Re: [OPE-L] Che Guevara and the Sraffian notion of profit

From: Allin Cottrell (cottrell@WFU.EDU)
Date: Wed May 09 2007 - 18:23:39 EDT 

On Wed, 9 May 2007, Paul Cockshott wrote:

> I agree with what [Ajit says] about the real wage.
> What I worry about here Ajit is how one models the process by which
> things like fossil fuels are transformed into wastes.
> >From the standpoint of capitalist accounting, there is no problem,
> in that fuel below the ground is free and only costs due to the
> labour required to extract it. Thus from the standpoint of
> a critique of neo-classical economics it is just fine for
> us to ignore this.
>
> But from the standpoint of the long term rational use of natural
> resources, it should be possible to model this in some way.

I recall interesting work by Barry Commoner (sometime in the
1970s) on constructing an input-output table that included use of
natural resources and production of waste.  I used this in
teaching a course in the "Science and Industrial Studies" program
at Napier College.  Maybe I could find the article again.  It
might perhaps have appeared in Scientific American.

Allin.

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