― Every day's labor is worth another day's labor; that is to say, in equal quantity the labor of one is worth the labor of another: there is no qualitative difference. Given an equal quantity of labor, the product of one will exchange for the product of another. All men are wage-workers, and equal wages pay for an equal time of labor. Perfect equality presides over the exchange.
Are these conclusions the natural, rigorous consequences of value "constituted," or determined, by labor time?
If the relative value of a commodity is determined by the quantity of labor required to produce it, it naturally follows that the relative value of labor, or wages, must be equally determined by the quantity of labor which is necessary to produce the wages. The wage, that is to say the relative value, or price, of labor, is then determined by the labor-time which is necessary to produce all that is required for the subsistence of the worker. "Reduce the cost of manufacturing hats and eventually their price will fall to their new natural price, although the demand may be doubled, trebled, or quadrupled. Reduce the cost of subsistence of men by reducing the natural price of the necessary food and clothing and you will see wages eventually fall, although the demand for hands may have considerably increased." (Ricardo, vol. II., p. 253.)
Certainly the language of Ricardo is most cynical. To put in the same category the cost of manufacturing hats and the cost of subsistence of man, is to transform man into a hat. The cynicism is in the things themselves, and not in the words which express these things. Some French writers, such as MM. Droz, Blanqui, Rossi and others, give themselves the innocent satisfaction of proving their superiority to the English economists by
