70 SOCIAL SCIENTIST
leaving the economy to run at the same level of per capita income and (3) Free entry of firms, and factor mobility. The implications of these assumptions when they are removed one by one,, are then examined.
The net revenue product is identified as the differential profit, which is essentially the fruit of combinational productivity. Thus the difference between the net revenue products of two time periods gives the incremental profit. Incremental profit is viewed as an expression of economic progress. But what is this combinational productivity? It is^ essentially a reflection of the fact that no one can produce anything alone and legitimately claim the entire surplus—^A machine, however sophisticated is no more than junk unless running in the factory. A worker, however well he might be knowing his job., cannot achieve much without proper tools... ..Indeed, the skill of the workei. the ability of the manager and the suitability of the site are not qualities in themselves they do not operate in a vacuum, and are meaningful expressions only when thought of as productive services working in appropriate combinations." (p 134).
The Problem of Distribution
The problem of distribution however remains. More specifically^ how are the workers and capitalists to share the fruits of combinational productivity? The author conveniently assumes that the problem of distribution gets solved in some unspecified way. The argument runs as follows—one cannot say that whatever the workers produce belongs to them, even Marx never claimed so! Neither can the capitalists legitimately appropriate the entire surplus. The concept of individual productivity is imprecise and arbitrary, whereas that of combinational product is both measurable and objective. The former, ""apart from being a myth stimulates conflict and division; it ^provides a few-the entrepreneurs-with the key to the door of exploitation and unleashes mass frustration.iy Whereas the concept of combinational productivity promises to promote a sense of harmony and cooperation; it tends to advocate equity, gives the feeling of participation to all, and spreads contentment all round. (p 135). One really wishes that the '^labour commitment" theorists incorporated this concept of combinational productivity to add more credence to their apologetics in reshaping factor relations in free enterprise economies!
He then goes on to suggest a variable payment scheme, which will enable the workers to share the fruits of combinational productivity^... sharing as such is a matter of principle. Profit theory has not so far been able to accord recognition to this obvious fact. This failure has led not a few to subscribe to the extreme view that all profit is the result of exploitation.9', (p 136). His scheme which is of doubtful operational value, is said to be a problem of jurisprudence and not of economics! We are told that sharing the fruits of combinational productivity is essentially