[OPE-L:174] Re: Artistic whole?

Michael Perelman (michael@ecst.csuchico.edu)
Fri, 29 Sep 1995 15:42:37 -0700

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>
> Paul C.
> ----
> But the intermediate goods were still produced before the final
> goods at any given time interval, and thus with respect to that
> period are dead labour. If you take a trip on the QE2, you depend
> on there having been labour done 30 years ago in the Clyde shipyard
> that build her, but that labour is no longer going on side by
> side with that of the sailors. The shipyard shut years ago.
>

You are correct if you look at a single commodity. If you think of the
shipbuilding industry as a whole, you see ship builders working side by side
with the steel industry ....

Marx begins vol. 1, just as you say, from the point of view of a single
commodity. About 100 pages into v2, he says that he wants to change the
perspective to look at an industry as a whole, with the workers working
side by side. He does this, following Thomas Hodgskin, to minimize the
claims of capital.

-- 
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 916-898-5321 E-Mail michael@ecst.csuchico.edu