Some brief remarks in response to Rakesh: >The simultaneous equation determination assumes existence of an >input-output matrix and the existence of a surplus for the magnitude >of which there is simply no explanation. The magnitude of the surplus depends on the technical conditions of production and the real wages of workers. True, the matrices don't determine these things, and no Sraffian ever claimed that they do. On the contrary, the Sraffian position is quite explicitly that to understand capitalism we must investigate the processes by which production methods and distribution are regulated. This of course must include an appreciation of the central role of class conflict. But it is not clear to me that one need bring in labor values to understand these processes. > >By focusing on value as a process rather than technical conditions as >a given, one can keep focus on the objectification of alienated >living labor in the commodity output which the simultaneous method >simply takes as given. > >The neo Ricardian theory tells us that it is fine to focus on the >alienation of labor in the production process and do studies thereof >but that in the determination of the profit rate and relative prices >there is nothing to be gained by understanding the surplus as nothing >other than the materialization of unpaid living labor. > I would add a qualifier here: there is nothing SCIENTIFIC to be gained by understanding the surplus as nothing other than the materialization of unpaid living labor. There are other kinds of insight besides scientific insight, and I am open to the possibility that other ways of conceiving the surplus can provide philosophical insight, in the sense of opening our eyes to important and often-overlooked matters of consciousness and subjective experience. I don't want to get into a discussion of what I mean by scientific, but since it's the obvious next question, let me say I mean issues that can be discussed in some significant degree independently of one's ideological stance. >So proponents of the simultaneous method will argue that for the >purposes of determining the rate of profit and relative prices the >surplus value objectified by alienated labor in the commodity output >plays no role. I wouldn't make that argument. I would say that "surplus value objectified by alienated labor in the commodity output" plays a role insofar as it manifests itself in the technical conditions of production and the living standard of workers. Regards, Gary
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