> But none of this changes the basic point that their luxury consumption
> is not a necessity for the reproduction of capitalist relations of
> production, but an unproductive side-effect of them recognized by Smith
> and Marx.
Hi Dave Z:
That depends on how you view necessity: for instance, many of the commodities produced
as means of consumption for the working class are not necessary from the perspective of
minimal subsistence requirements (hence the 'moral' and cultural component of the wage
and the VLP in Marx's theory in contrast to Lassalle's Iron Law of Wages). In the same
sense, custom and tradition play a role in what capitalists think is 'necessary' for their
individual consumption. But, one thing is sure - the reproduction of capitalist relations requires
the reproduction of the capitalist class and that requires means of consumption for
capitalists.
In solidarity, Jerry
_______________________________________________
ope mailing list
ope@lists.csuchico.edu
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/ope
Received on Tue Oct 26 14:38:07 2010
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Sun Oct 31 2010 - 00:00:02 EDT