From: Andrew Brown (A.Brown@LUBS.LEEDS.AC.UK)
Date: Mon Apr 25 2005 - 09:52:15 EDT
Hi Paul, You write: One can construct a consistent electrical theory of value, the problem is not its internal consistency, but that it is a shit theory when it comes to predictiong what actually happens to prices. When you look at real prices, only labour will cut it. I reply: This quantitative aspect that you mention does, in some sense, come into my argument on the LTV (though I'd never put it in terms of 'prediction' as you are very committed to doing). However, this quantitative argument first comes in when considering the commodity as a use value. Here we think of a commodity in terms of the material qualities that constrain and enable its uses. Thinking in these terms, there are 'candidates' for a theory of value such as height, weight and age which are universal to commodities (where the latter are restricted to material things). They are obviously not quantitatively related to price magnitude however, hence they can be excluded from consideration on grounds similar to the ones you go through above. 'Electricity' doesn't come into it here, because it does not leave any particular mark on the use value of the commodity. We have to consider the commodity as a product (rather than as a use value, an item of consumption) for us to consider electricity. But then the key qualitative point is that the labour input, rather than electricity input, is directly 'decided upon' by society: it is via (constrained) labour 'choice' that humanity influences the course of production and reproduction, hence influences the allocation of all other inputs such as electricity, at any point in time. This qualitative point requires us to recognise not just the universality but the also the creativity of labour (in my view - following Ilyenkov - the recognition of creativity takes us from Spinoza to Marx and Engels). The quantitative point you make is a separate point, though could be considered to be related to the qualitative one I make. Still, on the empirical side, Andrew Kliman seems to put up a reasonable response to your quants, in the latest CJE... (I can't work out who I agree with in that exchange!) Many thanks Andy
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