Date: Mon, 2 Jun 1997 08:58:00 +0100
From: Lew <Lew-AT-dialogues.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: M-TH: The Illusion of State Socialism


In article <Pine.GSO.3.96.970601105030.21902A-100000-AT-acnet.pratt.edu>,
Gerald Levy <glevy-AT-pratt.edu> writes

>Huh? The working class, including both productive and unproductive
>labourers, doesn't pay taxes? Why "in the long run ..."?

Yes, both productive and unproductive labourers are members of the
working class: obliged to sell their working ability for a wage or a
salary. Workers generally receive the value of their labour power,
though the exact price will depend on the state of play of the class
struggle and what Marx called "the respective powers of the combatants".
It has become accepted practice for many union negotiators to take tax
increases into account in the next round of wage bargaining (in effect,
to treat it as a wage cut); and conversely many employers treat tax cuts
as pay rises. In the short run this may mean a real pay cut or rise, but
in the long run market forces will establish the value of labour power.

-- 
Lew


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