Distribution of 'Surplus Value' in the Roman Empire, c. 30 AD

Some previous posts back Tom, Peter and Magpie and myself got into the concept of  Marx's of 'Surplus Value' in the comments here.  This got me thinking about Marx's observation of this concept, I don't think I have this down 100% but here goes anyway..

Taking from the Wiki on 'Surplus Value':

Surplus value is a concept written about by Karl Marx. Although Marx did not himself invent the term, he developed the concept.[1] It refers roughly to the new value created by workers that is in excess of their own labour-cost and which is therefore available to be appropriated by the capitalist, according to Marx; it allows then for profit and in so doing is the basis of capital accumulation.

So this gets into the portion of the economic "surplus" that is distributed between "labor" and "capital" I guess which becomes a major area of contention between "Marxists" and "Capitalists" that you often witness, etc... lots of "lamentation and gnashing of teeth" on this topic over the years for sure...

We can examine the Greek Scriptures for revelation as to how the economic "surplus" was arranged to be distributed by the Roman government at that time of our history that the scriptures document.

Matthew 20 begins:

1 "For like is the kingdom of the heavens to a man, a householder, who came out at the same time with the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 Now, agreeing with the workers for a denarius a day, he dispatches them into his vineyard.  Mat 20:1 

So it is apparent that a day wage of one denarius for farm work was at least sometime agreed upon if not prevailing due to the Roman fiscal and economic policies.

In Mark 6 there is the story sometimes called "the loaves and the fishes".  Whatever you call it, the scripture depicts events where there is a vast group of people who have been out in the countryside all day being taught by Jesus, and haven't eaten so His disciples become concerned for them in this regard:

35 And already the hour coming to be much advanced, His disciples, coming to Him, said that "This place is a wilderness, and already the hour is much advanced. 36 Dismiss them that, coming away into the fields and villages around, they should buy themselves bread. For they have nothing that they may be eating."   37 Yet He, answering, said to them, "You give them to eat." And they are saying to Him, "Coming away, should we buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them to eat?" Mk 6:35-37

So there was a vast throng and the disciples estimated that they would have to spend 200 denarii to be able to go away and purchase enough bread to provide a simple meal to those in attendance.

If we assume that all 12 of the disciples were with Him on this day, this 200 denarii amount of nomisma would breakdown to about 18 denarii per disciple, so, they would have been traveling at this time with at least an average of 18 days worth of wages per person.

The scripture goes on to reveal that those in attendance that day numbered 5,000 men:

44 And those eating the cakes of bread were five thousand men. Mk 6:44

So, we can see that 200 denarii was an amount that could be used to purchase a simple meal on-the-go for 5,000 men.  Do the math and that comes out to one denarius could purchase 25 of these simple such "take-away" meals.

So based on the fact that an agricultural worker could earn one denarius per day as wages which we learned above, if we assume that a worker could be sustained by perhaps 4 of these equivalent meals per day, then the "minimum wage" or "prevailing wage" at this time of our history would provide a "surplus value" (in real terms) of 21 simple "take-away" meals to the worker.

If we were to estimate a productivity adjusted equivalent price for such a simple take-away meal today of perhaps $10.00, this would result in a contemporary day wage of $250.00, if one worked 200 days per year this would result in a $50,000 annual income.  If one worked 250 days, it would result in an $62,500 annual income.

With "Surplus Value" distributed to the worker of  the 21 "meals" or $210 per day.

At our current "minimum wage" of (I don't even know what it is but know it is absurd) say $9.00 per hour and a 2080 hour work year (only weekends off), that comes to $18,720 annual income.  And then income taxes and payroll taxes are taken out by our morons who think our government is "out of money" so that doesn't leave much net to the worker.

So based on these estimates computed from facts that we can glean from the Greek Scriptures, we can see that the contemporary disgraced blind morons occupying positions of authority in our government are delivering economic results to our nation at relative pathetically low levels of economic justice as measured by this Marxian concept of "Surplus Value".

The current delivered "Surplus Value" that is being distributed to our workers pales in comparison to that which was delivered by our more just and non-moron Roman ancestors by a large factor.

Marx was able to focus on this concept of "surplus value" and apparently it was a key data point in observing economic results for him; I look at Marx as a true Israelite in this regard.

At the end of the Book of Acts, standing on the steps of his rented house in Rome while awaiting his appeal before Caesar, Paul reveals this ability of the Israelites to be able to "observe" things by quoting the Prophet Isaiah:

"And observing, you will be observing, and may by no means be perceiving,"  Acts 28:26

So accordingly, Marx could "observe" what was going on during his time, "you WILL be observing", and perhaps knew that at some level, the results he was observing were unjust, or perhaps just "wrong" in some way to him.  In any case, the scripture reveals that Israelites, let's assume like Marx, WILL be able to observe accurately.

The words of the Prophet Isaiah through Paul here, while indicating that the Israelites will not be able to perhaps understand or truly "perceive" what they "observe", indicate that they WILL be able to "observe" nonetheless.

Perhaps this focal point of the Israelite Marx's economic "observation" should be of greater interest to Christendom today, who may be given to in addition "perceive" it, and then, hopefully, be given to know what to do about it.