Re: [OPE] Reply to critics

  On 2010-10-17 16:45, GERALD LEVY wrote:
> 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.

OK, let's analytically separate the process of surplus-value creation
for the moment --- which again must be understood from the standpoint of
the capitalist economic system and not an individual agent --- and focus
on Marx's ideas on unproductive consumption (let's call this the
'consumption angle'):

The point of my example is of course that the 'servant workers', while
they may produce goods and profits for their employer, are as
unproductive as the 'servants' when you take Marx's argument to the
entire economic system. And this would include a lot of production
activities that at first were not apparent in his discussion.

//Dave Z
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Received on Sun Oct 17 12:20:05 2010