Serf
Well-Known Member
This excerpt taken from an economic manuscript is a tad long winded. But for those with an open mind and willing to learn something. I think we all can learn something from it.
"Having shown that the periodical resistance on the part of the working men against a reduction of wages, and their periodical attempts at getting a rise of wages, are inseparable from the wages system, and dictated by the very fact of labor being assimilated into commodities, and therefore subject to the laws, regulating the general movement of prices; shown that a general rise of wages would result in a fall in the general rate of profit, but not affect the average prices of commodities, or their values, the question now ultimately arises, how far, in this incessant struggle between capital and labor, the latter is likely to prove successful.
As with all other commodities, so with labor, its market price will, in the long run, adapt itself to its value; that, therefore, despite all the ups and downs, and do what he may, the working man will, on an average, only receive the value of his labor, which resolves into the value of his laboring power.
As to the limits of the value of labor, its actual settlement always depends upon supply and demand, I mean the demand for labor on the part of capital, and the supply of labor by the working men. In second and third world countries the law of supply and demand favors the working man. The labor market being continuously emptied by the continuous conversion of wages laborers into independent, self-sustaining citizens or salaried employees. The position of a wages laborer is for a very large part of the American people but in a constant probational state, which they are sure to leave within a longer or shorter period of time. With the large scale of production, and other processes diminishing the demand for labor by increasing its productive power,(machinery,computers) is but one of the many methods for increasing the productive powers of labor. The very same development which makes common labor relatively redundant or depreciates."
Now a guy I know at my station. Is FedEx through and through. One day on a bulk pick up he explained to me his situation. I am para phrasing but in no specific terms he said: "I was no good in High School. And College wasn't in the cards. I bounced around from job to job for a few years. Until 2009, when I got hired at FedEx as a courier. Almost 5 years later I still am within one dollar of what I was hired in at. And I hear guys bitch and moan daily about how bad it is. But I think differently. I met my wife soon after, and we have two kids. We have a house and cars. And even though I am a part timer, I am always near or over 40 hrs a week. Also, the splits and pm shifts allow me to save money on day care. And we use my wife's benefit plan. I haven't really ever been somewhere that offered me this much stability."
Right, wrong, or in different. I appreciated this guy's stance. And thought it was a good silver lining.
"Having shown that the periodical resistance on the part of the working men against a reduction of wages, and their periodical attempts at getting a rise of wages, are inseparable from the wages system, and dictated by the very fact of labor being assimilated into commodities, and therefore subject to the laws, regulating the general movement of prices; shown that a general rise of wages would result in a fall in the general rate of profit, but not affect the average prices of commodities, or their values, the question now ultimately arises, how far, in this incessant struggle between capital and labor, the latter is likely to prove successful.
As with all other commodities, so with labor, its market price will, in the long run, adapt itself to its value; that, therefore, despite all the ups and downs, and do what he may, the working man will, on an average, only receive the value of his labor, which resolves into the value of his laboring power.
As to the limits of the value of labor, its actual settlement always depends upon supply and demand, I mean the demand for labor on the part of capital, and the supply of labor by the working men. In second and third world countries the law of supply and demand favors the working man. The labor market being continuously emptied by the continuous conversion of wages laborers into independent, self-sustaining citizens or salaried employees. The position of a wages laborer is for a very large part of the American people but in a constant probational state, which they are sure to leave within a longer or shorter period of time. With the large scale of production, and other processes diminishing the demand for labor by increasing its productive power,(machinery,computers) is but one of the many methods for increasing the productive powers of labor. The very same development which makes common labor relatively redundant or depreciates."
Now a guy I know at my station. Is FedEx through and through. One day on a bulk pick up he explained to me his situation. I am para phrasing but in no specific terms he said: "I was no good in High School. And College wasn't in the cards. I bounced around from job to job for a few years. Until 2009, when I got hired at FedEx as a courier. Almost 5 years later I still am within one dollar of what I was hired in at. And I hear guys bitch and moan daily about how bad it is. But I think differently. I met my wife soon after, and we have two kids. We have a house and cars. And even though I am a part timer, I am always near or over 40 hrs a week. Also, the splits and pm shifts allow me to save money on day care. And we use my wife's benefit plan. I haven't really ever been somewhere that offered me this much stability."
Right, wrong, or in different. I appreciated this guy's stance. And thought it was a good silver lining.
