Malthusian wage theory

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The Malthusian wage theory is a theoretical postulate of the British political economist Thomas Robert Malthus , which is integrated into his population theory (see Malthusian catastrophe ).

Malthus explained the theorem of subsistence wages, which emerged in Great Britain in the 18th century and later in France (see Physiocrats ), which was initially conceived more as an imperative of entrepreneurial activity (workers should not receive money wages that did more than they were entitled to before starvation preserve), to a “law of nature”: Objectively, wages could at best ensure simple self-preservation - understood as and limited to adequate nutrition - for workers. The real wage is ultimately determined by the interaction of population movement (according to Malthus, by structural overpopulation) and an absolutely limited wage fund. He has the "natural" tendency to reduce the growth of the "laboring classes" to a level that maintains and reproduces the given population size; under certain circumstances, the real wage would also fall below a level that would condemn the “surplus population” to starvation, possibly also to starvation. For Malthus this was not only an inevitable law of nature, but also highly desirable, so he harshly criticized state support for the poor (see Poor Laws ). According to Malthus, the working population is growing in real terms relative to the disposable wage fund - and tends to be faster than this. That is why for Malthus there is basically “no problem how the necessary amount of wage labor is to be procured: it is always there.” Since the working class never has enough purchasing power to consume the goods produced due to the “legal” subsistence wages Capitalists, however, cannot sell the masses of commodities to one another for profit , would have to step into the breach by an idle class of unproductive wealthy consumers, whom Malthus saw embodied in aristocratic landowners, pensioners, rentiers, etc.

This “theory of eternal misery” was sometimes criticized as a straightforward justification - “naturalization” - of starvation wages; Malthus' whole system is characterized by "clumsy vulgarism and uncompromising apologetics". Other commentators pointed to conceptual contradictions: Werner Sombart reproached Malthus for “having confused the terms 'law' and 'tendency' in an unbearable way” and called him an “arch confusionary”.

Karl Marx , Theories of Added Value , 1956

Nevertheless, Malthus' influence on the further development of the wage theory is noteworthy, for example with a view to Ricardo . Structurally related to Malthus' assumptions are, among other things, the relevant views of Lassalle (cf. “ Iron Wage Law ”), who, however, started from somewhat different premises and came to different conclusions. Keynes did not refer to Malthus' naturalistic wage theory, but repeatedly found friendly words for the apology of "parasitic consumption" based on it and the associated recognition of structural barriers to profit realization. In the Grundrisse of the Critique of Political Economy , among other things, Marx dealt relatively extensively and critically with Malthus - albeit mainly with his concepts of capital , profit and value ; Malthus' economic doctrines are - according to Marx - overall "conclusions that are 'pleasant' to the aristocracy against the bourgeoisie and both against the proletariat."

literature

  • Evers, Heinz, The Problem of Poverty with Thomas Robert Malthus , (Diss.) Cologne 1967.
  • Meek, Ronald L. (Eds.), Marx and Engels on Malthus , Berlin 1956.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Malthus, Thomas Robert, An Essay on the Principle of Population, London 1890, p. 363 and passim, and Malthus, Thomas Robert, Principles of Political Economy, London 1836, pp. 217-261.
  2. ^ Sombart, Werner, Modern Capitalism. Historical-systematic presentation of pan-European economic life from its beginnings to the present, Volume III / 1, Munich-Leipzig 1927, p. 310.
  3. ^ Woytinski, Vladimir S. (inter alia), Employment and Wages in the United States, New York 1953, p. 545.
  4. ^ Krause, Werner, Graupner, Karl-Heinz, Sieber, Rolf (eds.), Ökonomenlexikon, Berlin 1989, p. 327.
  5. ↑ Sombart, Capitalism, Volume III / 1, p. 308.
  6. ↑ Sombart, Capitalism, Volume III / 1, p. 307.
  7. ↑ See Meißner, Herbert (ed.), History of political economy. Grundriss, Berlin 1985, p. 517 and Horst Claus Recktenwald (Hrsg.): History of political economy. An introduction to images of life (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 427). Kröner, Stuttgart 1971, ISBN 3-530-42701-X , pp. 128ff.
  8. ↑ See Marx, Karl, Grundrisse der Critique of Political Economy, Berlin 1953, pp. 461–473, 491–493, 499–501.
  9. Jump up ↑ Marx, Karl, Theorien über dem Zusatzwert, in: Marx, Karl, Engels, Friedrich, Werke, Volume 26/2, Berlin 1974, p. 112.