From: gerald_a_levy (gerald_a_levy@msn.com)
Date: Wed Oct 09 2002 - 09:36:22 EDT
Re Riccardo's [7773]: I didn't really understand (i) well so I'll pass on to: > (ii) the second is the fact that surplus value, though coming out > from production, is actualised as such ONLY in circulation > (actualised: not created). Agreed > I may suggest - but it's it a provocation - that while Marx's > sequence is (rightly) from creation of potential surplus value in > production to its actualisation in production, in ACTUAL life what's > happen is that firms produce for the market, so it is demand the > driving force. which I do not see as something against Marx: provided > he is read with an open mind. If by "ACTUAL life", you mean actual life in _today's_ capitalist social formations, then I would suggest a different dynamic: to the extent that (as a consequence of the concentration and centralization of capital) markets are increasingly dominated by *oligopolies* where there is a high degree of product differentiation, then the reverse is the case. I.e. rather than responding to demand in the marketplace, the oligopolies use (essentially, as part of their product differentiation strategy) advertising and marketing to *create* (individual and market) demand for their commodities. Thus, rather than consumer preferences being exogenous (as assumed in marginal utility theory and the doctrine of consumer sovereignty), business firms play a large role in shaping consumer preferences. This is not only a different historical period than that in which Marx lived but it is also at a level of abstraction which is certainly more concrete than that of Volume 1. In any event, this was not a subject that Marx probed to any great extent. There are some contemporary Marxists, such as Ben Fine, who have investigated the nature of consumption more. And, of course, there is a large Post-Keynesian literature on oligopolies (and some writings by Marxists as well, e.g. by Willi Semmler). Hic Rhodus, hic salta? In solidarity, Jerry
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