(OPE-L) Re: the real wage, and the production of surplus value

From: gerald_a_levy (gerald_a_levy@MSN.COM)
Date: Wed Dec 10 2003 - 18:44:39 EST


Re Paul C's post on Farjoun and Machover:

> More generally, if class struggle is able to establish
> a uniform ratio between wages and profits for all
> industries, the only possible such uniform ratio is
> 50/50.

Why would we anticipate a uniform ratio of wages
to profits for all industries?   What would be the
preconditions for such a condition?   Perhaps One Big
Union that fought successfully against wage disparities
in all industries? Or would the OBU  have had to
successfully fight to peg wages to profits such that
as profits increased wages would be adjusted?  Of
course, this implies that when profits decreased then
wages would decrease as well by the same proportion,
willy nilly.  None of this makes any sense to me, nor do
I think it makes much sense as an empirical claim since there
are _huge_ wage disparities in most capitalist economies
in different industries, sectors, and regions. It also implies
a rather odd totalizing conception of class struggle which
does not well represent the actual processes of class
struggle where there is the  _uneven development of class
struggle_.

In solidarity, Jerry


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