This question <115|118> overall <116|118> Thugtorious: <114|145>. (graded A)

Question 86: Did Marx introduce additional assumptions in order to resolve the paradox of the lazy worker, or does his solution follow from assumptions made or results derived in section 1.1.d?

[117] Thugtorious: Can every laborer be lazy . . . ?   At the bottom of Gza's response and at some point in the middle, he/she says that if the labor market as a whole becomes lazy an undesirable outcome would occur. However, my question is can the whole labor market be “lazy”? Not in the sense of the word “lazy” as in “is it physically, mentally, emotionally, etc. possible?” But, more in the sense of logically plausible meaning: if more people work at a slower pace in production than do not, should not the slower pace become the social average of labor needed to produce that commodity? If this wasn't the case, we would have more of a Tayloristic type of production where the speed is based upon the fastest members or higher end of the average. I agree with the answer given by GZA, except I do not see how you can have a majority of the labor force being lazy without affecting the value of the product.

And, as for what happens to the lazy worker: in the long run, Gza is right, the laborer will starve. In the short run, being that the division and specialization of labor breaks down the tasks of production to individual menial tasks, the laborer is easily replaced by someone who can work at the at the average social pace of labor.

Hans: Yes, you caught an error in Gza's response. If everybody in the entire labor market would work at a slower pace, then this slower pace would become the social norm, and the value of the product would rise.

	Students enrolled for Econ 5080 in 2009fa are invited to give feedback to the above message Pseudonym:      UofU ID:   Text: