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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