From: Paul Cockshott (wpc@DCS.GLA.AC.UK)
Date: Fri Jan 20 2006 - 07:33:30 EST
Rakesh Bhandari wrote: > > >> >> Oversupply of labour is temporary. It will come to and end >> within 25 to 40 years. The growing workforce means an period >> of exponential growth of the accumulation fund - a growth that >> is faster than the natural population growth. > > > This proved true after Malthus falsely thought the problem of labor > oversupply intrinsic to the human condition. But will > the accumulation fund grow exponentially this time? I suggested > reasons for skepticism (see long Grossman quotes in my original post). > It depends what the bourgeoisie of India and China are like. If they have a high propensity to accumulate rather than spend on luxuries, the period of exponential increase in the size of the proletatiat will coincide with a similar rise in the surplus and thus in the accumulation fund. > > > > >> By the end >> of the 2030s the economies of China and india will be looking >> for external places ot invest their surplus capital - where will >> that be? > > > > Why will there be surplus capital? Because there will be a shortage of > available labour power or because as a result of a shortage of > surplus labor in the production process surplus value will become surplus > to accumulation demand? Because once demographic transition has occured, a capital stock growing at the rate of profit * A , where A is the accumulation ratio out of profits, will be growing faster than the rate of growth of the population. Allin and I have a paper comming out in the Indian Journal of development economics, arguing this case. A preprint under the title 'Demography and Long Term Profit Rates' appears on my web page http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~wpc/reports/index.html > > Rakesh -- Paul Cockshott Dept Computing Science University of Glasgow 0141 330 3125
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