From: Fred Moseley (fmoseley@MTHOLYOKE.EDU)
Date: Fri Nov 19 2004 - 10:04:07 EST
On Mon, 15 Nov 2004, Allin Cottrell wrote: > On Sun, 14 Nov 2004, Rakesh Bhandari wrote: > > > If $1000 is set equal to x barrels of oil, y oz of gold, and z > > bushels of grain... > > "is set equal to": do you mean, if we suppose $1000 to be the actual > price of the basket in some base period? (Otherwise I can't attach > any meaning to the proposition: you can't just stipulate that $1000 > is the value of any basket of commodities, since the dollar is a > real thing in its own right and what it exchanges for is not a > matter of stipulation -- unless unless we're talking about an > imaginary accounting price for gold, that is not actually > exchangeable at the notional price.) > > > and the socially necessary abstract labor time required to produce > > that basket then decreases--say it took 1000 hours and now only > > takes 500 hours--then the MELT changes correspondingly, no? > > The price/value ratio for that particular basket changes (unless the > price changes in the same direction and proportion as the labor > content -- that has not been specified). But do we have grounds for > supposing that the overall MELT has changed in the same direction > and proportion? I have the same question: what grounds do we have for supposing that the price/labor-time ratio for that particular basket of commodities determines the MELT? Comradely, Fred
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