The bottom line here is simple. Both capitalists and workers have cause for complaint. Capitalists have lost pricing power - the degree of monopoly has fallen - which has tended to depress the profit share. But this has not benefited workers because instead the "wedges" of other incomes and higher imports have depressed their share.
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You might object that imports are not a cost for capitalists to the extent that they comprise consumer goods. You'd be wrong. If workers buy domestic consumer goods, their wages are not a cost to capitalists in aggregate. This is because what they lose through the back door in higher wage costs is recouped through the front in higher spending. If, however, workers spend their incomes overseas, then wages are a net cost. In this sense, all imports are a cost to UK capitalists, either directly (imported materials) or indirectly.Read it at Stumbling and Mumbling
The wage & profit squeeze
by chris dillow
The cost of a persistent CAD.
