Page:Shop Talks on Economics.djvu/35

 exploiters of labor will turn toward the land where the cost of living is almost nothing (labor-power of little value), and where they will be able to appropriate a still larger portion of unpaid labor.

From no angle can we find where low prices will benefit the working class for any appreciable length of time, because the struggle for jobs soon brings wages down to just about enough to live on.

The workingmen and women of Belgium have long labored to reduce the cost of living in Belgium. They have formed co-operatives and we learn that they actually HAVE been able to lower the prices on the necessities of life. If we had list prices of groceries in Belgium, we would probably be amazed at the difference in their prices and ours. And still only recently a Belgian Socialist wrote us that his country was still the Heaven for capitalists and the hell for workingmen and women.

Will wages in Belgium be as high as they are in Colorado or in Ohio? Why not? Are the Belgian comrades any better off than we are?

If every workingman owned his own home in Salt Lake City, would this tend to INCREASE or to DECREASE wages there? Explain why.

Why do the owners of factories usually build them in small towns? Why are there so few factories in New York and Chicago?

Is the wage-worker exploited of his product at the mine or factory or is he CHEATED when he spends his wages for the necessities of life?

Before you reply to the above question, reply to the following:

What determines the value of your labor-power? What determines the value of any commodity?

Does A (the cost of living) have anything to do with the amount of B (wages) you will receive?