From: ajit sinha (sinha_a99@YAHOO.COM)
Date: Wed Sep 22 2004 - 07:57:51 EDT
--- Allin Cottrell <cottrell@WFU.EDU> wrote: > On Tue, 21 Sep 2004, ajit sinha wrote: > > > A social division of labor requires exchange of > goods, > > but not necessarily a value calculation. Imagine > > exchange on the basis of gifts--here goods would > > exchange without value calculations. In a well > defined > > caste division of labor also goods would exchange > > without any value calculations. I think it is > simply > > wrong to think that exchange of goods imply > "value", > > if value has to keep its meaning. > > Ian's point -- as I understand it from his formal > work on the subject, > and put very crudely -- is that if the > gift-exchanges that you're > imagining are ongoing, and amount to a significant > fraction of the > economic activity of the agents involved, then in > the long run they > are bound to give rise to exchange ratios that do > not differ too > drastically from labour-values. > > If they did differ drastically, some of the > gift-exchangers would go > extinct; the situation would not sustain > reproduction. > > With a caste system it's perhaps a bit different, in > that one can > imagine systematically unequal exchange between > castes as a form of > exploitation -- given the power relations required > to enforce the > inequality and to prevent people from changing > caste. > > Allin Cottrell _________________ I think all economies that are built on gifts evolve somekind of caste system. My point is that market is not the dominant institution in all economies. In various modes of production the economy may be dominated by socio-political and ideological instances. In those situations the economy can reproduce itself without value calculations--it simply governs the division of labor through other forces. It would be naive to think that economic rationality must prevail in all forms of society. Cheers, ajit sinha > _______________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Declare Yourself - Register online to vote today! http://vote.yahoo.com
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