From: Pen-L Fred Moseley (fmoseley@MTHOLYOKE.EDU)
Date: Sun Apr 22 2007 - 10:12:08 EDT
Quoting Rakesh Bhandari <bhandari@BERKELEY.EDU>:
>> Hi Rakesh, thanks for your latest reply and for the discussion in
>> general, which I think is productive. A few responses below.
>>
>> Quoting Rakesh Bhandari <bhandari@BERKELEY.EDU>:
>>
>>>> Hi Rakesh,
>>>>
>>>> The kind of scenario that you suggest (constant and more or less
>>>> proportional changes of values for all commodities) is possible, but
>>>> there is no indication in this passage that this kind of scenario is
>>>> what Marx had in mind.
>>>>
>>>> And, even in this case, if the prices of production of outputs remain
>>>> constant over longer periods of time, then so will the prices of
>>>> production of the inputs, and thus the prices of production of the
>>>> inputs will be equal to the prices of production of the outputs, as I
>>>> have argued.
>>>
>>> Don't think has to follow.
>>
>> Yes, it does have to follow. If the prices of production of the inputs
>> are NOT = to the prices of production of the outputs, then the prices
>> of production of the outputs would have to change in the next period,
>> and in subsequent periods, in order to equalize the rate of profit
>> across industries. Just look at any of Kliman and McGlone’s numerical
>> tables.
>>
>> So if the prices of production of the outputs remain constant over
>> “prolonged periods”, then the prices of production of the inputs must
>> be = to the prices of production of the outputs.
>
> No. If prices of production are aggregate industry prices (and you
> say that they are) and if each period there is proportional
> productivity growth and expansion and if the MEL is constant, then
> prices of production will not change each period. But unit values and
> prices would have. So the constancy of prices of production does not
> prove the interperiodic constancy of unit values and unit prices.
Rakesh, your reply does not address my main point. I accepted in my
previous post which you quote (for the purpose of this discussion) your
scenario of proportional productivity growth for all commodities ("even
in this case"). My point is that, even in this case, the constancy of
prices of production over "prolonged periods" implies that input prices
of production must equal output prices of production. This is my main
point, to which you have not responded.
In this argument, I am not talking about "the interperiodic constancy
of unit values". Rather, I am talking about the interperiodic
constancy of prices of production, which implies that input prices of
production must equal output prices of production.
Comradely,
Fred
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