In the competition for a chance to work, the man with a lower standard of living will underbid the man with a higher standard.
 Jack London, The People of the Abyss (1903). copy citation

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Author Jack London
Source The People of the Abyss
Topic competition work
Date 1903
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_People_of_the_Abyss

Context

“In overcrowded London, the struggle for a chance to work is keen, and because of this struggle wages sink to the lowest means of subsistence. To be thrifty means for a worker to spend less than his income—in other words, to live on less. This is equivalent to a lowering of the standard of living. In the competition for a chance to work, the man with a lower standard of living will underbid the man with a higher standard. And a small group of such thrifty workers in any overcrowded industry will permanently lower the wages of that industry. And the thrifty ones will no longer be thrifty, for their income will have been reduced till it balances their expenditure.” source