AF:
>Paul's reply is, as far as I am concerned, spot on.
>An average or general rate of profit is *not* the same
>as an actually equalised rate of profit.
>
>The issue for political economy is: what happens to the
>general or average rate of profit under technical change?
>
WPC:
Let us call A the rate of technical advance. That is to say
A is positive when the amount of labour reauired to produce
the Sraffian standard commodity declines over an infinitessimal
time interval. ( By using infinitessimals one can to a first
approximation ignore changes in the composition of the standard
commodity ).
Then,
1. the instantaneous rate of profit will be a negative
function of A due to stock depreciation effects.
2. the rate of decline of the rate of profit will be
a negative function of A, for any given instantaneous
configuration of accumulation. ( the greater the advance
the slower the rate of decline of the rate of profit ).
3. the long run equilibrium rate of profit ( insofar as
such a concept has meaning ) for any given rate of accumulation
and rate of change of the labour force, will be a rising
function of A. This is because technical advance limits the
rate of accumulation ( stock depreciation effect (1)).
Paul Cockshott
wpc@cs.strath.ac.uk
http://www.cs.strath.ac.uk/CS/Biog/wpc/index.html