On 7 April 2010 23:51, Ian Wright <wrighti@acm.org> wrote:
>
> > But I think this misses the point that I raised. The basic problem
> > with net savings of workers' in the orthodox formulation is that
> >
> > 'total surplus value' no longer equals 'monetary value of surplus
> > product'
> >
> > which was the main point of the theory of surplus value (Volume 1, ch.
18),
> > i.e. to show how the extraction of surplus labour-time worked in
capitalism.
>
> I will try to reply to this point later.
The following numerical example may illustrate this further. Suppose the
total labour performed during a period is 1000 worker-weeks. Suppose that
the net product (RHS)
Investments + Capitalist consumption + Workers' consumption = 500 + 500 +
1000 CU
Hence, the monetary equivalent of labour is 2 Credit Units per worker-week.
Now by definition the surplus product (Investments goods and Capitalist
consumption goods and services) is 1000 CU or equivalent of 500
worker-weeks. Looking at the income-side (LHS) one has
Profits + Wages
(i) Suppose Wages = Workers' consumption. Then clearly
Profits = 1000 CU
which corresponds to the the monetary value of the surplus product.
(ii) Suppose Wages are greater, so that net savings equals +200 CU, then
Profits = 800 CU
Hence profits/'surplus value' are less than the monetary value of the
surplus product. This difference corresponds to a debt by capitalists to the
working class.
(iii) Suppose Wages are lower, so that net savings equals -200 CU, then
Profits = 1200 CU
Hence profits/'surplus value' are greater than the monetary value of the
surplus product. This difference corresponds to a debt by workers to the
capitalist class.
This illustrates the non-equivalence between real and symbolic appropriation
in the orthodox formulation which does not deal with credit/debt.
//Dave Z
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Received on Thu Apr 8 06:06:34 2010
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