From: Gerald A. Levy (Gerald_A_Levy@MSN.COM)
Date: Mon Apr 26 2004 - 09:05:32 EDT
Hi Paul C. [Jerry asked] > >-- What do we know about recent empirical trends > > concerning the percentage of surplus value productively > > consumed? > >-- Is it greater than or less than previous periods? [Paul wrote] > Very good questions, I dont know anything of international comparisons nor > do I know what has happened in the UK over the last 10 years. [Jerry continued] > >-- To what extent are there significant regional and international > > variations in the rate of unproductive consumption? > >-- To what extent have the rates of the productive and > > unproductive consumption of capital changed over the > > course of the trade cycle? Yes, I thought they were good questions. But, I must admit that I am often am better at _asking_ questions than _answering_ them! Here's another question: considering the fact that there are, generally, different definitions, etc. used in different Marxian empirical studies, would it be possible to make statistical 'corrections' (similar to the adjustments made to GDP statistics for different nations) to make those statistics comparable? Perhaps it is just a whimsical notion, but it would be nice to be able to make statistical adjustments in order to make more international empirical comparisons. In other words, I recognize that it would be asking too much to expect the authors of all of these studies to use the same definitions and empirical methodology, but I wonder if -- despite that -- adjustments could be made so that we can compare apples to apples in different nations. In solidarity, Jerry
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