From: Howard Engelskirchen (howarde@TWCNY.RR.COM)
Date: Wed Jun 02 2004 - 23:11:08 EDT
Hi Jerry, Glad to hear the mango theory of value came to something. Having bought dried mangos you have no doubt observed that they not only store value, but they cost about as much as gold too! On the clock, I think you miss my point, and therefore, this seems to me quite wrong: > 2) I think it is clear that from a *historical* standpoint that Marx > thought that the clock was the instrument with which the "labour > time necessary" for the production of commodities and value > could be measured. From the standpoint of theory, I think this is > problematic since the clock measures "real time" not "socially > necessary labor time." On the contrary, one of Marx's really remarkable achievements was to work out a theory of reference that allowed for reference to the passage of time but that did not depend on the hands of a clock. What I've tried to get at in my questions is that a clock also just makes use of a process to refer to the passage of time. Other forms of reference are possible. We've already got commodity fetish. We don't need clock fetish too. On the other hand, I agree with you, and with Marx, on the importance of the clock to the spread of commodity production. Howard
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