re-marxist economics and border controls

[MLuftmensch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Michael Luftmensch)]

re-marxist economics and border controls


Chris B:
- -------

As soon as we approach Marxist economics with an assumption that
the equations are likely to work in a non-linear way, this problem
falls away. Capitalism is constantly revolutionising the means
of production. That persective was nailed to the marxist flagpost
at the time of the Communist Manifesto. This is non-equlibrium
economics.


Michael
----------

I have no quarrel with nonlinearity. Marxism, to the degree that it
involves making connections in time *and space* about capital accumulation,
is non-linear.

What equations are you talking about?


Chris
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In fact the capitalists, *and the indigenous population*, benefit
>from an inflow of migrants, especially when it is on their terms.
Simplistic analysis is why marxists have such difficulty uniting
workers on the issues of racism and immigration.


Michael
---------

An inflow of migrants doesn't affect all sectors of a population in the
same way. And this, not a simplistic analysis, is the reason marxists
have such difficulties uniting workers on the issues you mentioned. Think
of your own city, London. Do you lack sophisticated analyses of racism
and immigration? I think not.

Sophisticated or not, your quotations from Marx and Engels are indeed
obscure. Look at them yourself and tell me how I am to make sense of them.

-------------------------------------------------
Chris: I will
quote a challenging but central passage from Engels' article
on the Law of Value -

>>> Sombart, as well as Schmidt, -- I mention the illustrious Loria merely
as an amusing vulgar-economist foil -- does not make sufficient
allowance for the fact that we are dealing here not only with a purely !!
logical process, but with a historical process, and its explanatory
reflection in thought, the logical pursuance of its inner connections.

 The decisive passage is to be found in Marx, Vol.III, p.200:

     "The whole difficulty arises from the fact that commodities are not
     exchanged simply as _commodities_, but as _products of capitals_,
     which claim participation in the total amount of surplus-value,
     proportional to their magnitude, or equal if they are of equal
     magnitude."

----------------------------------------------

Maybe if you told me how it challenged you, Chris, I would be able to see
beyond the scholasticism.











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