This article investigates empirically the net fiscal position of the working class in nine European countries for the 1995–2015 period. This is done through the estimation of the net social wage for wage and salary earners in those countries, characterized by different types of welfare states. The negative net social wage ratio in eight out of nine countries indicates that in advanced capitalism, the state budget redistributes income in such a way that the post-fiscal or true rate of exploitation is higher than the pre-fiscal or apparent one. Adverse economic conditions and ageing of the population have made the net social wage ratio less negative recently, while the accumulation of public debt and the increased obligations for interest payments on this public debt have acted in the opposite direction.
This paper aims at revealing methodological issues referring to the definition and measurement of absolute poverty. The literature on poverty, both relative and absolute, is reviewed and a proposal is put forth for an approach of absolute poverty based on needs and the notion of the value of labour power. The paper presents the results of the application of this method in the Metropolitan Athens area.
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