From: Allin Cottrell (cottrell@wfu.edu)
Date: Mon Jun 21 2004 - 22:12:49 EDT
On Mon, 21 Jun 2004, Rakesh Bhandari wrote: > If one could measure socially necessary average labor time directly, > then the program of labor certificates would not be utopian: money > would not be the necessary form of appearance of value. This implies (I think) a misunderstanding of Marx's critique of 'labor certificates' that is unfortunately all too common among Marxists. Marx took it for granted that one could measure socially necessary labour time in a socialist (planned) economy, and he corresponding advocated the use of such certificates in the Critique of the Gotha Programme. What he attacked was the notion that one could achieve economic justice under capitalism by enforcing exchange "at value"; and further he held that such a policy would in fact block the typical mechanism for the allocation and reallocation of resources between productive activities under capitalism, which proceeds precisely via the divergence of price and value. Allin Cottrell
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