Fred,
writing to Rakesh, you say
>
>In my previous post, I guessed, without thinking about it too much, that
>since the decline in the profit rate since 1997 has been so sharp, it must
>have been due in part to a reduction in the rate of surplus-value.
>
>But the more I think about it, I am not so sure. According to my
>estimates, the rate of surplus-value increased significantly from the
>mid-70s to 1994 (about 30%), because real wages remained more or less
>constant while productivity (although not increasing rapidly) was
>increasing 1-2% a year.
>
>Since 1997, real wages have increased some, due to the exceptionally low
>rates of unemployment, but I would be surprised if real wages increased
>faster than productivity since 1997. So perhaps the rate of surplus-value
>has levelled off since 1997, but I doubt if it has declined.
>
>That means that the decline in the profit rate since 1997 must have been
>due mainly to continuing increases in the composition of capital and in
>the ratio of unproductive labor to productive labor. I have not updated
>my estimates of these variables after 1994, but this discussion makes me
>want to do that asap (hopefully in January).
>
This seems too simple to ask, so perhaps i'm missing something, but
wouldn't a third possibility be a problem of realization?
Antonio
--
Antonio Callari
E-MAIL: A_CALLARI@ACAD.FANDM.EDU
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Franklin and Marshall College
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