A Further Note on the Mr. Peel Story

The relationship between labour and capital (ie, between the working class and the capitalist class) is an asymmetrical one in terms of power. While it may be the case that both wage-workers and capitalists need each other in order to survive in their own ways relative to each other (capitalists get wealthier relative to workers, while workers get poorer relative to capitalists), capitalists are nevertheless in a position of greater power than workers when it comes to the labour market. This is because capitalists can use the threat of unemployment to wrestle from workers the terms of working and pay conditions which best suit their economic interests at the expense of workers. Consequently, if workers want employment, then they must accept working both harder and for less pay (or a minimal increase in their nominal wages) as dictated by their capitalist employers, or else face being unemployed - which is a far worse situation to be in, especially in regions of the capitalist world where there is minimal welfare or none at all in terms of unemployment benefits. So, under capitalism, the social class relation between labour and capital is perpetuated on the basis of an asymmetrical power relation in the labour market.

Incidentally, this is something which is denied by mainstream economics (a.k.a. modern orthodox neoclassical economics) since, as far as it's concerned, we're all just utility-maximising individuals freely choosing in the labour market on the basis of our preferences whether we want to work or not (ie, a free choice between work or leisure). In doing so, it also denies how wage-workers are actually forced to seek work, under whatever conditions they may be, in capitalism due to sheer economic compulsion - if a worker wants to survive in capitalism then one is compelled to seek work, regardless of the actual working and pay conditions which one is confronted with. Hence, it's not a 'free choice', as mainstream economics likes to believe in its textbook fantasies of a perfectly competitive market economy.