[OPE-L] New article at artefact

["Hans G. Ehrbar" <ehrbar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Rakesh,

in the example with the dish washer, I considered the family
itself as a mini-society, in order to get an example for a
society for which the labor-time constraint was less
important than other considerations, without having to use
specialized anthropological or historical knowledge.  Of
course, I agree that as part of modern capitalism this is
private labor.

Regarding your second point: this is well taken, thank you
for the reminder.  Capitalism itself is labor-wasting since
it does not count labor itself but only paid labor.  If
wages are low, then it may not be profitable for firms to
install certain labor-saving machines, even if the overall
labor requirement would be lower with these machines.  This
is another example making my point: not the labor-time
constraint itself is relevant, only the social relations --
which certainly cannot ignore the labor-time constraint, but
they may give it less than first priority.


Hans.