RE: [OPE] devaluation and revaluation of variable capital

gerald_a_levy@msn.com

> The ambiguity is who the "costs" are costs to - costs to the owners of capital, costs to workers, or costs in the economic reproduction process > viewed in its totality. 

Hi Jurriaan:

My take on the cause of the "ambiguity" is that Marx wanted
a sort of parallelism: i.e. "elements of variable capital" as a  
sort of dual to "elements of constant capital".  There are some
problems, we seem to agree, with the under-developed concept
of "elements of variable capital". 

Yet, what you wrote above could also be re-phrased
to deal with  the cheapening of elements of constant capital
since more than one party is impacted by the changing costs:

a.  the individual rates of profit are changed for firms and branches 
of production which sell commodities which become elements of 
C to other firms:

b. the individual rates of profit are changed for the firms which buy
these commodities which then become for them elements of
C;

c. the living standards of workers can change if the cheapening
of the elements of C allows firms to sell commodities at  lower
prices to workers;

d. the overall process of reproduction and the general rate of
profit can be changed.

(there is also the issue of credit ....)

Hence, what you call an "ambiguity", and I see more as a 
complexity, arises also with the devaluation and revaluation
of elements of C.

> The argument about "devaluation or revaluation of variable capital" really applies only to the economy as a whole, i.e. to the specific intersection > of the five main variables mentioned in the pure case. In other respects, variable capital is "revalued or devalued" only by the result of the 
> valorization and realization process, i.e. by the return for the capital outlay invested.

It is an argument about both the economy as a whole and 
individual branches of production: Marx's focus on the 
"micro" as well as "macro" aspects is quite clear in the
section.

In solidarity, Jerry

_______________________________________________
ope mailing list
ope@lists.csuchico.edu
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/ope