From: Ian Wright (wrighti@ACM.ORG)
Date: Mon Mar 12 2007 - 15:11:43 EDT
> I do not understand very well. I guess the reference here is not > Sraffa, right? (this model is very soon left aside). If the given > data are the technique, direct labour coefficients and the real wage > rate, then one can deduce the rate of profit, of course. But at the > same time the prices. The fact that the former may be computed > independently from the latter I do not think makes it possible to say > that the rate of profit is known before prices. Riccardo, follow the logic a little more closely. You agree that the rate of profit can be deduced from the technique, direct labour and real wage rate. This means that the rate of profit is known before prices. This is a small but crucial point. Add to your statement "But at the same time the prices" the statement "But at the same time nonstandard labour-values", which I have mentioned before on the list, and derive in a recent paper. Such nonstandard labour-values are independent of the price system and satisfy all Marx's identities, in particular the value rate of profit is identical to the price rate of profit. Nonstandard labour-values include the labour-value of money-capital as a real cost. Standard labour-values ignore it. Standard labour-values are appropriate for production without money-capital, e.g. simple commodity production. You get a transformation problem when you compare standard labour-values with a price equation that includes the nominal cost of money-capital.
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