 about the cost of living. In discussing Low Prices we have learned what would happen to B, (wages) as a result.
We are still speaking of commodities which exchange at their values.
If A (Or the value of the necessities of life) is doubled, the value of your labor-power will also be doubled, Suppose A is doubled without B being increased accordingly–the value of food, clothing and shelter be twice what it was formerly and wages remain stationary. Reformers will tell you that the grocer, the butcher, clothier and landlord are exploiting you.
They say that your employer exploits you, but that when you go to spend your wages these other men also cheat or rob you.
But if wages (B) do not rise to the same level as the necessities of life (A) this merely means that your boss is no longer paying you the value of your labor-power. The value of food, clothing and shelter determine the value of your labor-power.
Do not be confused into thinking because rents are "high," or because food is expensive that you are exploited when you pay' for these things. As A increases in value your labor-power increases in value. And only when wages equal the cost of living are you receiving the value of your labor-power.
Shortage of workingmen may cause labor-power to exchange above its value temporarily; shortage or an over supply of any commodity may cause it to exchange above or below its value for a short time. But monopoly alone can cause a commodity to exchange above its value for any length of time. To repeat:
Reformer says: The wage worker receives his wages. That he is exploited by his employer. But when he goes to buy shoes, food, meat or clothes, he finds the owner of these commodities selling them at a higher price than he can pay. Then the reformers conclude that these merchants are exploiting the workers also. These people do not understand that the value of A (the necessities of life) determine wages.
Not all individual workingmen or women receive the value of their labor-power. Some men and women receive a little more than the value of labor-power. We know a young girl in this city who works in a department store for $5.00 a week. She cannot buy food, clothing and shelter for $5.00. Her brother receives $18.00 a week. He can live on less than that sum. He helps his sister pay her expenses. Thus both receive the value of their labor-power.
Men cannot work long upon less wages than the value of their labor-power. They must have help from without. Fortunate members of families help those who do not earn enough to live on. Thousands of families receive intermittent aid from charity organizations, so that the working class, in general, receives just about the value of its labor-power. In other words, the army, of workers receive enough to produce more workers for tomorrow and twenty years from now. It is the unemployed fighting for jobs who force wages down almost to the bare cost of living.
We see how an increase in the value of A means a consequent increase in the value of labor-power. We must not, therefore, berate the grocer, the butcher or landlord when our employers fail to pay us the value of our labor-power. We will be forced to demand higher wages in order to live.
But High Prices do not necessarily mean that food, clothing, etc., have increased in value. It may mean that gold–or the medium of exchange–has decreased in value.
The tendency of almost all commodities is to decrease in value, as modern production lessens the necessary labor contained in them. Gold may decrease in value faster than the value of meat, shoes, bread and clothing has decreased.
A is shrinking, but B (wages) are shrinking faster in value. Since gold (or wages) is outdecreasing the necessities of life, in value, it exchanges for fewer of them. One dollar buys less meat today than it bought five years ago.
Reformers are crying for Low Prices, but revolutionists are demanding Higher Wages (the value of their labor-power) in all the gold standard countries today. They are also working for the abolition of wage-slavery tomorrow. Everywhere we see wages slowly