ABSTRACT
In Chapter 5, Cr and the life of capital (in so far as it depended on the rate of profit) were assumed to be given, and there was then a potential growth rate of the economy. If the policy outlined in that chapter was pursued successfully, that potential growth rate would be achieved. This would ensure that investment in new capital was sufficient to equip new labour coming onto the labour market, and labour made redundant through technical change.2 It would also ensure that investment would be only just sufficient for the economy’s potential growth rate; so more than the avail able labour would not be needed. If investment was more than this, more labour would be needed to work new equipment than became available through new workers and the scrapping of obsolete equipment. In this chapter, it will be supposed that the policy outlined in Chapter 5 is successfully carried out in situations where this is possible, and that investment in new plant is thus
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arranged to be just sufficient to absorb new labour, and labour released through cost reducing investment.
