Riccardo sent something to me which I thought came through ope-l, so when I
hit the reply button I didn't realise I was only replying to Riccardo.
Apologies to one and all.
>>>Simon remarks:
>>>Assume a 5 day week, 8 hours per day. So if 7 workers are hired, then 2800
>>>hours are bought. $2100 is paid, so each hour costs the capitalist 75 cents.
>>>This is the VLP per hour of labour hired. And I said, multiply by the no. of
>>>hours hired, and you have variable capital. Just like Andrew. Coincidence?
>
>Riccardo comments:
>>May be this correct an error of mine on the new interpretation: do you have
>>a value of money for the labour power when the exchange on the labour
>>market takes place, and a value of money for commodities when wages (or
>>profits) are spent?
>>
>>I thought the value of money was: labour time/value added (hence, wages
>>*and* profits).
>
>Simon responds:
>You are quite right - I was too hasty. I should have said
> 'This is the VLP per hour of labour hired in money terms. And I
said, multiply by the no. of hours hired, and
> you have variable capital in money terms'.
>To know what labour-times these sums of money represent requires knowledge
of the value of money (which I was implicitly taking as unity). This is based on
>1. (wage rate per hour) times (value of money) = VLP per hour of labour hired
>and
>2. (aggregate wages) times (value of money) = aggregate variable capital
>where the value of money is as Riccardo defines it.
>
>Incidentally, in the Marx quotation in my previous mail, Marx certainly
seems to use (given the translation etc.) the word 'equivalent' to mean
'equal' in the phrase 'reproduces the equivalent of its own value and
produces an excess ...'
>Is this use of 'equivalent' different then from the Ch 1 usage (since some
are saying that Ch 1 'equivalent' does not mean equal)? Why is the same word
used? Is it in the German?
>YFTR (I'm learning)
>Simon
Simon Mohun,
Dept of Economics,
Queen Mary and Westfield College,
Mile End Road,
London E1 4NS,
UK
Telephone: 0171-975-5089
Fax: 0181-983-3580