[OPE-L:7403] [OPE-L:934] Re: Marx's concept of price of production

Gerald Levy (glevy@pratt.edu)
Sat, 1 May 1999 06:46:20 -0400 (EDT)

Ajit wrote in [OPE-L:933]:

> I don't think you understood any of my questons. So let me try to
> put it in a different way:

OK, I'll try again.

> By "prices" do you meand exchange ratios between different
> commodities or not? For example, 1x exchanges against 2y. If by
> prices you mean exchange ratio of commodities with respect to
> "money", then is your "money" a commodity or not?

In the situation we are discussing where input prices do not equal output
prices, the prices are a monetary expression of exchange-value. Money in
this context can either take the commodity-form or not (i.e. I don't see
any inherent reason why there must be commodity money at this --
post-Capital -- level of abstraction. Nonetheless, it might be useful to
initially discuss the situation where there is commodity money and then
move to a situation in which money is no longer linked to the
commodity-form).

> If your "money"
> is not a commodity, then how is its exchange relation to other
> commodities such as x,y,z are determined?

Non-commodity money can still serve as a means of exchange (and can serve
the other functions of money as well).

If you are asking what determines the value-form, then that is a much more
abstract question than Fred and I have been discussing here.

In solidarity, Jerry