[OPE-L:7431] [OPE-L:964] Re: Re: Marx's Concept of Prices of Production

Ajit Sinha (sinha@cdedse.ernet.in)
10 May 99 16:56:26 IST (+0530)

>John writes:
>
> Comment: This sounds like differential rent to me. For absolute
> rent to exist Sraffa's assumption that "land is all of the same
> quality"
> cannot be made.
______________________
What are you talking about. That is the precise assumption that has
to be made for absolute rent. In the case of land of differnet
qualities you will have differential rent. For Marx's absolute rent
the differential quality of land, an assumption that Ricardo made,
can be abstracted from. Sraffa is quite consciously, in my opinion,
taking care of Marx's absolute rent idea as well in the chapter on
Land.
_______________

I would never claim that Sraffa's effort did not
> include differential rent. However, let's assume that all
> producers
> that use land to produce a given commodity use the same
> technique.
> If there are processes that do not produce both profit and rent,
> then
> it's difficult to see how you would eliminate land from the
> Standard
> system. Yet, to determine the level of rent one would need to
> know something of demand.
______________________
Why can't you read the small chapter before writing all this stuff?
Since this is the kind of stuff you are theoretically so occupied
with, there is no excuse for not coming to terms with Sraffa in a
serious way. Sraffa's point is that the theoretical existence of
the two techniques is the only index of scarcity of land. If two
technologies of his kind could not exist then there is no scarcity
of land, and there will be no rent. And of course, when there is no
rent on land, then land is a free good just like air and therefore
will not figure in on the side of the means of production.

I do not have time for anything
further now. So for now, cheers, ajit sinha