Re: [OPE] devaluation and revaluation of variable capital

From: jerry_levy@verizon.net
Date: Wed Feb 13 2008 - 10:13:57 EST


> What is the difference between devaluation of variable capital
> and the force behind the increase of relative surplus value?


Hi Michael:


The force behind an increase in relative surplus value is
the drive by capital to increase surplus value in the
context of capitalist competition. The revaluation of
v could be a consequence of an increase in relative s,
it could be caused by natural events (such as seasonal
variations in the price of raw materials), or it could
be caused by the presence of monopolies, or it could be a consequence of new _product_ technologies and then product differentiation. Any of these causes could very well be
connected in practice to the extension of credit.


What Marx didn't discuss here is how workers can change
(for example, through their political action or a change in
their customary buying patterns and preferences) the costs of reproduction of labour power.  This is to be expected - after all, he indicates at the outset of the section that the topics under consideration "belong to a possible continuation" (a separate work on competition). Then, there is the question of Book III (the proposed book on Wage-Labour) in the 6-book-plan, of course.


In solidarity, Jerry
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