Re: [OPE] Market socialism

alejandro_agafonow@yahoo.es

You are right Jerry, I am discussing issues at cross purposes, because it is the only way to highlight potential contradictions. My question aims to catch some of you committing a contradiction.

Bu you have been extremely careful. You deny that Marxists pretend to fix labour tokens proportional to labour values casting aside prices, but it is not clear what this mean exactly:

1) If you are thinking in a market mechanism of the type that allows dis-proportionalities (disequilibria) operating for socialist purposes;

2) Or, if you think in “fixing labour tokens proportional to labour values” but without casting aside prices (Langian prices), i.e., using Langian prices indeed;

Please, choose one!

Kind regards,
A. Agafonow

----- Mensaje original ----
De: Gerald Levy <jerry_levy@verizon.net>
Para: Outline on Political Economy mailing list <ope@lists.csuchico.edu>
Enviado: jueves, 10 de julio, 2008 21:19:25
Asunto: Re: [OPE] Market socialism

> Is this the goal of most Marxists: fixing labour tokens proportional to 
> labour values and casting aside prices? Is it your goal too?

Alejandro:

I doubt that this is the "goal" of any - let alone, most - Marxists.

Most Marxians,  I think, would be hesitant about making (over-) 
generalizations about the issue of labor tokens and prices in socialist 
societies.  These are issues that have to be thought through concretely
- and, perhaps, also pragmatically  - within the context of particular
socialist social formations. 

It is important, furthermore, to separate - both analytically and for 
purposes of communication - the question of value, profits, and prices in a 
capitalist society from questions associated with ratios and relations 
of exchange in a socialist society. The "transformation problem" is a debate 
situated firmly in the former and only confusion can result from interjecting 
TP issues into a debate about socialism. Furthermore, one must be clear - if 
one wishes to discuss the TP - whether one is primarily discussing Marx's logic 
or whether one is making an empirical claim about the actual functioning of
capitalist economies. It is my sense that the participants in this debate
are sometimes discussing issues at cross purposes. So, if you and others
can pick one topic for debate at a time, that would be helpful.

In solidarity, Jerry

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