From: Ian Wright (wrighti@ACM.ORG)
Date: Wed Jul 25 2007 - 12:16:05 EDT
> I think that this is just wrong. This is not what Sraffa means by the dated labour interpretation, though it is an accurate account of von Neumanns growth model. I do not claim that Sraffa interprets equation (5) in this way. I make reference to Sraffa's phrase "reduction to dated quantities of labour" but in fact Sraffa never writes down equation (5) in PCMC. His dated labour formula includes a non-zero compound profit mark-up. He only implicitly uses equation (5) when he remarks that prices are proportional to (standard) labour-values only when profits are zero. But all this remains a side issue. My interpretation of equation (5) is in terms of a process of replacement that involves growth. This is one way of helping readers understand the difference between standard and nonstandard labour-values. > There is no growth assumed in the Sraffian dated labour interpretation, and you have not > demonstrated that it must involve such growth. Merely showing that at each cycle of > production fewer means of production are required to be used than are produced, which is > all your equation 6 rests on, does not amount to such a demonstration Here I simply disagree. Not only can equation (6) be interpreted in this manner, but the interpretation also explains the net value equality of standard labour-values, and the wage value equality of nonstandard labour-values. But this is also a side issue. I am not attacking standard labour-values for supporting a counterfactual process of replacement that involves growth. Nonstandard labour-values also have this property. And there is a very good reason why any labour-value formula must support such an interpretation, namely the irreducibility of the standard unit of measure.
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