Re: Bourgeois Reliance on the Labor Theory of Value

[boddhisatva <kbevans@xxxxxxxxx>]

                Mr. Kuhls,



        First, Marx says it himself "the surplus-value incorporated in a
commodity in not realized through its sale, but springs out of the sale
itself."  If it springs out of the sale, and is not realized through it, how
can it be said to be realized by labor previously?  It cannot.



        Saying that capitalists get overpaid for their role in the economy
because they own the goods and the capital is entirely what I am saying.
"Surplus-value" is not necessary to come up with this conclusion.  Marx ALSO
says this.  However, when he mystifies labor as a perpetual reality, and his
students start with that concept and spin out into the stratoshpere, a
mistake has been made.




        Here is the reason that the mistake is made : "If (a good) is sold
under its cost-price, the expended constituent elements of productive
capital cannot be fully replaced out of the selling price. If this process
continues, the value of the advanced capital disappears."



        "Expended constituent elements of productive capital" fail to be
replaced all the time.  In the service sector they NEVER need to be
replaced. Sometimes companies go on for years getting money from
specualtors on the assurance that they will replace these elements and
never do.  In the market, capitalists who are making decisions well can
fuel those who are making bad decisions, and vice versa.  "Advanced" is
the key word. The system is not static.  Capitalists can not only make
bets on capitals that have produced nothing, "replacing" capital which
does not even exist yet.  They can also sell such capitals and can change
the agreed (among capitalists) rate of "leverage" on such future capitals.



        Combining the fluctuating rates of depreciation on existing capitals
and "multiples" of speculation on future capitals, Marx's question of
replacing expended capital becomes, if not moot, essentially theoretical.


        
        Profit exists because the people who make the goods and perform the
services give them to rich people for less than they are worth because they
need the money right away.



        
        You know, capitalists essentially argue the "surplus-value" cause
when they talk about profit as "savings" which they then claim to "invest".





        peace








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