Re [OPE-L:4919]: Paul B: At this point, I'm not sure we disagree on any major point. Yet, a) I do think that rent is important to this sector when we examine the armaments industry more concretely; and b) I'm not sure what to make of your claim in [OPE-L:4910] that firms in this sector can't promote the production of relative surplus value and a reduction in value of variable capital. Could you explain why you believe that this is the case? It might also be worthwhile to note that armaments production might have an effect on the size of the relative surplus population (the industrial reserve army) by e.g. with the consumption of use-value of the armaments some proportion of the working class can be killed! And, of course, the state uses war itself to drive down wages, increase the intensity of work, control or bust unions, etc. These are all contingent results that may vary upon the circumstance. In solidarity, Jerry
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