Social Productivity of Labor and Methods of Measuring It

Abstract

The "law of the increasing productive power of labor" is a most important one in political economy. In disclosing its substance, Marx defined it as a law, "according to which the costs of production are constantly falling, while living labor continues to grow more productive." (1) He called it a general universal economic law. Consequently, this law operates in all the stages of the evolution of social production. However, under capitalism it manifests itself merely as a tendency that is constantly being violated, andtherefore it does not possess unqualified significance. Moreover, when capitalism grows decrepit and more and more moribund, it contradicts the requirements of this law and even, as Engels noted, "interferes with the growth of productivity."