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Tendency Of The Rate Of Profit To Fall
The tendency of the rate of profit to fall (TRPF) is a theory in the crisis theory of political economy, according to which the rate of profit—the ratio of the profit to the amount of invested capital—decreases over time. This hypothesis gained additional prominence from its discussion by Karl Marx in Chapter 13 of '' Capital, Volume III,'' but economists as diverse as Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, David Ricardo and William Stanley Jevons referred explicitly to the TRPF as an empirical phenomenon that demanded further theoretical explanation, although they differed on the reasons why the TRPF should necessarily occur. Some scholars, such as David Harvey, argue against the TRPF as a quantitative phenomenon, arguing it is an internal logic driving the movement of capital itself. Geoffrey Hodgson stated that the theory of the TRPF "has been regarded, by most Marxists, as the backbone of revolutionary Marxism. According to this view, its refutation or removal would lead to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crisis Theory
Crisis theory, concerning the causes and consequences of the tendency for the rate of profit to fall in a capitalist system, is associated with Marxian critique of political economy, and was further popularised through Marxist economics. History Earlier analysis by Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi provided the first suggestions of the systemic roots of Crisis. "The distinctive feature of Sismondi's analysis is that it is geared to an explicit dynamic model in the modern sense of this phrase ... Sismondi's great merit is that he used, systematically and explicitly, a schema of periods, that is, that he was the first to practice the particular method of dynamics that is called period analysis". Marx praised and built on Sismondi's theoretical insights. Rosa Luxemburg and Henryk Grossman both subsequently drew attention to both Sismondi's work on the nature of capitalism, and as a reference point for Karl Marx. Grossman in particular pointed out how Sismondi had contributed t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Productivity
Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production process, i.e. output per unit of input, typically over a specific period of time. The most common example is the (aggregate) labour productivity measure, one example of which is GDP per worker. There are many different definitions of productivity (including those that are not defined as ratios of output to input) and the choice among them depends on the purpose of the productivity measurement and data availability. The key source of difference between various productivity measures is also usually related (directly or indirectly) to how the outputs and the inputs are aggregated to obtain such a ratio-type measure of productivity. Productivity is a crucial factor in the production performance of firms and nations. Increasing national productivi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reserve Army Of Labor
Reserve army of labour is a concept in Karl Marx's critique of political economy. It refers to the unemployed and underemployed in capitalist society. It is synonymous with "industrial reserve army" or "relative surplus population", except that the unemployed can be defined as those actually looking for work and that the relative surplus population also includes people unable to work. The use of the word "army" refers to the workers being conscripted and regimented in the workplace in a hierarchy under the command or authority of the owners of capital. Marx did not invent the term "reserve army of labour". It was already being used by Friedrich Engels in his 1845 book ''The Condition of the Working Class in England''. What Marx did was theorize the reserve army of labour as a necessary part of the capitalist organization of work. Prior to what Marx regarded as the start of the capitalist era in human history (i.e. before the 16th century), structural unemployment on a mass scale ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constant Capital
Constant or The Constant may refer to: Mathematics * Constant (mathematics), a non-varying value * Mathematical constant, a special number that arises naturally in mathematics, such as or Other concepts * Control variable or scientific constant, in experimentation the unchanging or constant variable * Physical constant, a physical quantity generally believed to be universal and unchanging * Constant (computer programming), a value that, unlike a variable, cannot be reassociated with a different value * Logical constant, a symbol in symbolic logic that has the same meaning in all models, such as the symbol "=" for "equals" People * Constant (given name) * Constant (surname) * John, Elector of Saxony (1468–1532), known as John the Constant * Constant Nieuwenhuys (1920-2005), better known as Constant Places * Constant, Barbados, a populated place Arts and entertainment * " The Constant", a 2008 episode of the television show ''Lost'' * ''The Constant'' (Story of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Immiseration Thesis
In Marxist theory and Marxian economics, the immiseration thesis, also referred to as emiseration thesis, is derived from Karl Marx's analysis of economic development in capitalism, implying that the nature of capitalist production stabilizes real wages, reducing wage growth relative to total value creation in the economy. Even if real wages rise, therefore, the overall labor share of income decreases, leading to the increasing power of capital in society. The immiseration thesis is related to Marx's analysis of the rising organic composition of capital and reduced demand for labor relative to capital equipment as technology develops. The "Law of Increasing Misery" (also known as the immiseration thesis) is a concept central to Marxist theory, suggesting that capitalism inherently leads to a decline in the standard of living for the working class, even if wages may technically rise, while simultaneously enriching the capitalist class. This theory posits that the nature of capita ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Labor Power
