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

[Pen-L Fred Moseley <fmoseley@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Quoting Jerry Levy <Gerald_A_Levy@xxxxxxx>:

> Hi Fred:
>
> I am confused by your most recent reply to Ajit.
>
> Didn't you acknowledge years ago (Spring, 2001)  that the numbers
> generated by your formulas were identical  to those generated in the
> equations of the "simultaneists", surplus approach theorists included.
> For the TSS theorist and former list member who debated you on this
> point, this was particularly damning!  As I recall the exchange, you
> were  somewhat surprised by this result but not convinced it was of
> great significance -- because the issue of sequential vs. simultaneous
> determination remained even if the numbers generated by both sets of
> equations were identical.
>
> Is my memory of that exchange incorrect?

Hi Jerry,

No, the issue back then was different.  I suggested that, even within
the framework of simultaneous determination, the rate of profit is not
uniquely determined by the technical conditions and the real wage.
Others convinced me that this was not true (although it is true that,
even within the framework of simultaneous determination, the rate of
profit is not uniquely determined by the technical conditions and the
*money* wage).  I am saying now that simultaneous determination is not
compatible with Marx?s theory.

I was trying back then to do something similar to what Ian is
suggesting ? interpreting Marx?s theory in terms of simultaneous
determination and seeing if Marx?s theory could be made logically
consistent within that framework.  I have since come to realize more
clearly that simultaneous determination is not compatible with taking
the initial money capital as given.  Simultaneous determination
requires that the initial givens in the theory must be the physical
quantities of inputs and outputs.  Since I have believed so strongly
for many years that M (= C + V) is taken as given in Marx?s theory, I
have come to the conclusion that Marx?s theory cannot be reasonably
reinterpreted in terms of simultaneous determination.

Comradely,
Fred


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