[PEN-L:6877] Re: rising rate of profit?

[Gerald Levy <glevy@xxxxxxxxx>]

Tom Walker wrote:

> Blair wrote
> >And you a Marxist! Doug, theory tells us that the rate of profit falls over
> >time. These data must be incorrect!  ;-)

To Doug: when are you going to define and measure the empirical statistics
that you use in a Marxist way?

To Blair: (a) as you know, there is more than one kind of Marxist theory;
(b) no conclusion can be drawn based on Doug's statistics regarding the
law of the tendency for the general rate of profit to decline (LTGRPD).

> Tsk, tsk, Blair! You left out the crucial term "tendency". Virtually all of
> Das Kapital is an exercise in explaining what the capitalists do to _resist_
> this tendency (including lengthening the working day and introducing new
> technology) and how that ultimately reinforces the tendency.

To Tom: "Virtually all ...."? (a) the LTGRPD was introduced in V3.; (b)
introducing new technology (in the form of productivity-increasing
technologies in constant fixed capital) is not a means that capitalists
use to resist the LTGRPD. Rather, increasing relative surplus value
becomes the means through which this tendency is brought into being; (c)
this last point (b) is a matter of some dispute among Marxists, especially
since the controversy over the Okishio Theorem.

Jerry