[OPE-L] Productive & unproductive labour

From: Jurriaan Bendien (adsl675281@TISCALI.NL)
Date: Sat Jan 19 2008 - 05:57:28 EST

• Next message: Dave Zachariah: "Re: [OPE-L] Productive & unproductive labour"
• Previous message: Paul Cockshott: "Re: [OPE-L] Fred's argument about the deduction (retro)"
• Next in thread: Dave Zachariah: "Re: [OPE-L] Productive & unproductive labour"
• Reply: Dave Zachariah: "Re: [OPE-L] Productive & unproductive labour"
• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]

Paul C., 

Your reading is correct, but Marx's arguments about productive labour and "productive in function" cannot be maintained in large part because of

- the infinite divisibility of human labour
- technological change
- changes in property rights
- changes in the social relations of production
- changes in market access

These factors entail that no static concept of productive and unproductive labour is possible, that no class-neutral concept is possible, and that no objective transhistorical concept is possible other than that productive labour is labour which can produce more than is necessary for its own subsistence. 

I will write that up some time, I just lost the text I typed due to te PC seizing up.

Jurriaan

• Next message: Dave Zachariah: "Re: [OPE-L] Productive & unproductive labour"
• Previous message: Paul Cockshott: "Re: [OPE-L] Fred's argument about the deduction (retro)"
• Next in thread: Dave Zachariah: "Re: [OPE-L] Productive & unproductive labour"
• Reply: Dave Zachariah: "Re: [OPE-L] Productive & unproductive labour"
• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Thu Jan 31 2008 - 00:00:06 EST