From: Gerald A. Levy (Gerald_A_Levy@MSN.COM)
Date: Thu Sep 09 2004 - 09:37:37 EDT
My work schedule means that I only have time for a brief reply to Jurriaan's post at this time. Jurriaan wrote: > You argue that commodity production did NOT exist prior to the advent of > class societies, and you define simple commodity production as production > of a product which is produced in order to be sold for money. You misunderstood my point: I did not suggest that was a definition of SCP; it is the commonly accepted definition of 'commodity' used by economists, historians, anthropologists and others. What I objected to was the historical claim that commodities and commodity production existed in pre-capitalist *classless* societies -- a claim that is not supported by the weight of the historical evidence that I am aware of. Most of the rest of Jurriaan's post rests on this misunderstanding of the point I was making. Jurriaan's interpretation rests critically on the belief that where there is production for barter there is commodity production. An (unstated) corollary of Jurriaan's position is this: if 'commodities' existed in pre-capitalist classless societies, then there is every reason to believe that commodity production will persist under communism! This is a position which some 'market socialists' might take comfort in, but it is not a position which seems consistent with other stated positions of Jurriaan. If commodity production existed even before recorded history in pre-capitalist classless societies and will continue to persist under communism, then 'commodity' becomes natural and eternal. The belief/ myth that commodities have always existed and will always exist is asserted by some bourgeois economists but it is not a belief that Marxists should be associated with. In solidarity, Jerry
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