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Topic: Subsistence theory of wages

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	Subsistence theory of wages - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		In economics, the subsistence theory of wages stated that real wages in the long run will tend to the value needed to keep the workers' population constant.
		This followed from Malthus' demographic theory, according to which the growth rate of population was – mainly for cultural reasons – an increasing function of wages, reaching a zero for a unique positive value of the real wages rate, called the subsistence wage.
		The justification for this was that when wages are higher, the supply of labour will increase relative to demand, creating an excess supply and thus depressing market real wages; while when wages are lower, labour supply will fall, increasing market real wages.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Subsistence_theory_of_wages (294 words)

	Malthusian catastrophe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Theories of Malthusian catastrophe are very similar to the subsistence theory of wages.
		The main difference is that the Malthusian theories predict over several generations or centuries whereas the subsistence theory of wages predicts over years and decades.
		According to neo-Malthusian theory, these pro-fertility individuals will not only have more children, but also pass their pro-fertility on to their children, meaning a constant selection for pro-fertility similar to the constant evolutionary selection for fertility genes (except much faster because of greater diversity).
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Malthusian_catastrophe (1651 words)

	HighBeam Encyclopedia - wages
		The first of them was the subsistence theory of wages, also called the "iron law of wages," of which David Ricardo was one of the main exponents.
		The wage-fund theory is that wages are advanced out of a fixed fund of capital, from which an excess withdrawal, either through legislation or through union pressure, will ultimately reduce the amount available for other workers.
		Any increase in wages would also have to be taken out of profits, and their reduction would cause a decline in savings, which provide the capital from which the wage fund is derived.
	www.encyclopedia.com /html/w1/wages.asp (746 words)

	[No title]
		The subsistence theory was an explanation of the general level of wages in terms of labor supply.
		Their observations of wage determination in the real world, with numerous sizes and types of employing organizations and unions, have convinced them that wage theory was attempting to answer the wrong questions and was neglecting important variables.
		For example, the internal wage structure of a company is largely under the control of the decision makers, the external wage structure is only partially under their control, and the general wage level in the economy is beyond their control.
	www.eridlc.com /onlinetextbook/chpt03/text_main.htm (13980 words)

	XXI. WORK AND WAGES: Wages and Subsistence
		The "iron law of wages" and the essentially identical Marxian doctrine of the determination of "the value of labor power" by "the working time necessary for its production, consequently also for its reproduction," [8] are the least tenable of all that has ever been taught in the field of catallactics.
		It is true, wage earners are imbued with the idea that wages must be at least high enough to enable them to maintain a standard of living at least high enough to enable them to maintain a standard of living adequate to their station in the hierarchical gradation of society.
		The labor unions pretend that nominal wage rates at least must always be raised in accordance with the changes occurring in the monetary unit's purchasing power in such a way as to secure to the wage earner the unabated enjoyment of the previous standard of living.
	www.mises.org /humanaction/chap21sec6.asp (3248 words)

	Population and Policy in Marshall (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-29)
		Current wages were “more than what is precisely necessary to enable the labourer to bring up a family” and permitted a greater quantity and variety of food as well as clothing and household furniture.
		Early in the century, he explains, wages were low and a rise in the price of wheat made it economically less feasible for laborers to marry and have a family while maintaining their standard of comfort.
		Though wages are not much above a level which provide for the “necessaries” for life and efficiency in the western world, nevertheless an increase in wages, following Marshall’s logic, does not prompt the same rapid increase in population as in less advanced countries.
	suu.edu /faculty/bowman/Econ3790/PopulationPolicyMarshallsEconomics.htm (7535 words)

	Chapter 7: Theories of Value
		Theories of value are at the heart of two of the major themes identified in Chapter 1: the distribution of wealth and income and the maintenance of microeconomic order.
		Without the subsistence theory of wages, which provides a value for labor itself, the labor theory of value is severely weakened.
		All of the theories of value that we have examined here include as part of their underlying structures the stylized fact of a tendency toward a single rate of profit as capitalist firms adjust their output to changes in demand or technology.
	online.bcc.ctc.edu /econ100/ksttext/Value/value.htm (11611 words)

	THE WAGES-FUND THEORY
		He allows that, since wages may be higher or lower while the amount of labour remains the same, this is not quite the same thing as determining the proportion of wages-fund to capital.
		As we have seen, the foundation of the whole theory consists in the supposed independence of two facts, (1) "saving," the process by which capital is increased, and (2) the discussion between employers and employed by which the wages of particular labourers are fixed.
		On this theory it is to be observed, in the first place, that it does not attempt to settle the distribution of produce as between employers and employed, except so far as the employer's share consists of interest.
	www.ecn.bris.ac.uk /het/sidgewick/Wf.html (3712 words)

