It is IMO almost certain that if IQ and Intelligence were used as controls, there would be no significant effect on earnings of extra years of schooling.

In other words, there’s a substantial literature to suggest that most of the differences in earnings that are not down to chance factors and sex/race group preferences; come from a combination of general intelligence and conscientiousness – and these are mostly innate.

You’re right. I was speaking off the cuff about its colloquial use by Marxist, not it’s original formulation, which was poorly articulated on my part.

Good catch.

Adam Smith and David Ricardo’s labor theory of value is not ordinarily understood to posit that, if the same amount of labor is done in double the time, that, therefore, a commodity is worth twice as much, but rather that the value of commodities is based on the quantity of abstract labor embedded in their production. More crudely, a good or service must sell for at least its cost of production or be a loser.

They can’t escape the prison of their Marxist canards.

There’s nothing new under the sun.