[OPE-L:4326] anarchy of the market

From: glevy@pratt.edu
Date: Fri Oct 27 2000 - 10:53:46 EDT


In [OPE-L:4309] Allin wrote:

> I don't mean that I have very extensive data.  But the data we
> do have show fairly wide and stable dispersion of profit rates.
> There are also strong a priori grounds for such a claim: Given
> the randomness inherent in the "anarchy of the market" it's very
> improbable that the distribution of profit rates should be
> almost degenerate.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by the "anarchy of the market" in this context. The expression in Marx, as I recall it, refers to the "anarchy of capitalist production" (rather than the market) and has been interpreted by most (?) Marxists after Marx to refer to the unplanned, decentralized manner in which decisions related to capitalist production (including quantitities produced, etc.) are made. This "anarchy" does not by itself imply that these decisions are "randomly" made or that there is a random charchter to the market. 

So my question would be: in what senses can the dynamics of the capitalist market be best described as being random?

In solidarity, Jerry



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