From: Claus Magno (cmgermer@UFPR.BR)
Date: Wed May 07 2003 - 14:56:02 EDT
Alfredo, I did not understand the meaning of some of your statements. May I ask for clarification? > Marx develops the labour theory of value from Smith and, especially, Ricardo. > But what is Marx's own contribution - the difference between his writings and > those of Ricardo? The difference is that, for Marx, it is insufficient to > base the source of value on labour time of production, as Ricardo presumes. > Thus, "value is labour" is not so much wrong as Ricardian - for Marx, this > claim is partial and potentially misleading. I'm confused. You say that "for Marx, it is insufficient to base the source of value on labour time of production". I'm sure I'm not wrong in thinking that you don't intend to say that for Marx there is another source of value than labour, but that is what this phrase seems to mean. Could you clarify this? > > The trouble with such Ricardian views as "value is labour" is that they take > for granted the existence of exchange, prices and commodities. That > commodities are worth more because they embody more labour begs the questions > of *why there are commodities at all*, and *why it is a relevant abstraction > to assume, at certain stages in the analysis, that commodities exchange at > their labour time of production*. In a previou post I argued in what sense it is fair to say that "value is labour', > This illustrates an important feature of Marx's method: what the economists > (including Ricardo) tend to assume as timeless features of humans and > societies, Marx wanted to root out and understand in historical context. > > Alfredo. >
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