Value is the labour-time necessary for the making of a commodity. The Value of Labour-Power is equal to the value of the commodities needed to produce a normally efficient worker. Account has now to be taken of the strength or skill required, regularity, social convention, trade organisation etc. One normal Labour-Power represents a family of five. A workman's wage, then, is regulated by what is needed to maintain the average family.
Experience shows that the wages of the working class just about keeps it going.
The savings of the working class are about 600 millions pounds. The debts are not known, but perhaps equal the savings when starvation is added to money debts. The unmarried, married people without family, married people after family grown up etc. Those with large families etc. cannot save. Capitalists have experimented with lunatics, paupers, soldiers, navvies, etc., to find out the minimum cost with maximum efficiency.