Re: [OPE-L] the "unequal exchange" controversy

[Jerry Levy <Gerald_A_Levy@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Alejandro,

 

Thanks for the references, but I am already familiar with many

UE references.  What I'm concerned with is an empirical

measurement issue which arises from the fact that standards

for what are *socially  necessary* labor times differ in different

social formations as a consequence of different histories, cultures,

and class struggles.  That is, what is SNLT varies spatially

(and temporally): there are differences in average skill and

labor intensity in different branches of production and

social formations.  An analogy: the issue that I am raising

is similar to but not the same as  conversion and measurement

issues that come up with reference to international comparisons

of GDP because of different meanings of GDP used

internationally.   There are statistical ways of dealing with those if one

wants to compare GDP accounts.  How is it done with reference

to differences in SNLT -- recalling, for instance,  that there isn't a lot

of  reliable non-anecdotal data on differences in labor intensity?

It is all well and good to assert that international differences in SNLT

are  "converted" in practice on international markets, but that

doesn't address the empirical measurement issue that I am

raising.  In the literature on UE this issue seems to be mostly

-- explicitly or implicitly -- assumed away and the labor time

performed in different nations is assumed to be of  the same

average skill and intensity. 

 

In  solidarity, Jerry