	Marx & Value
		Therefore the basis underlying this discussion is a highly simplified capitalism in equilibrium; an economy that is sufficiently competitive that all firms have fully adjusted their outputs and use of inputs to all demand and technological conditions, and all consumers have fully adjusted their plans and demands to all supply and conditions of taste.
		Wages are determined by the values of the goods and services that a working class family needs to survive and reproduce.
		The main point about the marginalist theories is that they switched the focus of attention from the average or normal price, value or cost to the price, value or cost of the marginal item, that is the item just inside or just beyond the edge of what is actually produced or sold.
	www3.sympatico.ca /saburns/pg0950.htm (15547 words)

	HES: DISC -- Marx, subsistence and surplus
		In Marx himself, the impact of the historical and moral elements in wage determination are woven into many parts of the arguments in Capital and elsewhere: 'Wages' were to be the subject of one of the unwritten 6 books of Marx's project.
		There are elements of a perfectly coherent treatment of wages in Marx that includes both their role in his macrodynamics of capitalist accumulation, and a significant role for a historical and moral element in the determination of the average reproductive wage at any conjuncture.
		Actual average wages over the course of accumulation can be determined along with profits etc., in interaction with a changing back ground of historical and moral elements.
	eh.net /pipermail/hes/1997-August/000504.html (1324 words)

	World Affairs Board - Ludwig Von Mises on Iron Theory of Wages
		This so-called "iron law" declares that wage rates are determined by the cost of the means of subsistence required for the bare maintenance of the labor force.
		The wage earner cannot get more than is physiologically needed to preserve his capacity to work and to enable him to raise the number of children required to replace him when he dies.
		The essential shortcoming of the "iron law of wages" was that it denied to the wage earner his human character and dealt with him as if he were a non-human creature.
	www.worldaffairsboard.com /showthread.php?t=3401 (13455 words)

	Wages : Accounting Resources (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-29)
		The justification for the theory is that when wages are higher, more workers will be produced, and when...
		Wages increased at a rate that was a fraction of the rate at which productivity increased.
		Wages increased at a rate that was a fraction of...
	www.gibsoftsystems.com /489-Wages.html (689 words)

	Marxism and the Latest Stage of Capitalism by Paul Mattick
		Although this is not the place to restate Marx’s theory of accumulation, nor to relate the meaning of the possibilities and limitations of the labor theory of value on which it is based, even what little has been said here should indicate that Strachey comprehends neither one.
		He interprets Marx’s crisis-theory as one of “under-consumption” derived from a “subsistence theory of wages.” But Marx was not an “under-consumptionist,” and even though “over-accumulation” is characterized by the predominance of the so-called “realization problem,” that is, the inability to convert surplus-value into additional capital and by the general over-production of commodities.
		In contrast to the static, or higher, wages of British and American workers — in so far as they are a reality — is the increasing misery, in strictly economic terms, of the bulk of mankind.
	www.marxists.org /archive/mattick-paul/1957/strachey.htm (2568 words)

	ope-l-9910: [OPE-L:1572] Re: Lapides and Marx's wage theory
		"theory of wages which incorporates all of the determinants of that
		Yes, I think that is one of the tasks of theory.
		Since Marx didn't hold to a subsistence theory of wages, there is also the
	ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu /~cottrell/OPE/archive/9910/0160.html (1153 words)

	wages: Economic Theories about Wages
		The first of them was the subsistence theory of wages, also called the “iron law of wages,” of which David
		In the surplus-value theory as propounded by Karl
		, the value produced by the worker in excess of what is paid in wages is called surplus value.
	www.infoplease.com /ce6/bus/A0861842.html (285 words)

	Wages - ENCYCLOPEDIA - The History Channel UK
		The first of them was the subsistence theory of wages, also called the iron law of wages, of which David Ricardo
		In the surplus-value theory as propounded by Karl Marx
		Except as otherwise permitted by written agreement, the following are prohibited: copying substantial portions or the entirety of the work in machine readable form, making multiple printouts thereof, and other uses of the work inconsistent with U.S. and applicable foreign copyright and related laws.
	www.thehistorychannel.co.uk /site/search/search.php?word=wages (632 words)

	Re: HES: EDITORIAL -- Talk of the Town in 1798
		first reaction was that Ricardo's treatment of population and wages is
		wages, he used a crude subsistence wage theory, with the concommitant
		was able to get away with a crude subsistence theory of wages because
	eh.net /lists/archives/hes/feb-1999/0002.php (253 words)

	Thomas Robert Malthus, Biography: The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics: Library of Economics and Liberty
		He predicted that population would grow geometrically, while the food supply would increase only arithmetically, resulting in mass starvation.
		His apocalyptic vision and his widely accepted subsistence theory of wages (wages will drop to the minimum required to sustain a worker because high wages induce population growth) helped stigmatize economics as the "dismal science."
		Writing before the industrial revolution, Malthus could not fully appreciate the impact of technology (i.e., pesticides, refrigeration, mechanized farm equipment, and increased crop yields) on food production.
	www.econlib.org /library/Enc/bios/Malthus.html (336 words)

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