It is difficult to provide a truly adequate response to Jerry's debated
posting on wage inequality. Nevertheless, much of his posting presupposes
the answer to the question I was asking. Racial and gender differences in
earnings imply muliple prices for the same commodity -- an unequivocal
violation of the law of one price!!! Note, I am not referring here to wage
differences arising from true differences in skill or to tempoarary
differences in the state of supply and demand or to any sort of
noncompetitive industrial structure. Rather, I'm really interested in what
does the list have to say about wage differentials under the followining
circumstances:
1. equally skilled workers,
2. supply and demand (for output) are equal to each other for each firm and
for each industry,
3. both product and input markets are competitive, and
4. there is no false consciousness, i.e., capitalist cannot fool workers
regarding the social and cultural elements of the real wage
bundle.
Now, any theory on wage differentials under these conditions can be readily
extended to racial and gender discrimination, international trade, or to
other areas where there is a violation of one of the original assumptions.
peace, patrick l mason