Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T12:09:18.062Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE MARXIAN WAGE THEORY AGAINST THE “ABSOLUTE IMMIZERATION” DOCTRINE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 January 2013

LAURENT BARONIAN
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper provides a refutation of the “absolute immizeration” doctrine that S. Hollander attributes to Marx, by emphasizing the Marxian original categories and laws of capitalist production in order to base Marx’s opposition to this doctrine on his more profound opposition to Classics about the law of supply and demand for labor.

The paper proceeds as follows: first, it is shown that the Marxian subsistence wage does not exclude population growth. Second, the analysis of surplus population will reveal how it is not only a condition of the business cycle, but also one of its immediate results. In this sense, the so-called theory of dual labor force, which Hollander uses to discard the role of surplus population in the decreasing real-wage trend, proves a misunderstanding of the origin and nature of the industrial reserve army.

From the labor demand side, on the other hand, the endogeneity of technical progress precludes any “ongoing process” of increasing organic composition of capital. Finally, it will appear that categories of labor power, wages defined as the value of labor power, or laws such as decreasing necessary labor and increasing surplus labor, allow Marx to develop a law of supply and demand for labor partly unrelated to the number of workers and the evolution of population growth, which necessarily rules out any birth-rate control policy.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , March 2013 , pp. 93 - 111
Copyright
Copyright © The History of Economics Society 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Baumol, William J. 1983. “Marx and the Iron Law of Wages.” American Economic Review 73 (2): 303–308.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Eduard. [1911] 1970. Evolutionary Socialism: A Criticism and Affirmation. New York: Schocken Books.Google Scholar
Cottrell, Allin, and Darity, William A. Jr. 1988. “Marx, Malthus and Wages.” History of Political Economy 20 (2): 173–190.Google Scholar
Engels, Friedrich. [1844] 1975. Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy. In Collected Works. Volume 3. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Engels, Friedrich. [1845] 1975. The Condition of the Working Class in England. In Collected Works. Volume 4. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Engels, Friedrich. [1847] 1976. Principles of Communism. In Collected Works. Volume 6. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Harvey, David. [1982] 2006. The Limits to Capital. New York: VersoGoogle Scholar
Hobsbawm, Eric. 1962. The Age of Revolutions. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.Google Scholar
Hollander, Samuel. 1984. “Marx and Malthusianism.” American Economic Review 74 (1): 139–151.Google Scholar
Hollander, Samuel. 1985. The Economics of John Stuart Mill. Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Hollander, Samuel. 1986. “Marx and Malthusianism: Reply.” American Economic Review 76 (3): 548–550.Google Scholar
Hollander, Samuel. 2008. The Economics of Karl Marx: Analysis and Application. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lapides, Kenneth. 1994. “Henryk Grossmann on Marx’s Wage Theory and the ‘Increasing Misery’ Controversy.” History of Political Economy 26 (2): 239–246.Google Scholar
Lapides, Kenneth. 1998. Marx’s Wage Theory in Historical Perspective: Its Origin, Development, and Interpretation. Wesport: Praeger.Google Scholar
Luxemburg, Rosa. [1900] 1969. Social Reform or Revolution. London: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl. [1844] 1975. Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844. In Collected Works. Volume 3. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl. [1847] 1976. Poverty of Philosophy. In Collected Works. Volume 6. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl. [1847] 1976. Wages. In Collected Works. Volume 6. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl. [1848] 1976. Speech on the Free Trade. In Collected Works. Volume 6. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl. [1849] 1977. Wage Labour and Capital. In Collected Works. Volume 9. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl. [1857–1858] 1986. Economic Manuscripts of 1857–1858 (I). In Collected Works. Volume 28. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl. [1861–1863] 1988. Economic Works 1861–1863. In Collected Works. Volume 34. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl. [1861–1864] 1994. Economic Works 1861–1864. In Collected Works. Volume 34. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl. [1865] 1985. Value, Price and Profit. In Collected Works. Volume 20. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl. [1867] 1996. Capital. Volume I. In Collected Works. Volume 35. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl. [1894] 1998. Capital. Volume III. In Collected Works. Volume 37. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl, and Engels, Friedrich. [1848] 1976. Manifesto of the Communist Party. In Collected Works. Volume 6. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Meek, R.L. 1962. “Marx’s ‘Doctrine of Increasing Misery.’” Science & Society 26: 422–441.Google Scholar
Mill, John Stuart. [1871] 2006. Principles of Political Economy. In Collected Works of John Stuart Mill. Volume 2. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.Google Scholar
Ong, Nai-Pew. 1980. “Marx’s Classical and Post-classical Conceptions of the Wage.” Australian Economic Papers 19 (35): 264–277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plekhanov, Georgi. [1901] 1976. “A Critique of Our Critics.” In Selected Philosophical Works. Moscow: Progress Publishers.Google Scholar
Ramirez, Miguel D. 1986. “Marx and Malthusianism: Comment.” American Economic Review 76 (3): 543–547.Google Scholar
Ramirez, Miguel D. 2007. “Marx, Wages, and Cyclical Crises.” Contributions to Political Economy 26 (1): 27–41.Google Scholar
Ricardo, David. [1821] 2004. On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. In The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo. Volume 1. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.Google Scholar
Rule, John. 1986. The Labouring Classes in the Early Industrial England, 1750-1850. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Sinha, Ajit. 1998. “Hollander’s Marx and Malthusianism: A Critique.” The History of Economics Review 29: 104–112.Google Scholar
Sowell, Thomas. 1960. “Marx’s ‘Increasing Misery’ Doctrine.” American Economic Review (March): 111–120.Google Scholar
Sowell, Thomas. 2006. On Classical Economics. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Thompson, Edward P. 1968. The Making of the English Working Class. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Toynbee, Arnold. 1896. Lectures on the Industrial Revolution of the 18th Century in England. London: Longmans, Gree, & Co.Google Scholar
Tudor, Henri, and Tudor, J.M., eds. 1988. Marxism and Social Democracy: The Revisionist Debate 1896–1898. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar