[OPE] Odyssey and the Peruvian treasure

Alejandro and Jerry are both wrong in their interpretation of my position. My theory of value and prices is much more consistent, and much more specific than Alejandro's. In addition it has the merit of not getting tangled up into all kinds of useless neoclassical debates which add nothing to the solution of allocative problems.

As regards Jerry, he applies the concept of value indiscriminately to any economic condition he doesn't like, so it is impossible to argue with. He wants to project his total revolutionary fervour and the summit of his radicality completely into the concept of value.

Now, what Marx argues is that humanity should no longer be dominated by objectified value relations which escape from their conscious control. That is his classic argument.

This is certainly possible.

But it does not abolish the fact, that products have value because human labour produced them; not at all. Products will have that value, even if their production, distribution and consumption is not "regulated" or "dominated" by that value. Likewise, the fact that production comes under conscious human control, does not preclude the possibility that value will be destroyed.

So anyway Jerry just runs together a whole lot of different issues into a slogan about "value". The "value system" is supposed to be an evil system, and the law of value is an evil oppressive force. Well, he can have his private ultraleftist language if he wants, but it does not describe reality, that is all, and specifically, as I have said before, it confuses the forms of value, with the substance (content) of value.

Jurriaan

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Received on Mon Feb 16 02:01:19 2009