From: gerald_a_levy (gerald_a_levy@msn.com)
Date: Thu Sep 26 2002 - 10:46:31 EDT
Re Alfredo's [7711]: The following is identified as "an important issue for me": > I > think that, in capitalist production, value exists prior to, and > independently of, sale. Value is created by the *relations of production*, > rather than by the act of sale. <snip, JL> > Note: I think that it is equivocal to say that value is 'presupposed as > produced before being exchanged'. This is not an issue of > (pre)supposition. > Value *is there*, by virtue of the wage/capital relation. This is not a > logical/dialectical point; it is a material fact of social (re)production. Under capitalism, relations of production logically require and encompass relations of exchange. It is not a question of "the act of sale". Rather, it stems from the unity of the processes of capitalist production and circulation. Indeed, the wage/capital relation can not be defined or understood -- logically or as a material fact of social (re)production -- independently from a comprehension of the fundamental nature of relations of exchange particular to capitalism. Value is created by labour-power, no? Labour-power under capitalism takes the commodity-form, no? Without labour-power (and with it, exchange value), no value, no? Thus, the "act" of capitalist production *necessarily* requires "acts" of exchange: without the "wage contract" capitalist production can not commence. *This* is not only a "logical/dialectical point" but is *also* a "material fact of social (re)production" since material reproduction under capitalism can not continue without wage-labour. In solidarity, Jerry
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