The Socialism of to-day

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 835096955

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-28834

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Laveleye, Émile de

Title:: The Socialism of to-day

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Field & Tuer

Year of publication:: 1884

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (XLIV, 331 S.)

Collection:: Economics Books

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SOCIALISM IN ENGLAND. 315 the complex labourer in the above case will exchange for no more than that of the simple labourer, although the capitalist, who is usually credited with cunning, has expended three times the amount of wages in procuring it. If, as would appear from the corresponding passage in Das Kapital, the meaning is that, in the case of skilled labour, the cost of education or apprenticeship must be taken into consideration, it may be replied that this cost, if spread over the average working-life of the skilled labourer, would by no means eat up the excess of his wages over those of the ordinary labourer. And in the next place, the duration of time of this apprenticeship, added to the duration of the working-life of the skilled labourer, would by no means measure the far greater value of his aggregate product as compared with the value of the aggregate product of the ordinary labourer. As to machines, Mr. Hyndman says that they add no value to the commodities produced beyond the equivalent of the wear and tear of the machine, or, in other words, the amount of labour needed to put the machine in as good a condition as before. Of course, if the same quantity of human labour is employed, he admits that the machine produces a far greater amount of wealth ; but none of it, he maintains, goes to the workers. On the contrary, by aiding in the accumulation of capital, machinery merely serves to rivet tighter their chains. Both the direct and the indirect effect of machines is to depreciate the value of labour-force. Their introduction turns labourers out of employment with less aptitude for work of a different nature, and thus creates a permanent over-population in the face of increasing wealth—“ an industrial army of reserve ” ready to be absorbed by capital “ into the whirl of production during times of expansion only to be thrown work less on the streets in periods of collapse.” There is absolutely no redeeming feature. True, machinery lowers the price of commodities, but, so far as this affects the labourer, wages are reduced by the same amount, leaving a relatively larger surplus value for the capitalist. Much of what Mr. Hyndman says as to the effects of machinery and the large industrial system on the operatives is

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