Re Paul's [OPE-1832]:
History:
Paul
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The value of a product is the portion of society's labour needed to reproduce
it.
Alan
====
1) Define 'needed', please
2) Define 'reproduce', please
Paul
----
Needed in the sense of what is possible to society as a whole given
its current state of knowledge and current stock of means of production.
Reproduce is harder to define for goods like ships or power stations
that take an appreciable time to build. The labour required to build
a powerstation started today may be less than that required to build
one finished today. Under these circumstances it is an arbitrary matter
which base date one takes, so long as one uses the definitions consistently,
and applies appropriate transformations.
Alan
===
1) Define 'possible', please
2) Define 'current', please
3) Tell me which goods don't take an appreciable time to build. Alternatively,
define 'appreciable'.
4) What about power stations that were completed a year ago? Or ten years ago?
They are part of the 'current stock of means of production'. Indeed, the British
stock of means of production contains almost nothing else.
5) How can it be arbitrary which base date is taken, since the results are
different?