From: Philip Dunn (hyl0morph@YAHOO.CO.UK)
Date: Sat Sep 01 2007 - 09:51:31 EDT
On Sat, 2007-09-01 at 05:02 -0700, ajit sinha wrote: > --- Philip Dunn <hyl0morph@YAHOO.CO.UK> wrote: > > > On Wed, 2007-08-29 at 15:01 -0700, ajit sinha wrote: > > > > > Then thinking economists will have to become > > > non-thinking economists! Let's suppose I bought a > > > Picaso painting 10 years ago for 1 million dollars > > and > > > sell it today for 10 millions. Where did the > > surplus > > > labor come into Picaso's painting that I was > > keepin in > > > a locker in a bank? First tell me what, according > > to > > > you, would be Marx's answer since I presume we are > > > talking about Marx's concept of surplus labor. > > Then > > > you could tell me what would be your answer if you > > > disagree with Marx's answer. Cheers, ajit sinha > > > > > > > > Hi Ajit, > > > > Marx? Things can have a price but no value? A very > > dubious proposition > > IMHO. > > > > Me? Easy peasy. > > > > As one of the filthy idle rich who dabble in the art > > market you count as > > self-employed. The market has valued your productive > > labour (thirty > > minutes toil at the auctioneers to buy the Picasso > > and another thirty to > > sell it) at (the value of) 9 million dollars. If the > > value of money was > > a constant 0.1 hours per dollar, your socially > > necessary labour time was > > 900,000 hours. > > > > It is difficult with the self-employed to split > > wages from profits. > > Taking a 50-50 split you have been earning an hourly > > wage rate of 4.5 > > million dollars. > > > > Scott Fitzgerald once said "the rich are different > > from us". Hemingway > > should have replied "yes, they have better wages". > __________________________ > > Are you just a funny guy or you really think that you > have a serious understanding of economic theory? My > wage of 30 minutes ten years ago and 30 minutes today > remain the same? and why? And why should I split my > profit at 50-50? Any way, Let's suppose I had another > painting which had cost me 1 million but I sold it for > only 2 million. These two transactions are done > separetly with separate 30 minutes labor expenditure. > What happens to my wages and profits now? Cheers, ajit > sinha > > Hi Ajit The 50-50 split is arbitrary just for illustrative purposes. I don't know of any way to tell what is wages and what is profit in the case of the self-employed. If the other painting was sold for only two million that is only one million wages plus profits for an hour's work. I am unable to see the force of your objections. Assets such as Picassos are valuable in the everyday sense of the term. I have given an example to suggest that they possess value in Marx's sense, embodied labour value. Do you think that Piccassos possess value? If so, what do you consider the nature of this value to be? Where did it come from? If not, why not? ___________________________________________________________ To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre. http://uk.security.yahoo.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sun Sep 30 2007 - 00:00:04 EDT