2000/10/15
Dear Alejandro Valle Baeza,
Thank you very much for your attention to my request for collaboration and
the question you put forward about the difference between "absolute value"
and "value".
I think that both value in economic sense and absolute value are two
moments, that is, two concepts, in people's logic thinking in dealing with
the issues like price, products of labor, services, labor, absolute labor,
concrete labor, etc. However, the concept of value is different from the
concept of absolute value, though they are two tightly linked concepts.
The concept of value in economic sense is the abstraction or essence of the
concepts of relative value and absolute value. The concept of value is
directly linked with the process of abstract labor, that is, value is the
result and expression of abstract labor; the concept of absolute value is
directly linked with the process of absolute abstract labor, that is,
absolute value is the result and expression of absolute abstract labor;
while the concept of relative value is directly linked with the process of
relative abstract labor, that is, relative value is the result and
expression of relative abstract labor. Without the concept of value, we can
not understand the concepts of absolute value well, nor relative value, just
like that we can not understand the concepts of abstract labor without the
concept of labor well.
The most crucial defects of the traditional labor-value theory put forward
by Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Karl Marx is that it does not distinguish
the process of abstract labor from the process of relative abstract labor
and the process of absolute abstract labor, nor does it define labor or
abstract labor correctly or scientifically, though it is Marx who did put
forward the concept of abstract labor. That is why with the traditional
labor-value theory one can not explain successfully why the distinction of
average income between the different communities can be compared and
expressed by the same measurement (currency), such as American dollars or
British sterling, etc.; why the real gross national product of a nation can
increase much faster than the increase of the number in the labor force in
the sense of the number of working population; why there has been inflation;
why wage inflation can slow as unemployment falls for years; whether it is
wise to practice the policy of "welfare state"; whether it is necessary to
increase the minimum wage according to the increase of efficiency in
productivity. It is why Karl Marx even postulated the theory of absolute
poverty.
As for Marx~{!/~}s attitude towards absolute value, you may read Anti-During by
Friedrich Engels for detail, because it is Marx who wrote the chapter about
value of this book. In that chapter, Marx negated the existing of absolute
value absolutely.
Dong Zhi-Yong
2000/10/15
-----Original Message-----
~{7"<~HK~}: Alejandro Valle Baeza <valle@servidor.unam.mx>
~{JU<~HK~}: ope-l <OPE-L@galaxy.csuchico.edu>
~{HUFZ~}: 2000~{Dj~}10~{TB~}14~{HU~} 14:39
~{VwLb~}: [OPE-L:4086] Re: Zhiyong Dong
glevy@pratt.edu wrote:
>
> The concept of absolute value was put forward for the first time in
> human history by David Ricardo in his book On the Principles of
> Political
> Economy and Taxation. However, no one has explained clearly what
> absolute value is and if there exists absolute value at all since the
> publication of
> the book.
>
Is there any difference between "absolute value" and "value"?
By the way, I remeber some comentary from Marx who said Ricardo pay to
much atention to relative value instead absolute value.
Saludos
Alejandro Valle Baeza
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