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Re Patrick's [OPE-L:3069]:
I am aghast!
Patrick claims that Marx's "one sentence summary" of the meaning of
_Capital_ is:
"Accumulate, accumulate, that is the law of Moses and the prophets".
(1) Marx never claimed that this summarized his perspective.
(2) While your take on the above quote is very clever and original,
I have a simpler (and less clever and original) interpretation:
Capitalist can use surplus value for the purposes of
unproductive consumption or they can invest it in c + v on
an expanded scale, i.e. they can use it for the purposes of
accumulation. When Marx makes the above claim, closely
connected to his claim that capitalists act as if they are
"capital personified" he is making the *assumption* that
capitalists are wearing their "character masks" and are
thereby agents who seek to maximize the accumulation of
capital.
(3) It should be noted that some level of unproductive consumption
of surplus value is absolutely required for the reproduction
of the capitalist class. Thus the imperitive to accumulate
on an expanded scale is limited in part by the consumption
requirements of the capitalist class.
(4) At the place that Marx writes the above in Volume 1, he has
still not analysed competition ("many capitals"). Thus, the
force of competition can not be the fundamental causal
mechanism justifying the above. Rather, it has to be
explained in terms of the valorization process.
Consequently, while it is a ery catchy and ofte-quoted passage,
it can in no way be seen as being a summary of _Capital_.
I will not comment here on the rest of your post.
In solidarity, Jerry
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