Re: [OPE-L] fully automated economy and capitalism

[GERALD LEVY <gerald_a_levy@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Paul C:

 

How are you defining 'profit' and the 'rate of profit' below?

 

If we take the  formula s/c+v  to be the rate of profit, in a

fully automated economy v = 0 and this implies that s =

0 unless you think that c can create surplus value.

 

I suppose one could define 'surplus' (NB: as distinct from

'surplus value') in a different way,  such that it could exist in

your fully automated society.  But, it would be difficult

because in pre-capitalist (or post-capitalist) societies a surplus

refers to an amount of the total product produced beyond the

necessary reproductive requirements  of the direct producers. 

But,   there are no direct producers in a fully automated society

unless you take the robots to be the 'producers'.   [If so, then

the (non-labor) costs associated with maintaining and

reproducing the robots could be seen as 'socially necessary'

and a pre-requisite for the reproduction of the system.]

 

Who would be consuming the output, you ask? Well,

I guess that would be the human (or non-human) parasites

who live off of the product produced by the robots,

right?

 

What any of this has to do with real economies is unclear

to me. I don't think such an abstract, ahistorical model  has

*anything* meaningful to say about capitalism.

 

In solidarity, Jerry

 

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I agree that without wage labour you could not speak of capitalism in the normal sense, but

That does not follow that all prices would be zero, since the firms might still be

Aiming to maximise profit.

 

More unclear would be who or what was consuming the output?

 

One could assume all was reinvested and the rate of profit would then the the rate of growth as analyzed by von Neumann