From: Diego Guerrero (diego.guerrero@CPS.UCM.ES)
Date: Tue Sep 20 2005 - 09:03:06 EDT
Paul C. wrote: I don't see why Phil is opposed to the notion of a material surplus? I am opposed too inasmuch as this material surplus is conceived as something different from (labour) time surplus. Time, and so labour time, is a material fact; time is also one of the most important variables in physics. Labour time can be applied to, and conceived of, every commodity, including services. No other physical variable can be predicated of all commodities. People defending a notion of "material surplus" in production (different from time) should tell us in terms of what magnitude could we compute it: weigh, volume, surface...? It should be the same physical property and it should be present in any commodity, including services. Moreover, can ayone say which is the surplus obtained when for instance transforming a Ton. of ore gold in a jewel of 10 grams of pure gold? Diego ----- Original Message ----- From: Paul Cockshott To: OPE-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2005 11:58 AM Subject: Re: [OPE-L] basics vs. non-basics I would be keen to defend the notion of a basic sector. In reply to Ian. Sraffa says that in principle the wage should be split into a portion necessary for the reproduction of labour power, and a portion that constitutes part of the surplus that can be struggled over. I think this is certainly correct. If one took that view of it, the basic sector would include those products whose production was necessary to the reproduction of the working population. I am unconvinced that things would be materially changed by expressing things as continuous flows rather than as annual rounds of production. One would still get R as a variable expressing now the maximal instantaneous rate of expansion of the economy as a time derivative rather than expressing the expansion as an annual rate. I don't see why Phil is opposed to the notion of a material surplus?
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Sep 21 2005 - 00:00:02 EDT