I agree with Steve: the problem I have with your mode of argument is not that you're dodging empirical refutation, but that you're dodging theoretical refutation, by introducing complicating assumptions as the argument goes along so that your opponent (e.g. me) is unable to pin you down to any particular proposition and is eventually forced to give up. _________ Allin, Just to make the point as clear as possible. I introduced one assumption to your simple reproduction tableau-- that productivity had increased 5% this period. I then showed that this implied realistic, reasonable and small changes in unit prices of production from the inputs to the outputs. So I concluded that Marx's transformation exercise only implies small changes in unit prices of production over time. So I left your tableau at t+1 You then countered that the two equalities would not hold at t+2. I then replied there would not be the same total value/price at t+2 as t+1. That is, I simply said that as a result of a greater quantity of use values at the end of the t period there would be more surplus labor absorbed in the following period, so it was incorrect for you to extend forward the same total value/price at t+1 to t+2. That in doing so, you were again refusing to time subscript the variables. You have said that you cannot keep up with my argument which is simply based on drawing out the implications of rising interperiodic labor productivity. Where exactly have I lost you? All the best, Rakesh
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