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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"A man must always live by his work, and his wages must at least be sufficient to maintain him."
A man must always live by his work, and his wages must at least be sufficient to maintain him. They must even upon most occasions be somewhat more; otherwise it would be impossible for him to bring up a family, and the race of such workmen could not last beyond the first generation. Mr. Cantillon seems, upon this account, to suppose that the lowest species of common labourers must everywhere earn at least double their own maintenance, in order that one with another they may be enabled to bring up two children; the labour of the wife, on account of her necessary attendance on the children, being supposed no more than sufficient to provide for herself. But one half the children born, it is computed, die before the age of manhood. The poorest labourers, therefore, according to this account, must, one with another, attempt to rear at least four children, in order that two may have an equal chance of living to that age. But the necessary maintenance of four children, it is supposed, may be nearly equal to that of one man. The labour of an able-bodied slave, the same author adds, is computed to be worth double his maintenance; and that of the meanest labourer, he thinks, cannot be worth less than that of an ablebodied slave. Thus far at least seems certain, that, in order to bring up a family, the labour of the husband and wife together must, even in the lowest species of common labour, be able to earn something more than what is precisely necessary for their own maintenance; but in what proportion, whether in that above mentioned, or in any other, I shall not take upon me to determine.
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the
Wealth of Nations
by Adam Smith 1776
Book 1, Chapter 8
Of the Wages of Labour
Klukie
(2,237 posts)This sure does sound as if he is an advocating for a living wage.
limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)able to reproduce and raise a family. Otherwise you would run out of workers after one generation. It's interesting how he figures the cost of wage labor by using the example of the cost of slave labor, and determining them by the same method.
It's not quite a precise description, because millions of workers do not get paid enough to be able to raise a family and the system keeps chugging along. That's because on balance enough workers get paid enough to reproduce the next generation of workers. So the working class as a whole gets reproduced to keep things running, while millions are left out.
It's the minimum necessary wage for the reproduction of a worker class. Not really a "living wage" by our modern understanding. But it is the principle from which our modern concepts of 'minimum wage' and 'living wage' are derived.
SDjack
(1,448 posts)after reading Ayn Ryan's Atlas Shrugged. The text on wages was probably why.