[OPE-L:2295] Re: Measuring value

akliman@acl.nyit.edu (akliman@acl.nyit.edu)
Mon, 20 May 1996 11:58:13 -0700

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I agree with Michael Perelman, who wrote in ope-l 2283, that

The use of the [value theoretic] models is to help us make a qualitative
point.

Sometimes the magnitudes are unobservable in principle, sometimes the data
do not exist for other reasons. ... Along with Duncan, who was a pioneer
in this area, Alan, and others, I do however think that national income
accounts can be used to draw some macro-level conclusions concerning the
rate of exploitation and so forth.

While the new debate over value theory, on ope-l and elsewhere, often turns
on minutae, I think the issues under discussion have to do with how to
*conceptualize* value (and its relation to price, etc.), and/or how Marx
conceptualized value, and not with the methods of measuring values.

Andrew Kliman