Thanks for that discussion! Jim Devine wrote:
"""""the idea of "unequal exchange" (of Emmanuel, Amin, _et al_) is not about skill differences among workers. It's about different wages for (assumed) equivalent workers; it's about an abstract story involving abstract labor."""" Perhaps Amin and Emmanuel are not concerned with this. But James Becker, the author of "Marxian Political Economy", writes of an "unequal exchange" between skilled and unskilled labor in the core countries. Apparently he is following Marx in saying that the prices of labor, like the prices of all outputs with varying c/v ratios, tend to disproportionality (with regards to values). It is clear how capitalists must sell output above or below it value in order for profit rates to become equalized. Workers sell labor power, but for them there are no profit rates to equalize. Yet Becker states that a competitive economy will tear the prices of labor power away from "values". How does this work? How is it that prices of labor or different grades veer away from costs? (Also, does anyone know where exactly Marx discusses wages vis a vis OCC and the equalization of profit rates) --------------------------------- Pinpoint customers who are looking for what you sell.
