From: Rakesh Bhandari (rakeshb@STANFORD.EDU)
Date: Fri Jul 30 2004 - 03:39:22 EDT
>_______________ >Allin, it is true that you know this, but it is clear >to me that many people on this list don't. My simple >point is that the idea that the labor-time in money >commodity could be separated out and given a special >status to solve the problem of measuring the socially >necessary abstract labor does not even get off the >block. Cheers, ajit sinha Is gold the kind of commodity the production of which will tend to make the average rate of profit in the system as a whole (as Bortkiewicz also assumed)? Did Ricardo himself think so? That is a simple textual question that you should be able to answer. Why was Ricardo in fact skeptical that gold is such a commodity (I think Marshall expressed the same skepticism later for the same reason later)? Should I again give you the page numbers where he expresses his skepticism? If the skepticism proves grounded, this would be one reason why the gold commodity has some kind of special status. As for the special aspect of gold to which you speak above, gold is in fact a special status commodity by methodological fiat in Marx's system. It is assumed to have a given and fixed value throughout the three volumes of Capital. Grossmann argued that only someone who was scientifically untutored would consider this to be arbitrary and undermining of the scientific status of Capital. That is, you will not get off the block unless you make that assumption. And around we go. Rakesh
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