Re: [OPE-L] Reclaiming Marx's "Capital": book launch talks, reviews, media coverage

From: Philip Dunn (hyl0morph@YAHOO.CO.UK)
Date: Tue Sep 04 2007 - 00:49:33 EDT


Hello Ian

Should the labour-time, sales revenue, money value added and wages of
the self-employed count towards the aggregate totals when doing social
value accounting?

I define the value of money as the ratio of aggregate labour-time in
clock measured hours to aggregate money value added measured in dollars,
because the former is the equivalent of the latter. The self-employed
could have an effect on this ratio if included or excluded. Are the
self-employed productive labourers?

Assets such as Picassos act as stores of value. How can they do that if
they have no intrinsic value? Is the value which they store not labour
value but some other sort of value?

On Sun, 2007-09-02 at 11:43 +0930, Ian Hunt wrote:
> This is just too easy to mean anything to anyone who wants economic
> theory to be scientific,
> Cheers,
> Ian
>
> >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".
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >___________________________________________________________
> >All new Yahoo! Mail "The new Interface is stunning in its simplicity
> >and ease of use." - PC Magazine
> >http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html
>
>
> --
> Associate Professor Ian Hunt,
> Dept  of Philosophy, School of Humanities,
> Director, Centre for Applied Philosophy,
> Flinders University of SA,
> Humanities Building,
> Bedford Park, SA, 5042,
> Ph: (08) 8201 2054 Fax: (08) 8201 2784



___________________________________________________________
Try the all-new Yahoo! Mail. "The New Version is radically easier to use" – The Wall Street Journal
http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html


This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sun Sep 30 2007 - 00:00:04 EDT