>Again, workers wages is based on
>bargaining power - not bare survival needs.
A modern industrial worker needs more than bare survival to be of any use to the employing class. Try sending out a resume which merely states that you are alive, see how many job offers you get. (Though even the fact that you can send out a resume indicates that you can offer more than merely being alive.) So you need to appreciate that the socially-necessary minimum wage is quite a bit more than the bare minimum for bare survival.
> Workers have as much as
>they can extract from employers.
Yes, which from time to time will be less than what is socially-necessary. Sometimes a bit more. But on average they will achieve only what is necessary. Obviously better organised workers are more likely to achieve over the current market rate for their labour and unorganised workers a bit less.
But it seems a serious error to imagine that the cost of production of any commodity is irelevant as a factor in determining the market price. Remember, market prices are a balance between supply and demand. If the market price gets too far below the cost of production, then this will squeeze supply. However if the market price somehow gets too far above the cost of production, then alternatives will become more attractive.
So workers bargaining power has severe limits in a market economy. The limit is, roughly, the cost of production of labour. But the cost of production of labour is far more than the cost of keeping the worker alive.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas