On Wed, 6 May 2009, Allin Cottrell wrote:
> At present in capitalist economies direct labour is not "fully
> costed" owing to exploitation (the wage is "less than the value
> created by labour", as one says). But indirect labour (as
> embodied in labour-saving mchinery) _is_ fully costed to the
> extent that the labour theory of value holds.
Paul and I have a numerical example in Chapter 3 of Towards a New
Socialism. Here's a simplified version. Let's assume the rate of
surplus value is 100% and the "rate of value creation" is $10 per
hour of direct labor.
Proucing good X:
method direct lab. indirect lab. total lab. money cost
A 100 hrs 100 hrs 200 hrs $1500
B 50 hrs 125 hrs 175 hrs $1500
Money cost = $5 * direct labor + $10 * indirect labor. The
capitalist sees no reason to favor method B but the planner sees
that the total labor outlay is lower for B, and so favors B over
A.
Allin.
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Received on Wed May 6 21:20:17 2009
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