w wages. Almost all natives in Guatemala build and own their own thatched huts, The climate is warm and artificial heat is never needed. Nobody requires steam heat or base-burners. A cotton shirt and cotton trousers clothe a man as well as his neighbors, so that the cost of living is a very negligible quantity. Bread fruit and bananas grow wild, and 10 or 12 cents a day will keep a native in comfort, a recent magazine article, which dwelt upon the advantages of capital in Central America reports that Guatemala natives receive, on the average, 9, 10 or 12 cents a day.
If the Central American natives were driven to toil as fiercely as we are of the states, Guatemala would be a heaven for capitalists. But it is still possible for them to live without much labor. When, however, the capitalists gain control of the land, so that the natives will be forced to sell their labor-power in order to live, more exploiters of labor will turn toward the land where the cost of living is almost nothing (labor-power of little value), and where they will be able to appropriate a still larger portion of unpaid labor.
From no angle can we find where low prices will benefit the working class for any appreciable length of time, because the struggle for jobs soon brings wages down to just about enough to live on.
The workingmen and women of Belgium have long labored to reduce the cost of living in Belgium. They have formed co-operatives and we learn that they actually HAVE been able to lower the prices on the necessities of life. If we had list prices of groceries in Belgium, we would probably be amazed at the difference in their prices and ours. And still only recently a Belgian Socialist wrote us that his country was still the Heaven for capitalists and the hell for workingmen and women.
Will wages in Belgium be as high as they are in Colorado or in Ohio? Why not? Are the Belgium comrades any better off than we are?
If every workingman owned his own home in Salt Lake City, would this tend to INCREASE or to DECREASE wages there? Explain why.
Why do the owners of factories usually build them in small towns? Why are there so few factories in New York and Chicago?
Is the wage-worker exploited of his product at the mine or factory or is he CHEATED when he spends his wages for the necessities of life?
Before you reply to the above question, reply to the following:
What determines the value of your labor-power? What determines the value of any commodity?
Does A (the cost of living) have anything to do with the amount of B (wages) you will receive?
If B (wages) are not equal in value to A (the cost of living) will this mean that you HAVE NOT RECEIVED the value of your labor-power, or will it mean that the grocer, and butcher, and clothier are cheating you?
If wages (B) are reduced will your employer be able to appropriate more surplus value?
Owing to the improved methods of production the necessities of life are slowly decreasing in value. A contains less labor; is less valuable. Gold also is decreasing in value, contains less social labor. What would be the natural explanation of the fact that gold today exchanges for FEWER commodities than it did five years ago? Which would you expect to have decreased most in value–gold or the necessities of life?
If the necessities of life decreased FASTER than the value of gold decreased, would prices of the necessities fall? In this case B would be of more value than A. Would wages continue to be of more value than A for very long? Would general co-operatives for reducing the cost of living in America benefit the working class? Or would they tend to reduce wages? Why?
Will we have to exclude the natives of Central America from the United States in order to prevent them from competing with us to sell their labor-power? Or are they already taking jobs from American cotton workers even though working in Guatemala? Explain.
We have been considering Low Prices and their effect upon the working class. We discovered that, owing to the competition among wage-workers for jobs, wages are reduced (when prices fall) to just