Chapter 47 Chapter IV Labor Wages

Section 1. The importance of many features in the demand and supply of labor depends largely on their cumulative consequences; thus analogous to the force of habit. The previous chapter discussed the role of supply and demand for labor in connection with the difficulty of determining real prices as opposed to nominal prices of labor.However, certain features of a more important nature in this role have yet to be studied.Because these characteristics not only affect the form in which the forces of supply and demand operate, but also affect their essence, and to some extent limit and hinder the free functioning of the forces of supply and demand.We shall see that the effects of many characteristics cannot be measured by their first and most obvious effects; and that in the long run cumulative effects are generally much more important than those which appear to be significant but are not cumulative. .

Thus, this question has much in common with the question of exploring the economic impact of habits.For we have seen, and shall see better later, that the immediate effect of habit, such as making a thing sell sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less, than it would in other cases, is not really of any importance, because this divergence of price , generally speaking, there is no continuing and expanding trend; on the contrary, if the divergence becomes large, it tends to cause various offsetting factors to take effect.Sometimes these factors completely overwhelm habit. But more frequently the influence of habit is avoided by a gradual and imperceptible change of the nature of the commodity, so that what the buyer buys under the original name and price is really a new thing.These direct effects are significant, but not cumulative.Conversely, the indirect effects of custom in hindering the free development of the methods of production and of the individuality of the producer are insignificant, but generally cumulative, and thus have a far-reaching dominance over world history.If custom moderates the progress of one generation, the second generation must start from a lower point than if it were unmoderated; and any stagnation it suffers from itself is piled on top of that of the previous generation, generation after generation, and so on.

The same is true of the action of demand and supply on wages.Whenever the forces of supply and demand exert great pressure on any individual or class, the immediate consequences of this evil are evident.But the difficulties produced are varied: some disappear at the same time as the evil that caused them, and these are generally of less importance than those which indirectly cause the weakening of the character of the worker, or prevent it from strengthening.For the latter cause further poverty and misery, which in turn creates still greater poverty and misery, and so on and on and on and on.Conversely, high wages and strong character will lead to stronger power and higher wages, which in turn lead to greater strength and brighter wages, and so on, increasing continuously.

The first characteristic of the second section: what the worker sells is his labor, but he has no price himself.Therefore, investments in him are limited to his parents' assets, knowledge and selflessness.The importance of parentage.The influence of moral force. The first feature we must notice is that man, as a factor of production, is distinct from the buying and selling of machines and other material means of production.What the worker sells is only his labor, but he himself remains his own.Those who pay for his upbringing and education receive very little out of the price paid for his subsequent services.

Whatever the shortcomings of the modern method of enterprise, it has at least one advantage, namely, that those who pay for the production of physical goods always receive the prices paid for them. The man who builds a factory, a steam engine, a dwelling house, or keeps a slave, while these things remain his property, always receives the benefit of all the pure services they render.If he sells these things, he acquires a price equal to the estimated net value of their future service; he therefore extends the expenditure to a point where he sees no good reason to conceive any additional He will be compensated by the benefits of the investment.He must act cautiously and courageously, lest he be defeated in the competition with those who take a more decisive and far-sighted decision, and be finally eliminated from the ranks of the masters of world trade.The operation of competition and the struggle for survival of the fittest tend in the end to leave the factories and the building of the steam-engine in the hands of those who are skilled in making each expenditure add more to the value as a factor of production than it costs.But the investment of capital in the upbringing and early training of the English worker is limited by the assets of the parents in all classes of society, their power of foresight, and their disposition to sacrifice themselves for the good of their children.

So far as the upper classes are concerned, this evil is indeed insignificant.Because most people in the upper class can clearly predict the future and "convert it at a low interest rate."They endeavored to select for their sons the best career for life, and the first-class training it required.They are willing and able to pay huge sums in this regard.The freelance class, in particular, is generally willing to save a portion of their capital for their children, and at the same time pays more attention to the opportunities of investing this capital in them.Once there is a new opportunity in a higher occupation, which requires a specialized education, the future reward need not be much higher than the present expense in order to compete for the position.

But in the lower classes of society this evil is much more harmful.Because the parents' circumstances are not good, their education is limited, and their ability to predict the future is weak, they cannot invest their capital in the education and training of their children, and use it with the same freedom and courage to improve a management. Just like the machines in a factory that has obtained the Fa.Many children of the working class are poorly clothed and hungry.The conditions of their dwellings promote neither physical health nor moral soundness. While education in modern Britain isn't too bad, they have very little of it.

