Whole Lotka Shakin’ Goin’ On In a 1967 festschrift for Maurice Dobb, Richard Goodwin published an influential paper, “A Growth Cycle” on the “class struggle” model of cycles in economic growth. I only became aware of this famous paper because it had occurred to me that the dynamics of relative surplus population, necessary labour time, and socially necessary labour time might resemble a Lotka-Volterra predator-prey model. Goodwin’s model dealt ultimately with the relationship between wages and profits, which seems like a logical place to start. But I think it is wrong. In my view — and interpretation of Marx — a more fundamental disequilibrium exists between labour capacity and employed labour power. There is always a relative surplus population
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Sandwichman considers the following as important: Richard Goodwin, US/Global Economics
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Whole Lotka Shakin’ Goin’ On
In a 1967 festschrift for Maurice Dobb, Richard Goodwin published an influential paper, “A Growth Cycle” on the “class struggle” model of cycles in economic growth. I only became aware of this famous paper because it had occurred to me that the dynamics of relative surplus population, necessary labour time, and socially necessary labour time might resemble a Lotka-Volterra predator-prey model.
Goodwin’s model dealt ultimately with the relationship between wages and profits, which seems like a logical place to start. But I think it is wrong. In my view — and interpretation of Marx — a more fundamental disequilibrium exists between labour capacity and employed labour power. There is always a relative surplus population (industrial reserve army) in capital and fluctuations in its size regulate the supply and demand for labour power and thus the value of the aggregate “wages fund.”
I suspect that profits (or surplus value?) could be brought into a labour capacity/socially necessary labour time model through something like a predator/prey/parasite analysis, with the surplus value being “parasitic” rather than “predatory.” The implication of my alternative model is unusual — “class struggle” appears in it as endogenous to labour — the counterpart to competition between firms.
I don’t do mathematical modelling so if there is anyone who does and finds these comments of interest, I would love to see what you come up with.