Relative Deterioration of the Condition of the Proletariat, deterioration of the condition of the proletariat compared to the enrichment of the bourgeoisie. Like the absolute deterioration of the condition of the proletariat, it is a direct consequence of the operation of the basic economic law of capitalism and of the general law of capitalist accumulation. The declining working class’s share in the national income and the increase in the rate of surplus value as a result of the exploitation of the workers, in the aggregate social product and in the national wealth are the concrete indicators characterising the relative deterioration of the proletariat’s condition. Lenin pointed out that in capitalist society there is "the relative impoverishment of the workers, i. e., the diminution of their share in the national income.... The workers’ comparative share in capitalist society, which is fast growing rich, is dwindling because the millionaires are becoming ever richer" (V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 18, p. 436). Thus, the working class’s share of the national income of Britain fell from 42.7 per cent in 1891 to 26 per cent in 1963. In the United States the working class accounted for 39.3 per cent of the national income in 1909 and only 24.4 per cent in 1965. Capitalist apologists using all sorts of falsifying methods try to conceal actual profits of the capitalists and thus reduce on paper their share in the national income. At the same time, when determining the share of the working class in the national income, they do not take into account the taxes workers pay on 308 their wages. Their wages are taken together with the salary of highly paid civil servants and managerial staff and with incomes of other hired workers. Thus the share of the proletariat in the national income is considerably exaggerated. Bourgeois economists claim that " incomes revolution" has recently taken place in the capitalist countries (see Theory of Revolution in Incomes) in other words, the incomes of the workers and capitalists are equalised. However, facts irrefutably prove that under modern capitalism the gap between the living standards of the capitalist class and that of the proletariat becomes wider and wider. The relative deterioration of the position of the proletariat is the most important factor in the aggravation of class contradictions in capitalist society.