Re: [OPE] Odyssey and the Peruvian treasure

I don't not know what you mean; I have held the same view on this for the last thirty years, simply because it is so abundantly self-evident if you study Marx and if you study history.

I do not agree as I said that commodities are necessarily products produced specifically with the intention of sale and only for sale. To say they are intended for sale, does not necessarily mean that they are produced with that intention.

Products can have value, even if they are not commodities. Indeed they could not become commodities unless this was so. They can also have prices (administered prices) although they are not commodities. They can have exchange-value without having a price. All this is incomprehensible in Marxism, because it all has to be "either this or that" and must conform to formalistic logic.

However, the meaning and practical implications of product-values are not invariant, but historically changeable. We do not obtain an understanding of historical specificity simply by devising a bureaucratic typology according to classification rules, but rather by studying historical experience. Believe me, I have worked in historical research, in statistics, and in bureaucratic information systems. Almost everything Marxists only talk about I did practically in one way or another. I have very strong grounds for rejecting Marxist metaphysics and quasi-religious schematism.

Jurriaan
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Gerald Levy
  To: Outline on Political Economy mailing list
  Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 10:11 AM
  Subject: Re: [OPE] Odyssey and the Peruvian treasure

> argue that commodities (Kaufwaren) are wares intended for sale in the market, normally
> products of human labour.

  That is a quite different definition than the one you asserted in your last post, Jurriaan.
  It is an improvement, though, so I shouldn't complain.

  In solidarity, Jerry

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Received on Wed Feb 11 04:57:58 2009