[OPE-L:7197] [OPE-L:715] Re: Market Values and Market Prices

Gerald Levy (glevy@pratt.edu)
Sat, 20 Mar 1999 17:10:22 -0500 (EST)

Rakesh wrote in [OPE-L:714]:

> KM also says that those various factors reduce to one--the reduction of
> labor absorbed by each each individual commodity.

Yes, but before he said that, he said:

"The application of machinery reduce the price of the commodities produced
with that machinery owing to various factors ...."

Let's consider what this is suggesting:

In the period of "modern industry", isn't the "application of machinery"
the norm in the production of commodities -- Department I and II alike?

If that is the case (which I think it is): does this "application of
machinery" then lead to a decrease in all (or next to all) commodity
prices???!!!

The logic of that is troublesome.

If we go from:

technological change ==> lower prices (e.g. thru price competition),

then isn't the next step --

lower prices --> (assuming money
wages are constant)
increasing real wages for
workers

???!!!

I'm sorry, but I can't accept the suggestion that technological change
necessarily raises real wages.

In solidarity. Jerry