[OPE-L:5113] Re: no unique real wage

From: Gerald_A_Levy (Gerald_A_Levy@email.msn.com)
Date: Tue Mar 06 2001 - 21:03:56 EST


Re Fred's [OPE-L:5106]:

> In any case, it is certainly true that, IN MY
> INTERPRETATION of Marx's
> theory, the real wage is determined as above.  It is not > takes as given,
> ex-ante, but is instead derived ex-post from the money-> wage, as
> above.  Therefore, the real wage in my interpretation is > in general a
> DIFFERENT BUNDLE OF GOODS from the real
> wage in the Sraffian
> interpretation.  The real wage in my interpretation is the goods workers
> actually consume, not a hypothetical assumption in a theoretical model.

In other words,  for the determination of the rate of the
rate of profit in Fred's interpretation  real wages can not
be taken as given ex ante.

Now we see how an assumption which has been used
in one theory (workers "living on air") can not be
legitimately transferred to  this interpretation.
Thus, the assertion that was made about Fred's
interpretation depended *critically* on the v = 0
assumption or some other *special* case where the real wage was as given.
Without those assumptions,
diferent results emerge.

It should also be noted that the position that real wages
are derived ex post from the money wage is totally
inconsistent with the v = 0 assumption since if v = 0
then there are no money wages.

In solidarity, Jerry



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