Pennefather's Attack on Marx

[abc170@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

"George Pennefather" wrote:

> various trolls deleted



George Pennefather has launched a deliberate provocation against Marx and then 
labels
those who seek to correct him as ignorant, confused, and refusing to face facts.

Penefather committed the most basic of errors.  He took Marx's sentance that;

"The wealth of those societies in which the capitalist mode of production 
prevails,
presents itself as an immense accumulation of commodities"  and fraudulently
reinterpreted this as Marx saying that all wealth exists only as commodities!.  
Marx
never said this.

He then launched into a vain glorious show of supposedly exposing Marx's 
mistake -
Pennefather's fraudulent reinterpretation.  Providing examples of wealth 
existing for
a time not as commodities is misguided, unless of course you accept 
Pennefather's
wacko reinterpretation.

Of course if Pennefather knew a bit more about what he was rabbiting-on about 
he would
know that Marx stated that "Use values ... constitute the substance of all 
wealth,
whatever may be the social form of that wealth".

Marx's point of reference here for 'all wealth' was use values, not 
commodities.  Use
values are not identical to commodities, and commodities under one social form 
are not
the same as commodities under another.  Values can pass in and out of the 
commodity
form but still, capitalism presents itself as an immense accumulation of 
commodities
(plus other categories).  Marx was perfectly correct.

As Pennefather himself admits, use values are not the same as commodities, and 
as use
values constitute the substance of all wealth (Marx), then clearly all wealth 
cannot
be identified, by Marxists, with commodities.  If Pennefather wants to link
commodities with "all wealth" then he had best not imply this was Marx's view - 
it
wasn't.

Apparantly it is George who is ignorant (didn't know Marx discussed the 
substance of
'all wealth'), confused (thinks saying that capitalist society presents as X 
says that
capitalist society is only X) and refuses to face facts (that means of 
production and
fixed capitals are bought and sold).

Obviously there are valuable products that are not commodities - Marx knew 
this, so
why oh why is Pennefather pretending otherwise.  All that George Pennefather
demonstrates is that he is a raw beginner in Marxism (or a slow learner).

I find it incredible that George Pennefather attacks Marx simply because after a
commodity is sold it is no longer a commodity - so what!


Chris W

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