They have no opportunity to see the world, or to appreciate the nature of high-level corporate work, science and art.What they encountered early on was hard and demanding labor, and most of them did it their entire lives.At least they came into the grave with those undeveloped talents.If these faculties are fully developed, their addition to the material wealth of the country (not to speak of higher ends) equals many times the cost of developing them. But what we must emphasize at this moment is that this evil is cumulative.The poorer the children of one generation are fed, the less wages they earn in adulthood, and the less able they are to adequately satisfy the material needs of their children, and so on, and so on, from generation to generation.Furthermore, the less fully developed their abilities are, the less attention they place on developing the talents of their children, and therefore the less incentive they have to do so.Conversely, if some change gives a generation of workers good pay and opportunities to develop their talents, it will enhance those material and moral benefits that they can bestow on their children.And while increasing their own insight, wisdom, and foresight, this change will also in a way make them more willing to sacrifice their own happiness for the happiness of their children.Even among the poorest classes, as far as their knowledge and resources are concerned, there is a great deal of such desire.

The third section continues. The advantage that people born in the upper class have over those born in the lower class is largely due to the better access and career opportunities given to them by their parents.And the importance of this opportunity for employment is clearer than a comparison of the situation of the son of the artisan with that of the unskilled laborer.There are not many skilled trades to which the son of an unskilled laborer can approach.On most occasions the son follows the father's profession.In the period of the old cottage handicraft industry, it was almost a universal rule for the son to follow the father's business.Even in modern conditions fathers often have many advantages in engaging their sons in their occupations.Employers and overseers generally look after the children of their confidants more than the children they are responsible for.In many trades, even after a child enters into work, unless he goes to work with his father or his father's friends, who teach him assiduously and make him do a kind of work that requires careful tutoring but is of educational value, he It seemed impossible to progress quickly, and to stand firm.

The artisan's son had other advantages as well.The houses in which he lives are generally better and cleaner, and his physical surroundings are more refined than those of the average working man.His parents appear to be better educated and have a higher sense of responsibility for their children.Last but not least, his mother seemed to be able to spend most of her time on housework. If we compare one country of the civilized world with another, or one part of England with another, or one industry of England with another, we shall find that the depravity of the working class is largely the same as the clumsiness of women. Proportional to the number of jobs.The most valuable of all capitals is the capital invested in human beings.And the most precious part of this capital is the care and influence that comes from the mother, if she maintains her kind and benevolent nature, which is not petrified by the torments of unfeminine work.