Labour power (; ) is the capacity to work, a key concept used by Karl Marx in his critique of capitalist political economy. Marx distinguished between the capacity to do the work, i.e. labour power, and the physical act of working, i.e. labour. Human labour power exists in any kind of society, but on what terms it is traded or combined with means of production to produce goods and services has historically varied greatly. The general idea of labour-power had existed previously in classical political economy. Adam Smith's ''The Wealth of Nations'' and David Ricardo's '' On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation'' already referred to the "productive powers of labour". However, Marx made the concept much more precise, critically examining the functions of labour-power in production, how labour-power is used, organized and exploited, and how it is typically valued and priced in bourgeois society. Under capitalism, according to Marx, the ''productive powers of labour'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rate Of Exploitation
In Marxian economics, the rate of exploitation is the ratio of the total amount of unpaid labor done (surplus-value) to the total amount of wages paid (the value of labour power). The rate of exploitation is often also called the rate of surplus-value. Divergence of the two rates Marx did not regard the rate of surplus value and the rate of exploitation as necessarily identical, ''insofar'' as there was a divergence between surplus value ''realised'' and surplus value ''produced''. Thus, the quantity of surplus labour performed by workers in an enterprise might correspond to a value higher or lower than the surplus value actually ''realised'' as profit income upon sales of output. The implication is that if the gross profit volume was related to wage costs to establish the rate of surplus value, this might overstate or understate the real rate of labor-exploitation. Although this is a subtle point, it has sometimes played an important role in wage bargaining negotiations by tra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David McLellan (political Scientist)
David McLellan (born 10 February 1940) is an English scholar of Marxism. He has written extensively on the thought of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Simone Weil. Life David McLellan was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and St. John's College, Oxford University. McLellan is currently visiting professor of political theory at Goldsmiths' College, University of London. He was previously professor of political theory at the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent. He has also been visiting professor at the State University of New York, guest fellow in politics at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Simla, and has lectured widely in North America and Europe. Bibliography * ''The Young Hegelians and Karl Marx ''The Young Hegelians and Karl Marx'' is a 1969 book by the political scientist David McLellan. Summary McLellan examines the transformations of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's thought by the Young Hegelians, and the in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ernest Mandel
Ernest Ezra Mandel (; 5 April 1923 – 20 July 1995), also known by various pseudonyms such as Ernest Germain, Pierre Gousset, Henri Vallin, Walter, was a Belgian Marxian economist, Trotskyist activist and theorist, and Holocaust survivor. He fought in the underground resistance against the Nazis during the occupation of Belgium. Life Born in Frankfurt, Mandel was recruited to the Belgian section of the international Trotskyist movement, the Fourth International, in his youth in Antwerp. His parents, Henri and Rosa Mandel, were Jewish emigres from Poland, the former a member of Rosa Luxemburg's and Karl Liebknecht's Spartacist League. The beginning of Mandel's period at university was interrupted when the German occupying forces closed the university. During World War II, while still a teenager, he joined the Belgian Trotskyist organisation alongside Abraham Leon and Martin Monath. He twice escaped after being arrested in the course of resistance activities, and surviv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Weeks (economist)
John Weeks (1941 – 26 July 2020) was an American economist, critic of neoliberal economics and a policy advisor to the Labour party under Jeremy Corbyn. Life Weeks was born in Austin, Texas in a middle-class family. He received a degree in economics from the University of Texas in 1963 and subsequently enrolled in PhD-studies. Weeks was also active in the US-anti war efforts during the late sixties. Weeks completed his doctorate in 1969 and went on to teach at Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria before becoming a lecturer at the University of Sussex in 1971. Weeks later became an advisor for the Nicaraguan government's planning ministry. In 1985 Weeks was called out as a "dangerous academic" by a conservative organization. In this context, where Weeks felt that the US environment was increasingly hostile, Weeks enthusiastically accepted leaving the US to become professor emeritus at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. His research interests ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels" ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; 28 November 1820 – 5 August 1895) was a German philosopher, political theorist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He was also a businessman and Karl Marx's lifelong friend and closest collaborator, serving as the co-founder of Marxism. Born in Barmen in the Kingdom of Prussia, Engels was the son of a wealthy textile manufacturer. Despite his Bourgeoisie, bourgeois background, he became a staunch critic of capitalism, influenced by his observations of industrial working conditions in Manchester, England, as published in his early work ''The Condition of the Working Class in England'' (1845). He met Marx in 1844, after which they jointly authored works including ''The Holy Family (book), The Holy Family'' (1844), ''The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social Reform Or Revolution?
''Social Reform or Revolution?'' () is an 1899 pamphlet by Polish-German Marxist theorist Rosa Luxemburg. Luxemburg argues that trade unions, reformist political parties and the expansion of social democracy—while important to the proletariat's development of class consciousness—cannot create a socialist society as Eduard Bernstein, among others, argued. Instead, she argues from a historical materialist perspective that capitalism is economically unsustainable and will eventually collapse and that a revolution is necessary to transform capitalism into socialism. The pamphlet was heavily influential in revolutionary socialist circles and along with Luxemburg's other work an important precursor to left communist theory. Background In 1878, Germany's chancellor Otto von Bismarck imposed anti-socialist laws. As a result, thousands were arrested and hundreds exiled, political newspapers were closed and all political activity except elections was made illegal. During this period, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
