A B C of modern socialism

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By controlling a particular supply of labour, a trade union can raise the rate of wages of its own members, but not the wages of the proletariat in general and per unit.

What is the meaning of these various terms?

The rate of wages is the price paid per man employed. Wages in general is the total sum of wages paid to the proletariat class. The wage-unit is the amount each proletariat man, woman and child would receive if the total wages were divided equally among them.

If trade union or economic action cannot 1aise the wage-unit but only the wage-rates of particular sections of workmen, cannot Parliament or political action raise wages?

Parliament cannot raise wages in general, because Parliament cannot compel employers to increase their demand for wages nor prevent them from reducing their demand. A high minimum wage, for example, would only stimulate employers to adopt more labour-saving devices.

If wages cannot be raised either by economic or by political action, can they be prevented irom falling ?

Wages must tend always to fall, since the object of capitalist production being profit, all employers must seek to reduce costs, the chief of which is the cost of labour, or wages.

Is there not a limit below which wages cannot fall?

None.

But can wages fall below the subsistence level of the proletariat ?