[OPE-L:5504] Re: the assumptions necessary for the two equalities to hold?

["Fred B. Moseley" <fmoseley@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 19 Apr 2001, Gerald_A_Levy wrote:

> A question for Fred (and others):
>
> >From [5359]:
>
> > Please note that this equality between total
> > surplus-value and total
> > profit (along with total value = total price of
> > production) is assumed to
> > hold AFTER it has been acknowledged and
> > emphasized that constant capital
> > and variable capital are equal to the prices of
> > production of the inputs,
> > not equal to the values of the inputs.
>
> Fred (and others): could you please specify
> precisely what assumptions are required for the
> two equalities to hold?
>
> The next question, then, might be: what happens
> on a more concrete level of analysis when these
> assumptions are dropped and the variables

Jerry,

Thanks for your question and sorry for my delay in responding.


The assumptions are: (1) the same quantities of constant capital and
variable capital are taken as given in the determination of both values
and prices of production and (2) the total surplus-value is taken as given
(as determined in Volume 1) in the determination of the general rate of
profit and prices of production in Volume 3, from which it follows that
the total profit must be equal to the total surplus-value.


These assumptions are not dropped at later stages of the analysis.  The
given quantities of constant capital and variable capital are explained
more and more fully at lower levels of abstraction (i.e. these given
quantities are first assumed to be equal to the values of the inputs, and
then are explained more fully as equal to the prices of production of the
inputs), but the given quantities remain the same.  And the total amount
of surplus-value also does not change in the further, more concrete
analysis of the division of this total amount into individual parts.


Jerry, does this clarify?

Comradely,
Fred