The Marginal Productivity of Labor and Capital under Capitalism.

Hello Prof. Wolff, you have often referred to capitalism as exploitative to the workers, because the capitalists take the fruits of the workers labor through profit. What do you say to the neoclassical Marginal Revenue Productivity Theory of Wages, which states that wages are equal to a worker's marginal product? Labor is the source of value I suppose, but what about machinery? Doesn't it create value too? If it creates value, wouldn't the capitalist be able to profit off of their machine's value in the long term?


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  • Bradley Pidgeon
    commented 2017-04-25 09:25:11 -0400
    I am wondering, what the average return on labor is for a capitalist in America? Or, how much does a wage slave earn in comparison to the wealth he produces?
  • Bradley Pidgeon
    tagged this with Important 2017-04-25 09:25:10 -0400
  • Bren C
    tagged this with Important 2016-08-17 18:36:42 -0400
  • Bren C
    published this page in Ask Prof. Wolff 2016-08-17 17:31:16 -0400

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