"wages are relative to what you already have"

[Matty_UK]

OK, I'm at university and I keep hearing this crap from posh students that wages are relative to what you already have. Basically the idea is that sweatshops are "OK" because the people who work in them; ex-subsistence farmers; have nothing to begin with so it isn't any worse if they work for subsistence level wages. Then they say that once they have subsistence wages, other employers will offer higher pay to attract workers increasing it above subsistence level, and therefore wages naturally rise under capitalism. I call bullshit just by looking at the state of the world, and wages only rise with class struggle and without class struggle they'll be taken down again over time.

Does anyone have a thorough explanation of how crap this theory is that will silence these idiots and make them at least accept that class struggle is a necassary thing?

[Cooler Reds Will Prevail]

First we have to realize that, while capitalists are in competition with one another, they share the same interest: profit. Yes, they want to lure workers and sell products, but none of them are going to lower their prices or raise their wages in such a way that would significantly sacrifice their profit. Second, we have to realize that there is a severe absence of work in these countries to begin with. Capitalists don't have to pander to workers to bring them to their factories, workers have to succumb to their employers. Factory B could very well open next door to Factory A and offer lower wages and the 3rd world proletariat would quickly fill this labor vacuum out of desperation.

The truth is the exact opposite: wages generally lower over time as capitalists strive for increased profit in a competitive market where product innovation is increasingly difficult: much of the capitalist market nowadays is based around selling consumers newer, supposedly improved versions of the same shit they already had. Not to go off on a tangent, but this is one of the ways in which capitalism actually impedes technological progress. Products are slowly released with inferior technology than what is available so that the capitalist can force consumers to constantly upgrade to their new arsenal of products that would have otherwise been available much earlier. But back to my original point, prices can only be raised so much before people won't buy them, but fortunately for the capitalist, wages can always be lowered and yet throughout the majority of the world, the work force will remain.