Duncan wrote:
>Response to Bruce:
>
>Do capitalists choose the technology that maximizes the mass of surplus
>value for their class as a whole, or the technology that maximizes the
>profit rate on their individual invested capital? The political economy
>tradition, which Marx seems to follow methodologically on these
>questions, argued for the profit rate, on the grounds that the individual
>capitalist would have no interest in, or knowledge of, the consequences
>of his individual decisions for the mass of surplus value.
I agree, but I don't see how it makes much difference in the example I
used. If we imagine the total capital there as consisting of, say, five
firms, if any one of them made the change I described, then the TSS profit
rate, both for that firm and the others, would rise.
Bruce
Bruce B. Roberts
broberts@usm.maine.edu
Department of Economics
University of Southern Maine
Portland ME 04104-9300
(O) 207-780-5503
(H) 207-772-7047
fax 207-780-5507-------------------------------------------------