RE: [OPE] No rise is s/v? Kliman's pseudo-empirical work on the falling rate of profit

Jurriaan:
 
Marx, I think, was very clear and consistent about the subject of
productive vs. unproductive labor. (The manuscripts for what became
Volume II, I think, are particularly important since
they represent his 'late' thinking.) This is not to say that some issues
don't remain _ especially as it relates to the classification of
individual workers in an unusual or ambiguous situation vis-a-vis the production
of surplus value. But, if Kliman thinks that Marx was wrong on that subject and
is in need of revision, then let him make that case explicit. It's
certainly a legitimate question to ask. What is _not_ legitimate for him
to do is just to side-step the whole question since it is vital to the thesis
of his paper and because the Marxian empirical literature since Gilman has
included estimations of productive vs. unproductive labor expenses.
 
If one wants to calculate the rate of profit - from Marx's or a Marxian
perspective - then one _must_ do this. Otherwise, all wage labor expenses
regardless of whether the labor is engaged in capitalist _production_
or not are counted as part of V and this, hence, affects the magnitude of the
rate of profit.
 
In solidarity, Jerry

> The real point is not so much that Dr Kliman is inconsistent with Marx in
> this respect, but that Marx never reached a definite and ambiguous
> conclusion about the meaning of unproductive labour, except to say that the
> concept refers both the the "useful effect" of the labour, and the social
> relations of production within which it is performed. _______________________________________________
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Received on Fri Oct 23 08:51:08 2009