Immiseration (was Krugman on Marx)

Fellows, Jeffrey jmf9 at cdc.gov
Thu Aug 13 12:23:00 PDT 1998


see page 645 of Capital V1 (1967 new world edition). After talking about the degradation of labor through advancement of the machine process, to quote:

"But all methods for the production of surplus-value are at the same time methods of accumulation; and every extension of accumulatio becomes again a means for the development of those methods. It follows therefore that in proportion as capital accumulates, the lot of the labourer, be his payment high or low, must grow worse. The law, finally, that always equilkibrates the relative surplus-population, or industrial reserve army, to the extent and energy of accumulation, this law rivets the labourer to capital more firmly than the wedges of Vulcan did Prometheus to the rock. It establishes an accumulation of misery, corresponding with accumulation of capital."

This leads me to ask a question about the nature of the reserve army today as it relates to notions of concentrated poverty. If there are areas where poverty is excessive and certain segments of the population are isolated in those areas without real connections to the (legal) system of production, can this portion of the unemployed be considered part of the research army?

Jeff

---------- From: Lew To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com Subject: Re: Krugman on Marx Date: Thursday, August 13, 1998 2:32PM

In article <Pine.SOL.3.96.980813110705.8054A-100000 at flagstaff.Princeton. EDU>, Rakesh Bhandari <bhandari at phoenix.Princeton.EDU> writes


>Brad refers to the empirical refutation of Marx's immiseration theory,
>though does not specify what he understands by it.

The phrase "immiseration of the proletariat" is often attributed to Marx, though I have not found it in any of his writings. It suggests increasing poverty for the working class. The ususal claim for the source is the chapter on "The General Law of Capitalist Accummulation" in Volume 1 of Capital:

"But the greater this reserve army in proportion to the active labour army, the greater is the mass of a consolidated surplus population, whose misery is in inverse ratio to its torment of labour. The more extensive, finally, the lazarus-layers of the working class, and the industrial reserve army, the greater is official pauperism. This is the absolute general law of capitalist accummulation."

In other words, the absolute general law of capitalist pauperism concerns the unemployed (the "industrial reserve army", the "surplus population", the "lazarus layers" of the working class), not the working class generally.

-- Lew



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