Surplus value is the capitalist’s profit—nothing more.
Not quite. Price fluctuates around value, profit can come from discrepancies between price and value, or from the raising of socially necessary labor time due to sudden events (like a factory blowing up) and thus the price of unsold commodities rises. Marx made it clear that supply and demand do cover each other as they pull towards one another, and thus there is a “value” they gravitate towards, but that profit can be made via avenues not related to surplus value (though not as a rule, always temporary).
As for the USSR, there was appropriated surplus, it was just redirected towards development by the working classes, and in the interests of the working classes. This is very much a surplus, even if it isn’t appropriated privately. This is important, because an individual worker will not be entitled to the “full value of their labor,” it is the working classes that will be, and thus can distribute from ability to need.
Not quite. Price fluctuates around value, profit can come from discrepancies between price and value, or from the raising of socially necessary labor time due to sudden events (like a factory blowing up) and thus the price of unsold commodities rises. Marx made it clear that supply and demand do cover each other as they pull towards one another, and thus there is a “value” they gravitate towards, but that profit can be made via avenues not related to surplus value (though not as a rule, always temporary).
As for the USSR, there was appropriated surplus, it was just redirected towards development by the working classes, and in the interests of the working classes. This is very much a surplus, even if it isn’t appropriated privately. This is important, because an individual worker will not be entitled to the “full value of their labor,” it is the working classes that will be, and thus can distribute from ability to need.