The Production Process in a Competitive Economy: Comment
In his recent paper, in this Review, Samuel Bowles (1985) argues that involuntary unemployment in a competitive capitalist economy is an outcome of the Marxian notion of conflict between the firm (capitalist) and workers. The purpose of this comment is not to question the Marxian framework, but simply to argue that the model and examples in Bowles, though very interesting, do not in any cogent way reflect class conflict. Let me list the major points made by Bowles in the context of a competitive capitalist economy: 1) involuntary unemployment, leading to reserve army of the unemployed, is a reflection of class conflict; 2) capitalist technology may be profit maximizing but inefficient; and 3) discrimination among identical workers may be profit maximizing. I will focus primarily on the first observation which is the heart of the paper. The other two can be deduced from the first.
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