On Sat, 13 Dec 2003, Doug Henwood wrote: > Fred Mosley wrote: > > >6. I have suggested another explanation of these important trends, one > >based on Marx's distinction between productive labor and unproductive > >labor - that an important cause of the declines in the share and the rate > >of profit was a very significant increase in the ratio of unproductive > >labor to productive labor. I am not sure that this is the correct > >explanation of these trends, but I think it may be, and I think that it > >worthwhile to at least consider what Marx's theory implies about the > >causes of these trends and the likely prospects for the future. > > > >And one important advantage that this theory has over the profit squeeze > >explanation is that it provides a consistent explanation of why the share > >and rate of profit have only partially recovered in recent decades, in > >spite of the loss of workers' power and stagnant real wages - because the > >ratio of unproductive to productive labor has continued to increase. > > > >This theory also provides an important prediction about the future - that > >if the ratio of unproductive to productive labor continues to increase (as > >I expect), then the recovery of the share and rate of profit will continue > >to be slow and partial, thus leading to more wage cuts, speed-up, > >etc. According to this theory, the US economy is definitely NOT at the > >beginning of another "long-wave" period of growth and prosperity, similar > >to the early postwar period (with steady real wage increases). The only > >partial recovery of the share and rate of profit makes such a return to > >more prosperous conditions very unlikely. > > Why should a national economy be the unit of analysis? Why can't U.S. > capitalists and a significant portion of the U.S. population propser > by appropriating the SV produced by, say, Chinese workers? Wal-Mart > is a profit machine - is it productive or unproductive?
Hi Doug, you are right that the appropriate unit of analysis is the world economy, and that surplus-value produced by e.g. Chinese workers is appropriated by US capitalists. But since this surplus-value is appropriated by US capitalists, it is mostly included in the estimates of profits in the US NIPAs. But this international aspect does mean that the estimates of the ratio of unproductive labor to productive labor in the US are overestimated. Comradely, Fred
