The rate of surplus value in the postwar US economy: a critique of Weisskopf's estimates

Abstract

The rate of surplus value is one of the three key variables in Marx's theory of capitalist crises, along with the rate of profit and the composition of capital. Marx expected a secular tendency for the rate of surplus value to increase owing to the rise in labour productivity under capitalism. In Marx's theory the necessary condition for an increase in the rate of surplus value is that the productivity of labour increases faster than the average real wage. Marx argued that in general this condition would be fulfilled because of downward pressure on wages exerted by a large and growing 'reserve army' of unem ployed workers (Marx, 1977, chs 17 and 25; Moseley, 1982, ch. 4). Marx argued further that this increase in the rate of surplus value would delay, but not prevent, the tendency of the rate of profit to fall owing to a rise in the composition of capital (Marx, 1982, Part 3). Weisskopf (1979) argued that the profit share of total income is a reasonable proxy for Marx's concept of the rate of surplus value (p. 343). He estimated the profit share in the non-financial corporate business (NFCB) sector of the US economy over the period 1949-1975,1 showing a secular decline of 28% over the period of study (p. 351, Table 2), contrary to Marx's expectation of a secular increase in the rate of surplus value.2 However, there is a fundamental theoretical problem with Weisskopf s estimates, namely that they do not take into account Marx's distinction between productive labour and unproductive labour. A number of authors have argued that Marx's distinction between productive labour and unproductive labour is an integral part of his theory of value and surplus value and that his concepts of surplus value and variable capital, the