The Long Argument: Capital vs. Labor · Episode 2 of 12 · 23 min
The Labor Theory of Value: Smith, Ricardo, and Marx
Adam Smith called labor the real measure of value and noted that masters combine everywhere while the law forbade workers to. Ricardo made distribution the central question and Malthus set a subsistence floor, then Karl Marx took their tools to build his indictment: labor power as a commodity, surplus value, alienation and the reserve army of labor. The episode gives the theory a fair hearing.
Who's who
- Adam Smith+2 more episodesScottish philosopher whose Wealth of Nations made labor the measure of value
- David RicardoTheorist who called distribution among landlord, capitalist and laborer the principal problem
- Thomas Robert Malthus+1 more episodeClergyman-economist who argued population growth presses wages toward subsistence
- Karl Marx+5 more episodesPhilosopher who built labor power, surplus value and alienation from classical economics
- Friedrich EngelsMarx's collaborator whose Manchester study documented working-class conditions
- Ferdinand LassalleGerman socialist who coined the phrase iron law of wages
Where it happens
- Manchester, England+1 more episodeWhere Engels gathered material for Condition of the Working Class
Timeline
- March 9, 1776Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations
- 1798Malthus anonymously publishes his Essay on the Principle of Population
- 1817Ricardo publishes Principles of Political Economy and Taxation
- 1844Marx drafts the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts on alienated labor
- February 1848Marx and Engels publish the Communist Manifesto in London
- 1863Lassalle popularizes the iron law of wages
Still debated
Scholars divide on whether Smith held a labor theory of value at all, and on how to read Marx's predictions about living standards. The transformation problem, how representative Engels's Manchester was, and the origin of the iron law are also argued.
← PreviousThe Oldest Bargain: Work Before the FactoryNext →The Rebuttal: The Economists Who Answered Marx
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