From: gerald_a_levy (gerald_a_levy@MSN.COM)
Date: Wed Jun 11 2003 - 20:23:20 EDT
Paolo wrote on Monday, June 09: > What struck me in the interview is that there is nothing in Marx, to my > knowledge, suggesting that wages could not stay below the value of labor > power for a long period of time. I agree. Do you and others agree that: a) there is nothing in Marx which suggests that wages can not rise above the value of labour power for a long period of time? b) there is nothing in Marx which suggests that wages can not rise above the value of labour-power during an expansion and drop below the value of labour-power during a contraction? (NB: on that last possibility, note _Capital_, Volume 3, Ch. 14, Section 2). c) Marx is not at all precise on how often the value of labour-power within a particular nation can change. While he asserts that "in a given period, the average amount of the means of subsistence for the worker is a known *datum*" (Volume 1, Penguin ed., p. 275), he leaves unanswered how often the VLP can change in a dynamic context. This raises the possibility that for Marx the VLP could remain stable for a relatively long period of time _and_ change rapidly and frequently during other historical periods. In solidarity, Jerry
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