From: ajit sinha (sinha_a99@YAHOO.COM)
Date: Mon Dec 08 2003 - 00:31:35 EST
--- "michael a. lebowitz" <mlebowit@SFU.CA> wrote: > At 21:47 05/12/2003 -0800, ajit wrote: > > So let me ask you again, > >what is interesting about the proposition that > GIVEN > >that commodity money value remains constant and > GIVEN > >that workers commodity-money wages remain constant > and > >GIVEN that equal values exchange in the market, > THEN a > >fall in the value of wage goods would imply a rise > in > >the real wages of the workers! What's the big deal > >here? Am I missing something? Cheers, ajit sinha > > Ajit, > All I offered was the simple proposition > (now rather belaboured) > that once you no longer hold real wages constant by > definition, then > productivity increases in the production of wage > goods lead to rising real > wages and no relative surplus value UNLESS THERE IS > SOME MECHANISM > OPERATING TO REDUCE MONEY WAGES. ________________________ But this is not true! As I have argued earlier, given paper money wages does not necessarily make it true. Even in the case of given commodity money wages, it is not true unless you add an unreasonable assumption that value of commodity money remains fixed. And thirdly, we have not even opened the pandora box that in the world of prices of production and not equal value exchanges, it is not so easy to know how would prices move with changes in technology, given that changes in intermediary goods prices could cause 'priverse' effects on all those price changes. _____________________ This question does > not emerge in Marx's > discussion of relative surplus value in CAPITAL > insofar as he assumes real > wages given in a given place and point in time (and > thus the necessary > condition for relative surplus value is obscured). I > thought this > interesting, but if one is content with > Physiocratic/ Ricardian/Sraffian > fixed wage requirements, it's no big deal. ________________________ The fact od the matter is that neither Sraffa nor Sraffians take real wages as fixed. Cheers, ajit sinha > in solidarity, > michael > --------------------- > Michael A. Lebowitz > Professor Emeritus > Economics Department > Simon Fraser University > Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6 > Office Fax: (604) 291-5944 > Home: Phone (604) 689-9510 __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing. http://photos.yahoo.com/
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