>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 passage demonstrates that Marx was not arguing that immiseration is absolute, but it corresponds with accumulation of capital. Capital cannot accumulate beyond a certain point way below the total social labour of the society, and in practice it is fettered by the limited spending power of the masses.
The total volume of use values available to a society may rise with productivity, but that is not the same point.
Nor is the fact that inflation of the currency may appear to lead to a continual rise in capital. But as a proportion of the total social labour, it is finite.
Chris Burford