From: Rakesh Bhandari (bhandari@BERKELEY.EDU)
Date: Tue Mar 29 2005 - 01:03:29 EST
Append this etymology to my previous post (slightly emended below). wretch O.E. wrecca "wretch, stranger, exile," from P.Gmc. *wrakjan (cf. O.S. wrekkio, O.H.G. reckeo "a banished person, exile," Ger. recke "renowned warrior, hero"), related to O.E. wreccan "to drive out, punish" (see wreak). Sense of "vile, despicable person" developed in O.E., reflecting the sorry state of the outcast, as presented in much of Anglo-Saxon verse (e.g. "The Wanderer"). A Ger. word for "misery" is Elend, from O.H.G. elilenti "sojourn in a foreign land, exile." Most interesting is relation between wretch and elend, given controversy of how to understand increasing misery thesis. The increase of elend is the numerical increase of those cast out, exiled from capitalist production to live within "a foreign land" which marks not only a physical but also social space. To say the ABC's: the question of misery thus cannot be separated from the question of how space, far from being an a priori category, is a social construct, of how space is specifically organized (segmented, hierarchized) in this kind of riven society (Poulantzas was one of the first to attempt in highly elusive prose to theorize the time-space coordinates of the capitalist nation state, and we all know of David Harvey's efforts). I don't think there are any geographers on this list, but there are a lot of economists some of whom don't want to spell out for us the difference between money and a numeraire! At any rate, I think for Marx misery is a thoroughly spatial question. Giovanni Arrighi would agree, I think. Previous post: This is how I understand Marx's general law in briefest terms: Accumulation of capital raises its organic composition which in turn depresses the profit rate, but the depression of the profit rate is not incompatible with a rising in the rate of accumulation (see quote below) which expresses itself in an increase in the absolute level of employment though at a diminishing rate; the absolute rise is thus not sufficient to absorb the new population and the population expelled from both declining firms and industries and non capitalist sectors. Marx assumes that capitalist industry will favor the former, making wretches of the displaced workers whose numbers grow absolutely. Here's the quote from volume 3 I had in mind: "[Richard] Jones is right to stress that despite the falling rate of profit, the 'inducements and faculties to accumulate' increase. Firstly, on account of the growing relative surplus population. 2ndly, beacuase as the productivity of labor grows, so does the mass of sue value reprsented by the same exchange value, ie. material elements of capital. 3rdly, because of the increasing diversity of branches of production. 4thly through thre development of the credit system, joint stock companies, etc, and the ease with which the possessor of money can now transforme it into capital without having to become an industrialist capitalist. Fifthly, the growth in needs and desire for enrichment. 6thly, the growing mass of investment in fixed capital, and so on." Capital 3 Vintage, p. 375 Marx's crisis theory is not based on a falling rate of profit but an insufficiency in the mass of surplus value. Yours, Rakesh
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