Should supply greatly exceed demand, a section of the workers sinks into beggary or starvation. The demand for men necessarily governs the production of men, as of every other commodity. The ordinary wage, according to Smith, is the lowest compatible with common humanity, that is, with cattle-like existence. The lowest and the only necessary wage rate is that providing for the subsistence of the worker for the duration of his work and as much more as is necessary for him to support a family and for the race of labourers not to die out. The separation of capital, rent, and labour is thus fatal for the worker. Capital and landed property need not remain fixed in this abstraction, as must the labour of the workers. Thus only for the workers is the separation of capital, landed property, and labour an inevitable, essential and detrimental separation. Hence the intensity of the competition among the workers. Besides, the landowner and the capitalist can make use of industrial advantages to augment their revenues the worker has neither rent nor interest on capital to supplement his industrial income. Combination among the capitalists is customary and effective workers’ combination is prohibited and painful in its consequences for them. The capitalist can live longer without the worker than can the worker without the capitalist. Victory goes necessarily to the capitalist. Wages are determined through the antagonistic struggle between capitalist and worker. Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 Wages of Labour
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