[PEN-L:1747] raising the minimum wage (Paul Z's take)

[JDevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (James Devine)]

Paul Zarembka suggests that since the wages of unproductive labor
are part of surplus-value, there is room for a minimum wage
increase.

But the capitalists find their expenditures on unproductive labor
to be something they want to do and will resist any cutbacks on
that spending in order to pay for the wages of productive labor.
Remember that though on the societal level, expenditures on
unproductive labor do not contribute to the creation of
surplus-value (by definition), on the microeconomic level, where
decisions are actually made, the hiring of unproductive labor can
be quite profitable. Capitalists suffer from the fetishism of
commodities, not seeing things in Marxian terms or understanding
the true, societal, origins of surplus-value or their profit. Put
another way, paraphrasing Engels, there's a contradiction between
socialized production (of surplus-value) and individualized
appropriation of profits (and invididualized decision-making).

A concrete example: hiring advertising staff does not increase
societal surplus-value (since all it does is facilitate the sale
of already produced commodities), but it is profitable,
especially since all of a capitalist's competitors are doing so.

in pen-l solidarity,

Jim Devine   jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Econ. Dept., Loyola Marymount Univ.
7900 Loyola Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045-8410 USA
310/338-2948 (daytime, during workweek); FAX: 310/338-1950
"Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way
and let people talk.) -- K. Marx, paraphrasing Dante A.