From: Ian Wright (ian_paul_wright@HOTMAIL.COM)
Date: Sun Sep 28 2003 - 21:14:42 EDT
>Consider 3 departments >Ia produces means of production some of which it uses itself >Ib produces means of production some of which it uses itself >II is wage goods which use both Ia and Ib >Ia and Ib however are autarchic If Ia and Ib are autarchic then the set of basic commodities is empty, i.e. there isn't one or more commodities required for the production of all other commodities. Zero production of one basic commodity implies zero production for all commodities (basic and non-basic). In this example, zero production of a commodity in Ia would not prevent production of commodities in Ib (and vice-versa). >There is now no single basic sector acting as an upper limit >on the rate of profit. At first sight, it would seem that >were there a uniform rate of profit, then whichever of >the sectors Ia and Ib had the smaller eigen value would >constrain the overall rate of profit. I am not sure about this though In addition, a usual assumption of the physical quantities approach is that there is always at least one basic commodity that requires labour for its production. So, irrespective of whether your example is a possible economic situation, it falls outside of what is usually considered. The answer you give: that one of the sectors, Ia or Ib, must be a limiting factor seems right, but the analysis would need to proceed without the concept of a set of basic commodities (I think). There aren't 2 basic sectors here, there are none. -Ian. _________________________________________________________________ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
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