[OPE] Heinz Dieterich & Bremen School.

alejandro_agafonow@yahoo.es

A) El Socialismo del Siglo XXI (no information about electronic edition).

B) Hugo Chávez y el Socialismo del Siglo XXI, 2ºed. (no information about electronic edition).

I had neglected Heinz Dieterich’s works about labour accounting economy (economy of equivalences in his terminology). Now that I started to read them, it seems to me that his model has serious theoretical deficiencies. Instead of the so called Scottish School (Cottrell & Cockshott), the Bremen School (Dieterich & Peters) seems not to be overcame the impossibility of economic calculation.

Just as I writes in the paper I am preparing about C&C’s model, to overcome the problem of economic calculation a planned economy has to face what I call the “triple objection Brutzkus-Halm-Pareto” that consist of:

1) Offer a feasible formula to correct production central plan from real preferences of consumer universe.

2) Offer another feasible formula to avoid that goods priced only with their labour costs keep idle when the marginal sacrifice of labour tokens exceeds marginal utility gained by consumers or, that lines or waiting lists be formed to acquire scarce goods when marginal utility gained by consumers exceeds marginal sacrifice of labour tokens.

3) To reach enough capacity of algebraic analysis to resolve the system of equation in the gigantic spreadsheet of the socialist economy –the input-output table.

Concerning point nº 1, there are not anything in Dieterich’s works that show how to do this. Only one can feel that consumers would have freedom to choose their preferred products.

Concerning point nº 2, Dieterich’s works lack references to ratio price/labour value (Strumilin) that has to be equal to unity. That is, if quotient of price and labour value is not equal to unity Dieterich’s planner neglect this and doesn’t know how to proceed. Therefore, he would have an unbalanced economy with large lines and waiting lists and not sold inventories.

Concerning point nº 3, Dieterich endorses Peters’s solution. I quote Peters below: 

«Upon the base of my results reached until now I am optimist. Because you have to take in to account that here I made the calculation of the value of my 50 kg. of potatoes from the beginning. But product are limited in their quantity and if we already count with the calculation of a tractor’s value, 1 kg. of fertilizer’s value, working clothes’ value, bag’s value, then the calculation of value of our 50 kg. of potatoes would be very much easier.» (Peters cited in Dieterich (B), pp. 112)

Of course you can’t support the solution of an input-output table for a 10 millions products based in such a trivial argument.

But I have to continue reading Dieterich’s works.

Kind regards,
Alejandro Agafonow

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