[OPE-L:5213] Re: waste, value, and potential

["Gerald_A_Levy" <Gerald_A_Levy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

While re-reading  Vol 1, Ch 7, Section 2 

in connection with another thread, I  noticed the

following that has significance for this thread:

 

(From the paragraph that begins: "Moreover,

the time spent in production counts only in so

far as it is socially necessary for the production of

a use-value"): "Lastly -- and for this purpose our

friend (the capitalist, JL) has a penal code of

his own -- all wasteful consumption of raw material

or instruments of labour is strictly forbidden,

because what is wasted in this way represents a

superfluous expenditure of quantities of

objectified labour that does not count in the

product or enter into its value." (Penguin ed, 303).

 

Note, however, that before the raw materials

and instruments of labour can be set in motion

in the labour process they must first be

purchased with money-capital. I.e. they have

value when entering the production process,

but if there is then a violation of the capitalist

"penal code" and are consumed wastefully, then

there is a *loss of value*.  In other words, the

value of the means of production are not fully

transferred to the commodity product in the

course of production: thus value itself is

being *wasted*.

 

Expressing the matter differently: the value of

the means of production can be *potentially*

transferred to the commodity product but there

is the distinct possibility (as I suggested in

a previous post last week on "capacity

utilization" and as I suggest above) that a

portion of that value can be "lost" or "wasted"

rather then being transferred.

 

 

In solidarity, Jerry