shag carpet bomb wrote:
>
> oh horse shit. these arcane technical arguments are always about how
> someone said something that contradicts some precious theory about how
> capitalism works and, therefore, how it's going to . . . .
Reread Marx's Wages, price & profits & his reasons for writing it.
We are talking about the morale of reisistance forces, and whether or not they simply give up until the revolution happens.
Whhy get a pay raise. The boss simply raises prices. You haven't gained anything.
The inherent tendency is for prices to steadily go up and wages constantly go down. To stay even workers must struggle to raise their nominal wages.
And so forth. If they don't resist they will be reduced to one level of poverty that will make them unfit for any higher struggle.
You are more or less repeating Citiszen Watson's (?) argument in the First International, which Marx attempted to refute.
Also your arguments on this thread _seem_ to focus on the petty producer (outside the capitalist system) rather than on capitalist relations. _You_ pay _me_. That's what the private plumber says to his customer. It's not what the mass of workers say to the ultimate customers (themselves) of their employer.
Carrol