[OPE-L:4094] Re: Re: Re: Revaluation

From: Andrew_Kliman (Andrew_Kliman@email.msn.com)
Date: Sun Oct 15 2000 - 16:56:29 EDT


Hi, John,

I'll be happy to respond to your points (OPE-L 4093), but what responding
to mine?

Specifically, do you agree or disagree that "in Marx's theory, what
allows the value of a means of production to be preserved (by being
transferred) is that it is used in production.  If the same kind of item
is *not* used in production, but depreciates through aging (a machine is
idled in a slump, and rusts out), its value is lost along with its
use-value"?

Do you agree or disagree that "If a machine doesn't produce any output,
it can't transfer value to that output"?


Now to your points:
: A machine is used all day (say for 12 hours) in production.  It's
: value is thus fully transferred to the output produced in that
: day.

Ceteris paribus, yes.


: Clearly the machine depreciates by aging during its "off" hours or
: the other 12 hours.   I think you're saying that that value is simply
: lost and not transferred.  Yes?

No.  First, the machine isn't necessarily depreciating due to aging
INSTEAD OF TO USE.  A 12-hour pause is not what I would normally regard
as depreciation due to aging INSTEAD OF TO USE.  Twelve hours a day might
be the normal rate of utilization; machines often need to rest.

Second, preservation and transfer are not taking place during those other
12 hours, but that doesn't mean that value is being *lost*.  Value
contained in a machine is lost, rather than transferred, if and when the
machine becomes unusable due to aging (e.g., it rusts out) before the
value contained in it has all been transferred.  Once the machine becomes
unusable, no more value can be transferred.  Its untransferred value, the
portion of its value that has not yet been transferred, is then lost.
If, however, the machine is still *usable*, even if it isn't *in use* at
this moment, the untransferred part of its value is not (yet) lost.  If
your machine gets used during the next day, and the next, etc., then,
ceteris paribus, all of its value will be transferred rather than lost.


Andrew Kliman



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