WAGES AND PRICES.
SOCIALIST ECONOMIC II LESIONS.
Even a short study of llie Socialist agitation of the Alliance of Labour and the Socialist Labour Party will disclose the fact that the workers through these agencies are being constantly fed on illusions. The results are witnessed in the regular calls for higher wages with shorter hours of work, lessened output, restrictions on business and lower cost of living. We have before us the claims of a Union being heard by a Conciliation Council in Wellington. The demand is for 18/- a week increase in wages; hours to be reduced from 48 to 44, and the shops —where the trade is done —to close at 4.30 p.m.. with other assumed benefits to labour. Yet these workers will complain bitterly of the high cost of living seemingly in ignorance that their own actions are steadily forcing up prices. The socialist teaching which has permeated the Unions, is that the workers should get all the wages they can out of the employer and give as little as they can by way of work in return. What is never explained is that wages are not simply money passed from the employer to the workman: they are part of a eomlplicated system of exchange. We are all paying each other wages all the time.
If the bootmakers get more wages the butchers pay more for boots, and if the butchers secure an increase the bootmakers pay more for meal. Thus the increases go round, high wages apart from other factors making high prices which the workers have to meet. Yet we have socialist. Labourites preaching the doctrine that all the workers require to do is |o form One Big Union of the whole and wages will be increased all round while the cost of living will lie reduced by taking the capitalist, j.iolil and distributing same to t)ie wage earning masses. The illusion is that the employers find the wages wheras it is the industry and industries in genera,! that supply both wages and profits. This is in purl recognised when it is contended that "wages should be the first charge on industry.” What does this mean? To ask that all those employed at high rates when trade is booming shall be a first charge on I lie indust rv when trade is slack is to demand the impossible. The economic relations of wages may be stated thus: —In actual practice wages are paid before the goods, for which they are paid to produce, are act ually sold. The wage, I lien, is a factor in the selling price. The money to pay those wages can only i onic out of the industry if lift* industry is selling the goods which are being produced. LIMITS OF THE MARKET. It is very clear that wages, sales, and prices, are closely related. To give the engineers who build a suspension bridge the ‘‘full product of their labour” in kind is not sufficient for their human needs. They cannot eat. the bridge. Sale and juice comes in; exchange is a vital factor in the case. To pay wages there must not only be production but sale of the products: —Thus the market conditions govern what wages shall be paid—Wages and juices act and re-act on each other according to the laws of the maket —supply in relation to demand. To force uj, wages without at the same time increasing tlie output has the effect of increasing the selling price, and either the consumer must pay the higher price or the seller be forced out of the market ill competition with those who can sell cheaper and the producer sutler. In either case the worker, who is at once a jiroducer and consumer, must bear the higher cost of living, or unemployment —the hardest living of all. The relations of wages and prices cannot be ignored. The limits of the market where competition is e.xjjressed are facts which cannot be put aside. To seel; higher wages for no more work is to invite an increase in price for the commodities you require. Both in BriLain and here the plea is made that “wages should be* equivalent to those of 11)14 plus the increase in the cost of living.” The questions of whether industry now can meet this demand, or the trade markets allow it, are ignored as far as the socialists are concerned. The workers “should” satisfies them. Not in that way, however, can economic law he dealt with. The race for higher wages, in order to overtake high prices, is running round in a circle after one’s own shadow. Each increase in wages goes to make the price higher and, on the assumption of the game, requires anotlter move for a further increased wage.
The burdens of the war, the losses sustained, great increases of taxation and other economic drains have now to be met. It is by inincreased trade and industry that relief can be found, and not by the socialist method of teaching l lie multitude that higher wages and less work are compatible with de creased cost of Living and improved trade and social conditions. THE SHELTERED TRADES. What complicates the wages problem to many is tile position of those in trades and callings not subject to outside competition. In State or Municipal, and monopoly trades, wages are often made higher than in even more highly skilled occupations. This is due sometimes to political pull or favour. The high rat-
os of sheltered oecujiations go still further in adding to tjie cost of living and also place special burdens on the trades which are subject to competition from outside llu* Dominion. To concentrate on closer economy increased efficiency in industry, lowering of taxation and extended cooperation all round, should enable us to lower the cost of living which is a better aim to have than constant increase in wages leading nowhere but to further demands. (Contributed by the N. Z. Welfare League).
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MH19250214.2.21
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 2846, 14 February 1925, Page 4
Word count
Tapeke kupu
996WAGES AND PRICES. Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 2846, 14 February 1925, Page 4
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Manawatu Herald. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.