>Paul writes:
>> In the case of PoP we abstract from any tendancy
>>of rates of surplus value to equalise.
>
>Simon asks: can you explain further what you mean by such a tendency?
This is a point originally brought out by Farjoun and Machover.
They observed that if you plot the profit/wage bill ratio of
a large sample of industries one in practice observes a relatively
narrow distribution, at least as narrow as the dispersion of rates
of profit.
There is thus pria-facie evidence of a tendency for the rate of
surplus value to equalise between industries.
They hypothesise that this is because it is easier for unions to
win wage increases in industries with a high profit/wage ratio
than in low profit/wage ratio industries. This tends to compress
the dispersion of rates of surplus value.
Paul Cockshott
wpc@cs.strath.ac.uk
http://www.cs.strath.ac.uk/CS/Biog/wpc/index.html