[OPE-L:3503] Re: currency unions

[Jerry Levy <jerry_levy@xxxxxxx>]

Paul C wrote in [OPE-L:3501]:

> The original question is how one values the import content
> of goods in terms of labour time. This problem arises because
> one has in the i/o tables figures for the imports used by
> various industries given in money terms. You want to convert
> these money figures into equivalent labour fingures.

The problem arises, from my perspective, because of the international
heterogeneity of labour-time and wages. International variations in
productivity (both due to differences in the intensity of labour and
technological change), education and skill, and the "cultural and moral"
components of the wage lead to variations in the creation of value and surplus
value.  The problem, in other words, is a theoretical rather than a primarily
empirical one: namely, *whether value can/should be calculated at the level of
an individual nation-state (or currency union) or whether value can/should
only be calculated on the level of the world capitalist economy*. Questions
regarding whether the latter can be done empirically or how difficult it would
be to do empirically are *secondary* to the prior theoretical question
regarding the geographical area in which value is created.

In solidarity, Jerry

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