I am trying to better understand the details of Marxian economics and I wondered how in particular do fundamentally different wages arise. I understand that the value of labor-power is generally equal to the cost of its reproduction (subsistence, human reproduction, training, education, …), and that this cost can change also through class struggle (that determines the living standards of the proletariat and the rate of profit of the bourgeoisie).
But I still can't explain why some particular types of labor-power have different value (especially in Europe, where most education is paid through taxation, and therefore is already paid by previously extracted surplus). For example I doubt that the difference in the price of the following labor-powers can be boiled down to class struggle, what am I missing? - Electronic Engineer - Fast Food Employee - High School Teacher - Movie Actor - Low-Level Manager
It's obvious that I'm talking about capitalism. Marx dedicated most of his life to trying to understand the laws that move capital (in order to better organize the workers' movement). I'm just asking how Marxian political economy (I don't care if modern or old) explains the different wages observed for different jobs.
Jayden Hernandez
What are you talking about?
I'm wondering where doctors fit into this (especially considering I'm becoming one). In some instances and especially in the past, they own their own practices but increasingly they're now working for hospitals owned by some larger corporation.
Michael Williams
Advanced labour can be (at least theoretically) reduced to simple labour. [b]However[/b] this does not affect the value of labour-power anyways, since that one is determined by the needs of the respective workers. The differences in salary you're talking about mostly come down to demand and supply and thus better room for negotiation on the workers' part. Don't forget however, that with the increasing division of labour and technological progress, advanced tasks become ever easer to perform by unskilled workers and this difference is levelled more and more.
Well, I fucked up my formatting. Just wanted to add that you're best off reading Capital, since Marx addresses both these and many other points that people initially have issues with.
Jose Baker
You can't measure value outside of exchange values. We should forget trying to keep track of contribution or value, both when trying to critique the capitalist system and when envisioning the communist economy of the future. The current system is wrong because it provides luxuries for the few at the expense of the many and the planet. We should replace it with a centrally planned economy that provides for the needs of the people in an environmentally sustainable way.
Jack Myers
>>>/liberty/ We moved past this more than 150 years ago. That is precisely the whole point of everything Marx ever wrote on economics.
