Page:Shop Talks on Economics.djvu/51

 in the manufacture of clothing. The competition among capitalists often brings the prices on these things below the rates charged before the workers received their increase, until these capitalists find they can make more money in other fields, when they invest in other industries and prices fall to what they were before the rise in wages.

On the very last page of Value, Price and Profit, Marx says again:

"A general rise in the rate of wages would result in a fall of the general rate of profit, but, broadly speaking, not affect the prices of commodities."

If you were getting three dollars a day for digging gold out of a mine and you secured $4.00 by striking, would there be as much surplus value left for your Boss as before?

On what do wage-workers usually spend their money? On luxuries?

If the working CLASS is able to force up wages two dollars a week for every man and woman, will they spend the increase on automobiles, trips to Europe, or upon more and better clothing and food?

What happens when there is a sudden increased demand for a commodity? Does the price of this commodity rise or fall (temporarily)? If the capitalist producing this commodity, for which there is a suddenly increased demand, is able to get higher prices for it, will this attract other capitalists into the same field of production in the hope of securing bigger profits?

What happens when several big capitalists fight for a field of production where prices are high? Do prices fall?

Do these capitalists remain producing a commodity after its price falls so low that they cannot make the average rate of profit?