Re: [OPE-L] questions on the interpretation of labour values

[Diego Guerrero <diego.guerrero@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Jerry,

 

I think that we have to proceed in steps in the analysis of prices. Before dealing with the price of non-produced commodities, we have to look at the general case: reproducible goods. For these, my view is: total of values = total of prices of production = total of market prices.

 

There is no doubt that Iraqi antiquities were part of the surplus-labour realized at the moment, not of present surplus-value. But again, before considering the relation between the capitalist mode of production and other modes of production, we should analyse the former in its purity (this applies also to the Inuits). As for the tigers they are the result of a production process and so a normal commodity. It is true that tigers are part of Nature but not more than minerals or oil.

 

I think that most cases you cite are examples of the non-freely-reproducible goods of which Ricardo already spoke, to which does not apply the main norm of the LTV, because their price is determined by demand. In conventional terms, their supply is a vertical line, so the price can be any depending on the intensity of demand.

 

Best regards,

            Diego

 

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Jerry Levy

To: OPE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2007 5:00 PM

Subject: Re: [OPE-L] questions on the interpretation of labour values

I mean total values or direct prices = total produuction prices = total market prices. Of course, ground-rent, taxes, etc., amount to a new deviation from p to m, but the sum of these deviations has to be 0 because of all those elements are not but deductions from surplus value (= profit).

 

Hi Diego:

 

This would be true if all goods were commodities in the fullest

sense of the term.  But, for instance, there are objects which were

never produced with the intention of being sold.  You might recall that

during the invasion of  Iraq  the major antiquities museum was looted.

Undoubtedly, the plunder was then priced and sold.  Is that plunder

to be treated merely as a deduction from surplus value?  When

tigers are illegally killed in national forests and reserves in India and

then sold to customers in Tibet and China for ritual and 'medicinal'

purposes, is that to be treated merely as a deduction from s? 

Would that be the case even if the buyers weren't capitalists as

consumers or firms?  When Inuit sell whale meat at a modest

cost to fellow Inuit is that also to be considered a deduction from

surplus value?  When, in today's economy,  individuals are taken by

force and sold as sex slaves to private customers is that

valuation in price also to be considered to be a deduction from surplus

value even if the customer is a wage-worker? Are the items taken from

the tomb of Tutantamen, to the extent that they some of those items

came to be sold, to be treated as a deduction from surplus value?  If

you were to walk along a beach in Madrid and find ambergris and then

sell it to your neighbor, should that be considered to be a deduction

from surplus value?  Is a black book painting made by a graffiti artist

which was never intended for sale but was eventually thrown in the garbage

and picked-up by someone else and sold to another artist or collector  to

be considered a deduction from surplus value, regardless of the class

membership of the buyer?  If  someone found a lock of my hair and sold it

to a company specializing in genetic mapping and DNA research,

should that also be considered to be a deduction from surplus value?

(On a related note,  have you heard in Spain about Brittany Spears' shaving of

her head?  Did you also hear that someone, not Brittany,  tried to put up her

hair for sale on E-Bay?  The bidding reportedly went above $1 million before

E-Bay took it off for sale because they claimed that its authenticity wasn't

verified.  Had her hair, though, been sold should the monetary price associated

with the sale have been treated merely as a deduction from surplus sale?)  Is

the money paid for the posters made by an artists collective during the May-June,

1968 revolt in Paris or by the Council for the defense of Madrid in 1937 which

can be purchased now at art galleries in New York City and elsewhere to be

considered to be a mere deduction from surplus value?  Is there any reason

to suppose then when we look at the subject more concretely  that the sum

of all of the deviations has to be -0-?   One has to remember what were the

assumptions embodied within the equalities suggested by Marx and the

the level of abstraction appropriate for those equalities.

 

In solidarity, Jerry