Marxiana

[Brad De Long]

>
>In Capital Marx attacks the overpopulation thesis, showing that the law
>of surplus population is not a natural disproportion between means of
>consumption and numbers, but rather an artificially created
>disproportion between 'variable capital' (the wage fund) and the numbers
>of wage labourers. (Capital, vol I, p594, General law of capital
>accumulation, section 3 Progressive production of a relative surplus
>population).
>
>In The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, Marx tells the theory of
>overpopulation dripping with sarcasm:
>
>'Frugality as the principle of political economy is _most brilliantly_
>shown in its _theory of population_. There are too _many_ people. Even
>the existence of men is a pure luxury.'
>

Very true.

The problem is that there are also a number of places in which Marx says
that the value of labor power is its cost of production, and that the cost
of production of labor power is the subsistence necessary to keep the
worker alive.

I believe that Marx (i) didn't like Malthus, and explicitly rejected
Malthusian arguments; but (ii) nevertheless retained large components of
the Malthusian system and its conclusions in his mind as a poorly-digested
lump of ideas and concepts...

Brad DeLong