Wages Prices and Profit

[Questionable]

Can someone provide me with a synopsis of "Wages, Prices and Profit" by Marx? I'm crippled at math so the more economic works like this really confuse the hell out of me.

It seems like Marx is saying that raising wages would merely cause capitalists to move to more profitable fields, but then he goes onto say that raising wages doesn't make a difference? How can you pay workers more money without it making a difference?

I'm sorry, but I'm simply lost in regards to economics. Can someone help me understand the message Marx is trying to convey here?

[Prinskaj]

It seems like Marx is saying that raising wages would merely cause capitalists to move to more profitable fields, but then he goes onto say that raising wages doesn't make a difference? How can you pay workers more money without it making a difference?
Are you referring to the start of Value, Price and Profit?
Weston's argument is, summed up, that national production stays the same, and that wages must therefore stagnate, since if production doesn't rise, then neither can wages.
Marx therefore argues that given a stagnate production, the capital distribution of the system can still be changes. He even gives the example:
"If I have a given number, say eight, the absolute limits of this number do not prevent its parts from changing their relative limits. If profits were six and wages two, wages might increase to six and profits decrease to two, and still the total amount remain eight. The fixed amount of production would by no means prove the fixed amount of wages."

[Jimmie Higgins]

Can someone provide me with a synopsis of "Wages, Prices and Profit" by Marx? I'm crippled at math so the more economic works like this really confuse the hell out of me.

It seems like Marx is saying that raising wages would merely cause capitalists to move to more profitable fields, but then he goes onto say that raising wages doesn't make a difference? How can you pay workers more money without it making a difference?

I'm sorry, but I'm simply lost in regards to economics. Can someone help me understand the message Marx is trying to convey here?

As well as I can remember:

Weston's argument is a common one we hear today: if workers win increased wages, then capitalists will merely raise prices and then any gains by the workers will be neutralized.

Marx counters by saying this argument is based on a misunderstanding of how the economy works. First he asks why if wages are fixed, are they fixed at their current levels - whose to say that $8/hr is the natural wage to have equilibrium in the economy and not $10 or $12? Why if the national economy fixed, does the national production level change independent of population? What makes a wage too high or too low?

The misunderstanding, according to Marx, is the idea that the price of commodities is determined by wages: that capitalists take the price of the labor and rent and materials and then add on some extra price to get the profit. If that's true, then if workers when workers wages rise, then the capitalist just transfers that to the price. Instead, Marx says that the value of a commodity is determined by the amount of socially necessary (average under normal conditions) labor as well as the dead labor (the past labor done to all the raw materials and parts). But but because workers are paid a wage, they are not paid based on how much value their labor creates, but are worked harder or longer than the cost of their labor. It might take me 3 hours to produce enough value to pay for my wages, but then I still have to work 5 more hours and that becomes surplus value for my bosses: profits.


How can you pay workers more money without it making a difference?So with Marx's formulation of how profits come from hidden exploitation in the discrepancy between the value created by labor and what workers are paid - rather than profits just coming from capitalists inflating the price arbitrarily (gouging) or through supply and demand fluctuations (higher wages don't actually impact the price of the commodity. Workers are fighting for a greater share of the surplus they have created and the bosses are fighting to reduce our share) the value remains the same.

So going back to my example. If I work 3 hours to create value equal to what I am paid but then work 5 more hours that just go to my bosses, then if I get a raise, now I'm working 5 hours to equal my increased cost and only giving the bosses 3.

This is oversimplified and I might be a bit rusty, but I hope this was clear enough.