Fellows and Marxian subsistence

[Greg Nowell]

Jeffrey Fellows:
IMHO, it seems that Keynesian policies can alter what
Marx referred to as
the culturally-specific level of subsistence living.
That we in the US
expect to be able to afford a newer car, a decent
house, etc.  (you know the
rest), instead of living in sod huts consuming
potatoes, made no difference
to Marx when it came to having some of these things
taken away. It may be
that the experiences in the US over the last two
decades is related to a
contraction in our culturally-specific level of
material subsistence (at
least that part not ameliorated by increased personal
debt). The benefit
being increased levels of surplus value (subject to
empirical validation of
course).

Nowell:

I'm in the process of reading a very interesting book
called "Subjective Political Economy" which tackles the
subsistence issue at some length.  It argues that the
Smith/Ricardo/Marx tradition is in fact ambivalent on
this point, arguing at one point for "bare minimum for
physical survival" and arguing at other points for some
kind of relative minimum defined by social context,
class, etc.

The point is non-trivial.  Ultimately the "inevitable
revolution" thesis rests on the notion that death would
be better than living under capitalist domination, and
that there is a mechanism (declining profits) at work
in capitalism which will bring this about. My opinion:
If you adopt the relative subsistence thesis, then the
minimum wage level to which capitalist can push has a
floor defined by some current standard.  If all that
means is fewer movies or no speedboat for vacation,
then you are not going to get a revolutionary class out
"relastive subsistence", even if there is a discernible
profit squeeze leading to pressure on wages.   The
relative subsistence notion undermines the immiseration
thesis; it points to Keynesian "solutions" to
capitalist crisis, since ultimately an "upwardly
mobile" subsistence level provides a level of demand
that mitigates against the "crisis" of falling wages
(for the worker, and for capitalists).

-gn
--
Gregory P. Nowell
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science, Milne 100
State University of New York
135 Western Ave.
Albany, New York 12222

Fax 518-442-5298