By Fred Goldstein
Marx explained in the third volume of his fundamental work, “Capital,” what measures the capitalists take to bolster their profits when they are facing a decline. He listed some of them in a famous chapter titled “The Law of the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Decline.”
Here are some of the measures he outlined that tend to drive up profits:
- Intensification of exploitation of the workers.
- Lowering wages to below subsistence.
- Mass unemployment or increasing the reserve army of unemployed.
- Promoting foreign trade to gain additional profits abroad.
These are the same measures that are negatively affecting the working class today.