There can be no rise in the value of labour without a fall of profits.
Interpretation
This quote indicates that increasing the value of labor will necessitate a decrease in profits for employers.
David Ricardo's quote highlights a fundamental principle in economics: the relationship between labor costs and profits. When the value of labor rises—such as through higher wages—employers may see their profits decline, as they must allocate more resources to pay workers. This reflects the tension in economic systems between the needs of laborers for fair compensation and the desire of business owners to maximize their profitability.
In practice
In a discussion about wage increases at a company meeting.
If a commodity were in no way useful, - in other words, if it could in no way contribute to our gratification, - it would be destitute of exchangeable value, however scarce it might be, or whatever quantity of labour might be necessary to procure it.
In stating the principles which regulate exchangeable value and price, we should carefully distinguish between those variations which belong to the commodity itself, and those which are occasioned by a variation in the medium in which value is estimated, or price expressed.
By far the greatest part of those goods which are the objects of desire, are procured by labour and they may be multiplied, not in one country alone, but in many, almost without any assignable limit, if we are disposed to bestow the labour necessary to obtain them.
It is here we come to the heart of the matter. The economic principle of comparative advantage', 'a country may, in return for manufactured commodities, import corn even if it can be grown with less labour than in the country from which it is imported
America's role in the global economy inevitably was going to diminish; we're smaller relative to - as China, India, other emerging markets grow.
Fundamentally, there are only two ways of coordinating the economic activities of millions. One is central direction involving the use of coercion - the technique of the army and of the modern totalitarian state. The other is voluntary cooperation of individuals - the technique of the marketplace.
If I care about poverty, I have to care a lot about investments in the private sector. The private sector creates the vast majority of jobs in the world, and social protection only goes so far.
The interests of the IMF represent the big international interests that today seem to be established and concentrated in Wall Street.
As soon as the recovery is well under way, we need to set up a long-term plan to reduce the structural deficit and make sure we are not leaving a mountain of debt for the next generation.
What I did not know yet about hunger, but would find out over the next twenty-one years, was that brilliant theorists of economics do not find it worthwhile to spend time discussing issues of poverty and hunger. They believe that these will be resolved when general economic prosperity increases. These economists spend all their talents detailing the process of development and prosperity, but rarely reflect on the origin and development of poverty and hunger. A a result, poverty continues.
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