From: Gerald A. Levy (Gerald_A_Levy@MSN.COM)
Date: Fri Sep 17 2004 - 21:18:14 EDT
Hi Allin. I hope you've managed to remain dry today. > If we're talking about a tendency towards equalization of wages, none > of the above are required. All that is needed is a tendency of > workers to try to get out of sectors where wages are low, and to try > to get into sectors where they are high. Under the marginalist assumptions of full employment and Say's Law (and homogenous labour), such an abstract tendency is possible. But, 1) under the conditions of simple commodity production, where producers own their own means of production and specialize in the production of a particular good, the labor mobility that is assumed above does not exist. 2) under conditions of capitalist production (even putting aside issues associated with workers' collective activity, not to mention discrimination), an industrial reserve army restricts labor mobility and the practical ability of workers to obtain higher-paying jobs. Thus, if the wages for unskilled workers are decreased because of the IRA yet there are simultaneously skilled occupations where there continues to be a high demand for skilled labour-power then wages for those latter workers could be expected to remain constant, increase, or decrease less rapidly than the fall in wages for unskilled workers. In any event, this would exert a counter-pressure for an increase in wage disparities among workers. 3) where there is a shortage of labour power in selected capitalist nations the abstract possibility that you point to could be expected to -- at least so long as those conditions are reproduced -- exert a pressure towards wage equalization. In solidarity, Jerry
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