A Guide to Marxian Political Economy by Teinosuke Otani

Author:Teinosuke Otani
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

Error in the «Ironclad Law of Wages»

The groundlessness of Lassalle’s argument is clear if we consider that it takes decades for an increase or decrease in the birth rate of workers to raise or lower the supply of labour-power and that it cannot be said that an improvement or worsening of workers’ living conditions raises or lowers the number of members of a worker’s family. However, Lassalle’s decisive error is to make wages an independent variable, treating the supply and demand for labour-power solely as a question of supply. Wages are in fact a dependent variable. And what is decisively important to the supply and demand for labour-power is capital’s demand for labour-power.

Capital Accumulation Determines Wage Fluctuations

The accumulation of capital is what determines wage fluctuations. Capital accumulation is the independent variable and must be taken as the starting point. Wage fluctuations arise as a result of fluctuating demand for labour-power, which depend on the state of capital accumulation. Capitalist production, however, is the production of surplus-value, so the impulse for capital accumulation will necessarily change depending on an increase or decrease in surplus-value due to a decrease or increase in wages. Wage fluctuations are determined by the production of surplus-value—and more concretely by the state of capital accumulation based on capital’s desire for valorisation (see ◘ Fig. 10.5).

Fig. 10.5Capital accumulation determines wage fluctuations (not vice versa)

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