From: michael a. lebowitz (mlebowit@SFU.CA)
Date: Wed Feb 01 2006 - 11:01:58 EST
At 08:43 01/02/2006, Paul C wrote:
>The so called static TP also rests on dynamics which it does not supply. It
>assumes that there are a pair of dynamic processes which:
>1) Move capital between branches of production based on their profit rates
>2) Move prices up an down in response to capital movements
>
>Unless both of these hold there would be no equal rate of profit nor
>an necessary divergence of price from value.
>
>The TP treatment of the rate of profit is doubly degenerate
>it assumes
>a) a single rate of profit within a branch - in practice firms within
> a branch have divergent rates
>b) that all branches have the same rate - in practice different branches
> have systematically different rates
>
>The assumptions underlying the TP are extraordinarily strong
Among those assumptions, don't we also have to add (as a condition
for equal rates of surplus value):
(a) a dynamic process of class struggle in which real wages in each
branch rise in accordance with productivity, and then
(b) move workers between branches as long as real wages per workday
differ (as the counterpart of 1) in the first set).
The low probability that can be assumed for (a), in
particular, would seem to strengthen
Paul C's point.
cheers,
michael
Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus
Economics Department
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6
Currently based in Venezuela. Can be reached at
Residencias Anauco Suites
Departamento 601
Parque Central, Zona Postal 1010, Oficina 1
Caracas, Venezuela
(58-212) 573-4111
fax: (58-212) 573-7724
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Thu Feb 02 2006 - 00:00:01 EST