Rakesh, let me try to make sure I understand what you have been saying. Maybe there is more agreement than I have appreciated. I have been thinking some more about your "retracting criticisms of Fred" and "conceding defeat". You seem to agree with me that, in Marx's theory of prices of production, the inputs of constant capital and variable capital are already in money terms and are equal to the price of production of the MP and MS. In other words, you agree with me that Marx himself, in his theory of prices of production, DID NOT FAIL to transform the inputs of constant capital and variable capital from values to prices of production (as alleged by the standard criticism of Marx's theory), right? If so, then this is a very significant agreement. However, where we disagree is that you argue that Marx made THE OPPOSITE MISTAKE than in the standard critique. Rather than failing to transform the inputs from values to prices of production in the determination of the prices of production of outputs, Marx failed to make the OPPOSITE TRANSFORMATION (i.e. an "inverse transformation"); that is, he failed to transform the prices of production of inputs BACKWARD from prices of production to values in the determination of the values of outputs. Rakesh, do I understand you correctly? Thanks very much in advance for you clarification. I look forward to further discussion and perhaps even to greater agreement. Comradely, Fred P.S. Based on my (4796) and your (4797), do you also agree that when Marx discussed the "value" of commodities in Capital (e.g. in Parts 1 and 2 of Volume 3 that we have been discussing) that he almost always means money or prices (i.e. the monetary expression of value)? Do we agree that Marx's theory of value and surplus-value is about quantities of money-capital in circulation (M - C ... M'), not about quantities of labor-time which are only illustrated by money? Marx's theory of value and surplus-value may be about "simple" or "direct" prices (that is a separate issue), but at least it is about prices, right? Thanks again.
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