Re: [OPE] intermission: value of knowledge

Thanks Dogan, then what you meant was that Smith said complete free trade, its 100% extension, was an illusion not , as you said before, that the considered 'the idea of free market and free trade (per se.- PBl) is an illusion', which is different.

Thanks for allowing me to quickly address my concerns.

Paul
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: D. Göçmen
  To: ope@lists.csuchico.edu
  Sent: Sunday, November 15, 2009 3:10 PM
  Subject: Re: [OPE] intermission: value of knowledge

  Dear Paul, the paragraph I was thinking of is this (WN, IV.ii.43/p. 471):

  "To expect, indeed, that the freedom of trade should ever be entirely
  restored in Great Britain, is as absurd as to expect that an Oceana or
  Utopia should ever be established in it. Not only the prejudices of the
  * publick, but what is much more unconquerable, the private interests of
  many individuals, irresistibly oppose it. Were the officers of the army to
  oppose with the same zeal and unanimity any reduction in the number of
  forces, with which master manufacturers set themselves against every law
  that is likely to increase the number of their rivals in the home market;
  were the former to animate their soldiers, in the same manner as the latter
  enflame their workmen, to attack with violence and outrage the proposers
  of any such regulation; to attempt to reduce the army would be as dangerous
  as it has now become to attempt to diminish in any respect the
  monopoly which our manufacturers have obtained against us. This
  monopoly has so much increased the number of some particular tribes of
  them, that, like an overgrown standing army, they have become formid-
  [2oT]able to the government, and upon many occasions intimidate the
  legislature, s9 The member of parliament who supports every proposal for
  strengthening this monopoly, is sure to acquire not only the reputation of
  understanding trade, but great popularity and influence with an order of
  men whose numbers and wealth render them of great importance. If he
  opposes them, on the contrary, and still more if he has authority enough to
  be able to thwart them, neither the most acknowledged probity, nor the
  highest rank, nor the greatest publick services can protect him from the
  most infamous abuse and detraction, from personal insults, nor sometimes
  from real danger, arising from the insolent outrage of furious and disappointed
  monopolists."

  D.Göçmen
  http://dogangocmen.wordpress.com/
  http://www.dogangocmen.blogspot.com/

  -----Original Message-----
  From: Paul Bullock <paulbullock@ebms-ltd.co.uk>
  To: Outline on Political Economy mailing list <ope@lists.csuchico.edu>
  Sent: Sat, Nov 14, 2009 1:36 am
  Subject: Re: [OPE] intermission: value of knowledge

  Dogan... have you refs to Adam Smith saying this... ie 'illusion'?

  Paul B.
    ----- Original Message -----
    From: D. Göçmen
    To: ope@lists.csuchico.edu
    Sent: Friday, November 13, 2009 2:11 PM
    Subject: Re: [OPE] intermission: value of knowledge

    With minor editing again:

    "Good point, Jerry. As Marx pointed out in *Grundrisse* the idea of *free market* implies a market without market forces even if we leave out the state. Already Smith pointed out that the idea of free market and free trade is an illusion. More generally, Engels, in his investigation into the concept of competition, pointed out that the division of labout resulting in private property implies some kind of monopolies and therefore power relations. Remember what Marx says about the dision of labour and private property in Capital: the divison of labour does not require private property as in a factory but private property does always."

    D.Göçmen
    http://dogangocmen.wordpress.com/
    http://www.dogangocmen.blogspot.com/

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Gerald Levy <jerry_levy@verizon.net>
    To: Outline on Political Economy mailing list <ope@lists.csuchico.edu>
    Sent: Fri, Nov 13, 2009 3:28 pm
    Subject: Re: [OPE] intermission: value of knowledge

> What is different about knowledge is that it has high returns to scale,
> but as Michael has pointed out, capitalism has difficulty with all
> industries characterised by high returns to scale. It is forced to
> abandon the idea of the free market and resort to monopoly in
> these cases, whether it be railways or software publishing.
     
    Hi Paul C:
     
    Even where there are more competitive markets, the "free market" doesn't exist. One can only conceive of the possibility of a free
    market in the absence of a state, yet where the capital-form has
    existed historically so has the state-form. "Free market capitalism"
    is not a historical construct, it is an ideological one.
     
    Regarding the point that labor has to be expended preserving
    the material carriers of knowledge, that's true but it can also be
    vanishingly small. What, for instance, is the labor required to preserve a Class 6 SHDC and the data which has been stored in it? What's even more to the point is that although there is such preservation labor required, it doesn't correspond to the value of
    the knowledge.
     
    In solidarity, Jerry
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Received on Wed Nov 18 18:15:16 2009