From: Martin Kragh (Martin.Kragh@HHS.SE)
Date: Fri Apr 20 2007 - 05:52:54 EDT
I wrote > As regards computers they are now completely integrated to all of > industry (except for a few places in the world) this is true, but when > we talk about capital goods, they constitute an indefinitely small > part of the total value of the capital stock. Perhaps the equivalent > of a few days paycheck for one employee. Jerry wrote: "On what basis did you come to that conclusion?" Do you mean my last statement on the cost of labour? That statement was too exaggerated I admit. I tried to make a point about the tremendously fast cheapening of computers in our days, but obviously a "few days paycheck" is stretching it too far. Kind regards Martin PS. I will reply to Juriaan Bendien's "Russia-post" later. I need to seriously think that one through. > I think that somebody who would be interested in researching this > seriously would actually look at fixed capital assets sold (in one > branch, or year), and follow the stream, that is, try to find out > where it ends up. You get some methodological problems (how do you > define alternative use?) but most likely something will come out of it. I agree: it's a topic which is worthy of further empirical studies. There are many studies which have been conducted in industrial organization and accounting and management literature, although those studies tend to define terms differently and are tend to look at somewhat different but related issues. There are important theoretical issues from a Marxian perspective concerning how industry-specific most constant capital goods are, including: o the extent to which constant fixed capital is mobile or immobile and hencethe extent to which it constitutes barriers to exit and can disrupt the formation of a general rate of profit and lead instead to persistent variations in rates of profit by branches of production and sectors. o how changes in the re-sale value of means of production affects the depreciation methods and schedules employed by capitalist firms. o with computerization, there is the likelihood of a further "disconnect" between the technical composition of capital (TCC) and the value composition of capital (VCC). That is, computers make possible miniaturization where an increasing value of constant capital can be represented by a decreasing physical mass of means of production. In solidarity, Jerry
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon Apr 30 2007 - 00:00:17 EDT