[OPE-L:3390] Re: TSS and Tech Change

Gerald Lev (glevy@pratt.edu)
Sun, 13 Oct 1996 13:52:00 -0700 (PDT)

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John wrote in [OPE-L:3389]:

> Stating that there is evidence is not the same as providing it. I'd like
> to see some numbers with your "evidence." Nota bene. Should you have
> such evidence for cases where it is a matter of replacing machines with
> more machines, "bigger" machines, etc., then you'd have a case for
> disproving Marx's statements in CAPITAL.

Right now I'm not concerned with Marx's statements -- I'm concerned with
*yours*.

As I have repeatedly emphasized, you have only given us only *one* example
of micro technological change -- the mailing industry. And as I have
repeatedly emphasized, there is plenty of reason to believe that industry
is an unusual case. Since *you* are making the unusual claim regarding
technological change on the micro level, it is *your* responsibility to
either show us "some numbers" or to drop the claim.

Also: replacing machines with "more machines" does not imply that they are
"bigger machines." Size, in physical terms, is not nor has it ever been a
theoretical concern.

Further, please note that when machines replace machines, one must still
look at the labor requirements per unit of output.

In Solidarity,

Jerry