decline space of production cycle time will eventually induce capital to choose the development path of "deviating from reality to emptiness"

　　From the consumption link, the accumulation of capital has duality, which will not only provide a class foundation for the popularization of new products, but also inhibit the overall consumption because of reducing the income of most people.In the normal production process, because capitalists can occupy the surplus value created by labor for free and will not put all the surplus value into expanded reproduction, this means that capitalists can easily become the "rich first" class in the whole society. From the historical experience and reality, these groups often play an important role in leading and demonstrating the popularization of new products, which is one of the important power sources of overall consumption. However, because the fundamental purpose of capital accumulation is to grab more surplus value by expanding reproduction, in the context of fierce market competition, capitalists will not only continue to put most of the surplus value obtained into the process of social reproduction, but also improve the organic composition of capital by adopting new technology and equipment, which will make the demand of capital for labor force and the normal wage level of labor force face tremendous downward pressure. It can be seen that although capitalists can ensure or even greatly improve their consumption power by seizing surplus value, the fundamental purpose of capital accumulation and the specific realization path determine that the labor group as the main class of society will fall into the predicament of insufficient income. Obviously, in this case, the consumption promotion share of the capitalists in the absolute minority is not enough to offset the consumption decline share of the workers in the absolute majority, and the consumption scale of the whole society will face the risk of continuous shrinkage and long-term shortage.

　　From the point of view of competition, the concentration of capital has duality, which not only contributes to the perfection of the market economy system, but also leads to a highly monopolistic competition pattern.Different from the process that the growth of a single capital depends on capital accumulation, capital concentration is formed in the competition process of multiple capitals. Through fierce market competition, the capital with higher production efficiency will become bigger and stronger by defeating and annexing the capital with lower production efficiency, while the small and medium-sized capital in a disadvantaged position will jointly fight against the big capital through credit tools. Therefore, in the process of continuous and repeated competition between large and small capitals, fair market competition rules and sound market credit environment will be gradually established and improved, and the institutional system of market economy will become increasingly mature. However, capital concentration will not only occur within the same industry, but also between different industries, which means that big capital will not only pursue the absolute monopoly position within the industry, but even try to achieve monopoly on all industries. Just as Marx pointed out: "In a society, only when the total social capital is merged into the hands of the sole capitalist or the sole capitalist company can concentration reach its limit." Therefore, both the above theoretical analysis and the highly monopolistic competition strategy of big capital in the real world prove that this centralized orientation of capital will distort the market economy pattern of fair competition.

　　Facing the duality that capital runs through all social production links such as production, distribution, circulation, consumption and competition, the general principle should adhere to the principle of "using its advantages and eliminating its disadvantages", and effectively control its negative effects while exerting its positive role as a production factor. Specifically, in the production process, it is necessary to clarify the clear boundary between the government and the market, give capital a high degree of autonomy in the field where the market plays a decisive role, and at the same time set up "traffic lights" for capital to prevent excessive expansion of capital into the people’s livelihood industry; In the distribution link, we should not only encourage the timely and extensive application of advanced technology and equipment, but also speed up the improvement of the minimum wage system, wage growth system and social security system to ensure that the distribution gap of different types of elements can be controlled within a reasonable range; From the point of circulation, it is necessary to speed up the improvement of the tax structure, reduce the tax burden of the real economy, and balance the profit relationship between the real economy and the virtual economy. At the same time, it is necessary to consciously guide and plan the spatial ladder layout of the real industry to avoid the premature and common phenomenon of "deviating from reality to emptiness"; From the consumption link, we should not only allow and encourage the owners of capital elements to lead consumption, but also unswervingly promote the income multiplication plan of middle-income groups, the strategy of expanding domestic demand, and the strategy of housing and not speculating, so as to cultivate healthier domestic demand motivation; From the aspect of competition, we should not only allow and respect the reasonable competition of capital in the market, but also strengthen the effective supervision of capital according to law to prevent capital from choosing the barbaric growth mode of "monopoly for monopoly’s sake".

　　In a word, capital is not the decisive factor to distinguish the socialist system from the capitalist system, but the specific path and final effect of capital will still have an important impact on the quality and success of national development. Therefore, in the process of adhering to and perfecting Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s market economy theory and system, we should fully understand and grasp the duality of capital and guide capital to play a more active, effective and reasonable role.