From: Michael Perelman (michael@ECST.CSUCHICO.EDU)
Date: Mon Jun 11 2007 - 10:51:16 EDT
What I meant was that it is hopeless to think that anyone could quantify the amount of abstract labor in an economy. What I meant was that it is hopeless to think that anyone could quantify the amount of abstract labor in an economy. You could possibly get the total number of hours, but using wages as an indication of the amount of abstract labor reflected in those hours does not make sense to me. If wages (the price of labor) reflect values, why not use prices everywhere & throw out values altogether -- a la Joan Robinson? On Sun, Jun 10, 2007 at 08:45:39PM -0700, Rakesh Bhandari wrote: > > Michael, > > I am not sure I understand what remains of the qualitative analysis > once one cedes the quantitative analysis > > The market, not Marx, represents what is the qualitative > irreducibility of real laboring activities from > the point of view of monadic subjectivity as quantitative difference. > So the question becomes for Marx in terms of what kind of labor can > their products be commensurated as commodities. His answer is > premised on the abandonment of a philosophy of monadic subjectivity. > > The labor time represented by a commodity is the labor time required > by society to produce that use value. Of the labor power available > to society there exists in the organism of every ordinary > individual, on an average apart from any special development, a > plastic capacity to expend simple labor power (we see this in the > capacity of ordinary individuals to shift job tasks). Commodities > exchange in terms of temporal duration of this average, simple labor > as required by society to produce them. > > Complex labor is only a more or less special development of this > simple average labor power, so it's not difficult to understand why > its product would exchange at some multiple of the product of simple > average labor power. > > Rakesh > > > > > > > > > > > -- > >Michael Perelman > >Economics Department > >California State University > >Chico, CA 95929 > > > >Tel. 530-898-5321 > >E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu > >michaelperelman.wordpress.com -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com
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