This brings us to another aspect of the above principle, namely, that in estimating the cost of production of an efficient worker we must take the family as a unit.In short, we cannot look at the cost of production of efficient people as an isolated problem; It has to be seen as part of the larger problem of the cost of production of efficient men and women who are skilled at making their home life pleasant, and of raising their children to be sane, sincere, pure, and refined. Brave man. The fourth quarter continues. As the youth grows into manhood, the influence of his parents and teachers diminishes; From then until his death his character was largely formed by the nature of his work and the influence of his associates, playmates, and fellow-teachers. Much has been said about the technical training of adults, and the decline of the old apprenticeship and the difficulties of its replacement.Here again we encounter the difficulty that whoever improves the skill of the worker with his own capital is in the end the property of the worker himself; therefore, virtue is largely theirs to those who help the worker. remuneration. It is true that well-paid labor is actually cheap labor to those employers who aim to be ahead and try to produce good products by the most advanced methods of production.They pay high wages and give careful training to their workmen, partly because it is to their advantage, and partly because the same character which makes them suitable for the leadership of the technique of production may also make them unfavorable to those who work for them. People's welfare takes great interest.Although the number of such employers is increasing day by day, they are relatively few after all.Even if the investment afforded them the same advantage as that of improving machinery, they often cannot afford to invest as much capital in the training of workmen as they should.And they forego investing at the thought of being in the same position as the farmer who, with the precarity of his tenure and the uncertain return of his improvements, throws his capital into raising the value of the land of the landlord. Moreover, the benefits of this generous employer in terms of paying workers high wages and caring for workers' welfare and culture will not disappear in his generation. Because the children of the workers share in these interests, they must grow stronger and stronger in body and character.The labor price he pays must become a production fee to increase the supply of advanced industrial capabilities in the next generation; but these capabilities will be the property of others, and they have the right to sell them at the highest price.Neither the employer nor even his children can hope to receive a large material reward for the good he has done. The second characteristic of the fifth section.The worker and his work are inseparable. Among those peculiarities of the action of demand and supply which are peculiar to labour, the second which we must examine is that, when a man sells his services, he must be present at the place where they are served.It does not matter to the seller of bricks whether the bricks are used to build palaces, or to make sewers.But to the man who sells his labor, since he is charged with performing certain difficult tasks, it matters a great deal to him whether the workplace is healthy and pleasant, and whether his co-workers are as he would like them to be. .In the long-term wage system that survives in some parts of England, the laborer is as cautious about his new employer's temper as he is about his wages. This peculiarity of labor is extremely important in many individual cases, but it does not seldom produce such a wide and deep influence as the above-mentioned ones.The more unsatisfactory the opportunities in an industry, the higher will naturally be the wages required to attract men to it; but whether these opportunities have any lasting and widespread harm depends on whether they impair health and physical strength, or weaken It depends on the character of the person.When they do not belong to this class, they are evils in themselves, and generally do not cause other evils; their effects are seldom cumulative. Since a person cannot sell his labor unless he is present in the labor market, it follows that mobility of labor and mobility of laborers are interchangeable terms.A reluctance to leave home and abandon old acquaintances (perhaps including his beloved cottage and ancestral grave) often prevented him from seeking a higher wage in a new place.If the members of the family have their own occupations, migration is to the advantage of one at the disadvantage of others, and the inseparability of the worker from his labor greatly hinders the diversion of the supply of labor with the demand for it.But this will be discussed later. The third characteristic and the fourth characteristic of the sixth section.Labor is destructible, and its sellers are often at a disadvantage in bargaining. Moreover, labor is often sold under exceptionally unfavorable conditions, arising from a series of closely interrelated facts; namely, that labor power is expendable; Labor cannot be preserved. Consumability is a property common to all kinds of labor.The time lost by the worker in unemployment is irretrievable, though on some occasions his energies may be restored by rest.It should be remembered, however, that much of the working power of the material factors of production is equally expendable; for the greater part of the income which cannot be earned while idle, is entirely lost.It is true that some waste may be saved if the factory or steamship is idle, but this saving is often insignificant compared with the revenue sacrificed by the manufacturer; Losses cannot be compensated. In addition, many salable goods are also consumable.In the general strike of London longshoremen in 1889, the perishability of many ships' fruit, meat, etc. had an extremely favorable impact on the striking workers. The lack of reserves and the weakness of supporting long-term unsold power are characteristics common to almost all kinds of manual laborers, and this applies especially to those unskilled workers, firstly because their wages are so difficult to save them, and secondly. It is because when some of them stop working, there are many who can replace them.When we discuss trade unions, we know right away that it is much harder for unskilled workers than for skilled workers to form ourselves into strong and durable unions that are on an equal footing with employers in bargaining.For it must be remembered that the employer who employs a thousand workers is himself an absolutely solid combination of a thousand buyers in the labor market. However, what has been said above does not apply to all labor.Domestic servants, though not having much savings in their hands and seldom having any formal unions, were sometimes more consistent in action than their masters.The real gross wages of domestic servants in the upper classes of London are much higher than in other occupations requiring an equal degree of ability and proficiency.On the other hand, those domestic servants who are not particularly skilled, when employed by masters who are not very wealthy, often cannot win for themselves decent terms; they work very hard, and receive the lowest wages. With regard to the highest grades of labor in industry, we find that they generally have the advantage in bargaining with the purchasers of their labour.Many in the freelance class are wealthier, more saved, more knowledgeable, and more cooperative in terms of the terms on which they sell their services than most of their clients. If it were to be further proved that the general disadvantage of the seller of labor in bargaining is determined by his circumstances and abilities, not by the fact that the particular commodity which he has to sell is labour, this is best demonstrated by It is the case of the famous lawyer, doctor, singer or equestrian and those poorer independent producers of goods.For example, those who collect seashells in remote areas to sell in the large central markets have small reserves of funds, limited knowledge, and limited knowledge of producers in other parts of the country, while those who buy shells do not. It is a close-knit small group of wholesalers who have extensive knowledge and relatively large financial reserves. Therefore, sellers of shells are in a disadvantageous position in terms of bargaining.The same is generally true of the women and children who sell hand-woven lace, and the small owners in the East End of London who sell their furniture to dealers. Indeed, manual workers, as a class, are at a disadvantage in bargaining.Where there is such a disadvantage, its influence can easily be passed on to future generations. For if there is competition among employers, they do not seem to bid up the price of labor far below what it really is worth to them, that is to say, below that highest price which they would rather But whatever lowers wages tends to lessen the efficiency of the labourer's labor, and hence tends to lower the price at which the employer would rather pay it than throw it away. The laborer's disadvantage in bargaining, therefore, has two cumulative effects: it lowers his wages; and the lowering of wages, as we know, reduces the efficiency of his work; thereby lowering the normal value of his labour.Moreover, it reduces his efficiency as a bargainer, and thus increases his chances of selling his labor for less than its normal value.