Re: [OPE] Reply to critics

> Marx's idea here is quite clear, and corresponds to one of Adam Smith's
> criteria. The argument is that a capitalist will grow rich employing
> people as wage-labourers that produce an output that assumes the
> commodity form to be sold to others, part of the money will be used to
> pay the wages. But he will grow poor if he employs them as personal
> servants with no output that assumes the commodity form and their upkeep
> is payed out of earned profits.
 
 
Hi Dave Z:
 
This is the issue of the productive vs. unproductive *consumption* of
surplus value. It thus is of crucial importance for the transformation
of surplus-value and profit into capital and for the reproduction process
but that's not the same issue we have been discussing. Any portion of
surplus-value can be productively or unproductively consumed *regardless
of who creates surplus-value*. Analytically, one must separate the production
from the consumption of surplus-value: indeed, they could be thought
of as occurring at different times and - often - different places.

In solidarity, Jerry
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Received on Sun Oct 17 10:48:56 2010