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In a recent post (sorry, I don't know the OPE-L ID#) Gil
suggested that there was nothing in Marx's theory which precluded
the possibility of one class defrauding *another* class through
exchange.
I agree with Gil! Indeed, one could argue that landlords defraud
capitalists through the mechanism of rent.
One might also argue (as I have done previously) that in advanced
capitalist economies where most markets are highly concentrated
in the hands of oligopolies in which there is a high degree of
product differentiation (and, relatedly, large expenditures on
advertising and marketing), there is the distict possibility
that means of consumption destined for working-class consumption
are systematically sold at market prices above their values.
If this was the case, then there would be a re-distribution of
income away from workers to [one section of] capitalists
that occurs in the *marketplace* for commodities consumed by
workers. If this is the case, then capitalists defraud workers
not only in the process of production (where profit is theft,
is it not?) but also afterwards in the process of circulation.
In solidarity, Jerry
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