Dear Fred, Since I have anticipated your response, there are two points I want to make here. 1. Whether Marx wrote the formula k+ s for the *determination of value* is irrelevant. My point is that there is a way to make Marx coherent. Once we realize if the general formula for the determination of the value of any and all commodities is Lmp + Lc (while total value or the value of the synechdocal average commodity only can be expressed as or resolved into k + s), then it is possible to offer an interpretation in which there is no contradiction between double divergence and marx's comments on the average commodity. Note that you do not deny that I can do this by using my formulas for the determination and resolution of value. Since my interpretation saves Marx's two conclusions from logical incoherence, why not go with it? 2. I can also argue that Marx used the k + s formula for the determination of value before he pointed out the mistake he had been making. That is as long as we are work under the assumption that the price of the means of production is proportional to their value, then it is indeed true that one can express the formula for the determination of value as k + s for any and all commodities. But once Marx points out--as you have emphasized--that we were wrong if we thought that the value of the means of production could have been proportional to their price, then and only then is it evident that general formula for the value determination cannot be k + s (though the value of total capital or the average commodity can be expressed this way). Now we see that there is a second reason for divergence between the value and the price of a commodity. Now my interpretation makes sense of why Marx could have used the formula k + s for the determination of the value of any and all commodities at some point in his logical presentation (as you and Alejandro show). My interpretation ALSO makes sense of why Marx could then later point to double divergence. So now I save all of Marx's text. It's just a superior interpretation of Marx's text. You have already conceded that with your interpretation you have to give up double divergence, though Marx points to it twice. > >Rakesh, your statement quoted at the top surprised me in another way. I >thought you have argued before that, even for the total commodity product, >K DOES CHANGE (i.e. that C and V change) in the transformation of value >into price of production. Fred, remember the post CONCEDING DEFEAT TO FRED. No you and Alejandro are correct: the cost prices are a given precondition. They do not change. what Marx does not change--that is, the error in his transformation tables--is the assumption that the value transferred from the means of production could be inferred from their flow price. You can still have an inverse transformation problem with the cost prices as a given precondition. > Since you also argue that the price of >production of the total commodity product is equal to its value, you >concluded that the TOTAL SURPLUS-VALUE WILL ALSO CHANGE, inversely to the >change of K, right? I make these arguments only to respond to the Bortkiewicz/Sweezy scheme on its own grounds. Yours, Rakesh
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