Re: [OPE] Reply to critics

Jerry wrote:
> A: Entertainment.
>
> Entertainment just doesn't 'happen' in this case: it is produced
> by the labor of clowns and the circus. It is productive labor
> to the extent that it is wage-labor employed by a capitalist
> firm engaged in production.

We can similarly say that the insurance industry produces 'peace of mind'.
So if I want 'entertainment' I go to the circus, if I want 'peace of mind' I
go to an insurance company. And the 'peace of mind' is produced by the labor
of the insurance workers, eg the guy who manages my account and answers my
queries in a reassuring tone of voice. This labor also is 'productive' to
the extent that it is wage-labor employed by a capitalist firm engaged in
production. But 'production' of what? All we can say so far is, 'production
of entertainment' and 'production of peace of mind'. We are not yet entitled
to say 'production of value', which is a very different matter.

There's another significant similarity between 'entertainment' and 'peace of
mind'. Both are jointly produced by the consumer. If the consumer doesn't
get the clown's jokes, he obtains little or no entertainment; if he doesn't
trust the insurance employee, he obtains little or no peace of mind. There's
a whole discussion about the customer as 'co-producer' that looks at this,
and it's an important clue that both 'entertainment' and 'peace of mind' are
not values, but use-values.

Now let's consider a commodity that provides both 'entertainment' and 'peace
of mind' - a gun (apologies for the politically incorrect example, but it
fits). So if I want 'entertainment' I now have a choice, I can go to the
circus or I can go hunting; if I want 'peace of mind' I also have a choice,
I can buy a life insurance policy or I can buy a gun. Once again this
suggests that 'entertainment' and 'peace of mind' are use-values.

But the value of the gun has nothing to do with this; it merely represents
the amount of abstract labor time embodied in it.

Paula

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Received on Thu Nov 4 17:47:20 2010