From: Rakesh Bhandari (rakeshb@stanford.edu)
Date: Sat Nov 09 2002 - 13:18:48 EST
re Fred's 7975. >I have not had the time to read carefully the flurry of posts on the TCC, >OCC, and VCC, but I would like to add a quick comment. > >I agree mostly with Rakesh. The OCC is the VCC in a restricted sense - in >the sense that the VCC is affected only by technological change. As I now remember finding your careful analysis of this in your book very illuminating indeed, I am sure this is where I got my basic idea from. I had just forgotten the source over the last eight years. >The VCC >is also affected by other factors besides technological change, like >wages, the distribution of labor and capital across industries, the >turnover time of capital, etc. Marx's examples of others factors seem to focus on changes in the value of raw materials and ancillary capital not effected by technological change. I am unclear about what you mean by "the distribution of labor and capital across industries." >But the OCC abstracts from all these other >factors and serves to focus the analysis solely on the effects of >technological change on the VCC, and ultimately on the rate of >profit. The OCC is like a general ceteris paribus assumption: holding all >other factors constant, how does technological change affect the VCC? This general ceteris paribus assumption seem to allow Marx to construct a thought experiment by which he can test his theory of historical materialism by isolating the contradiction between the forces of production and relations of production. Yours, Rakesh
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