Re: [Marxism] The ultimatum game.

[John <johnedmundson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I think one problem with game theory scenarios is that they make
assumptions which bourgeois ideology assume to be valid but I don't see
as being compatible with Marxism. For example, the game David described
asks player A to decide to share the money with player B. The "lesson"
to be taken from the game has to do with how greedy A is, and how greedy
A can be before B decides to punish them both by saying no to the deal.
Capitalism doesn't work like this for several reasons. Assuming A =
capitalist:

A doesn't make a free decision based solely on how much s/he can "get
away with". The laws of the operation of capitalism place constraints on
A's choices. Competition with other capitalists, the strength of the
economy, the strength of B (organisationally, since B isn't existing in
a vacuum either) all bear on the decision. In the end, how much B gets
from A is won in struggle, not by atomised decisions made by A and
accepted or rejected by B.

B doesn't have the luxury of "deciding" as this game theory scenario
suggests. In the real world, if B says no, s/he starves. Again, these
models assume an ideal world of perfect competition between free agents;
something Marx postulates in Capital Vol. 1 but only as an abstract
principle to get to the fundamentals of how capitalism works.

In the end, these "games" reduce all our decisions to pure, isolated
*moral* choices. Capitalism is not as naive as that. I know of (and know
personally) many capitalists who are very moral people. They would
willingly pay their staff more 'if only they could afford it". In this
"game", they may well divide the money equally, but that tells us
nothing of their real behaviour in the real world.
Cheers,
John


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