Re: [OPE] intermission

> The production if ANY (potential) use value is risky.

Hi Paul B:

Yes, that's true. Risk-taking takes place wherever there is capitalist
production
and circulation, _but_ there are some types of activities by capitalist
firms such as
 R&D which are inherently more risky and border on speculation.

> Capitalists struggle to be risk averse in this sense.

In the case of R&D, they are often faced with a Catch 22: invest in R&D
and their short-run individual rate of profit will be lowered and, in any
event,
the R&D may not pan out in the manner which was anticipated. But,
if they don't invest in R&D and their rivals do so successfully, then they
are
put at a disadvantage competitively and could see their individual rate of
profit decline over the longer-term.

> They also struggle to produce so that when sold the use value realises
> itself as a value which contains the average rate of profit. So they are
> in a double bind.

Yeah, or triple-bind or ....

> As PC says, the law of value must work it way out here as an average.

See my reply to him.

In solidarity, Jerry

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Received on Fri Nov 6 07:19:06 2009