>On Mon, 23 Apr 2001, Rakesh Narpat Bhandari wrote: > >> Consider again the example which I gave. Workers can produce a given >> quantity in half the time.... > >When you refer to your example, do you mean what you wrote in >OPE-L:5373, or did I miss something prior to that? If you're talking >about 5373: > > c v sv s/v r >I 100 50 50 100% 33% >II 100 25 50 200% 40% > >could you expand on what you suppose to be happening here? You said, >"If the variable capital goes from turning over once a year to twice a >year, then the rate of surplus value (s/v) has to be doubled--even >assuming the size of the working population, the working day and the >real wage are being held constant." I'm not clear what the change >v=50 -> v=25 is supposed to mean. > >Allin The v column represents the variable capital *advanced* per annum. The advanced capital only turns over once per year in Case I. Production time is halved in case II; Case II then represents two production cycles. With a halving of production time in case II, the capitalists will only have had to have *advanced* half the variable capital which they had advanced in case one. In the second cycle of Case II, the variable capital results not from what the capitalists have themselves advanced but from the sale of labor's own product which given a halving of production time can already take the money form and thus be converted back into variable capital. I argue that since capital can thus use labor's own greater productivity as manifested in a reduction in production time to reduce the variable capital which they must themselves advance and thus to raise their rate of profit, the capitalists have effectively exploited the working class at a higher rate. And it is this exploitation which explains the improvement in profitability. I would not account for the improvement in profitability in case II by a reduction in production time since I do not think reduced time can itself generate more profits. Rakesh Rakesh
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