LOV: centre/periphery

["Chris, London" <100423.2040@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Michael Luftmensch 12 May:
--------------------------

2. Does not centre/periphery polarization have some bearing on the Law
of Value?

Chris B:
-------

I am convinced it does.

The issue has been explored unproductively in terms of
"unequal exchange" over the last couple of decades.

I think it only makes sense if we see the Law of Value,
particularly at a time of ever changing technology,
not as operating on a flat rectilinear plane,
but in a multi-dimensional, non-linear (non-rectilinear that is)
matrix, in which different producers have varying degrees
of relative monopoly in relation to other producers,
which change with time.

The centre-periphery is therefore a *gradient*, or probably,
more accurately, several gradients.

It is also a non-eqilibrium situation.


I am sorry if this sounds obscure. Fundamentally I think it
is only obscure if we start off assuming the LOV would
ever operate with simplistic linear mathematics.

It is now possible to abandon these mental constraints.

The point is not a mere abstract one. It means that in the free
world of neo-liberal economics as enforced by the IMF and the
World Bank, enormous and unacceptable inequalities will
continue between the privileged world and the oppressed
world, which cannot just be dealt with in a moralistic
way by campaigners for "fairer" trade, or debt
annulment.

Inequalities will also continue to develop within capitalist regions, and
between capitalist powers, which will cause great instability, and for *this*
the capitalists will themselves have again to raise the question of how
to tame capitalism on a world scale.

I just caught a programme on the World Service of the BBC, re-examining
the work of Keyenes. I do not think this is accidental.







     --- from list marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---