the goals of capital

[James Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I posted this while pen-l was down. I'm sorry if it means duplication in
people's mail boxes.

(I'm sorry if I repeat any of the discussion of Postone, since I didn't get
a chance to read the missive in very great depth. I've also never read
Postone's book.)

Like Gil, I've wondered for a long time about the meaning of Marx's
assertions that the goal of capital -- a macro entity -- is to extort as
much surplus-labor or surplus-value as possible from labor despite the fact
that capitalists only know about and care about micro-level profits (as he
makes clear in vol. 3, p. 873, of the Int'l pub. ed., among other places)
It sure smacks of functionalism or teleology (a concern that Ajit has
raised in a previous thread).

I think the way to figure out this is to realize that when Marx talks about
goals, he isn't always talking about subjective aims. He also talks about
the objective _effects_ of individual and group actions in these terms.
It's along the lines of the way that a lot of old-style Marxists talked.
You remember, stuff like "Comrade Y is objectively fascist" or "Comrade Z's
proposal is objectively petty bourgeoisie." This style of talk went too
far, was abused (as in these quotes), and has fallen from favor. But it has
a basis in Marx's analysis.

In sum, Marx is arguing that capitalism as a system acts _as if_ it aimed
to maximize surplus-value. This does not necessarily involve teleology or
functionalism. It also doesn't mean that capital always attains its "goal."

Also, when Marx talks about capitalism (a social system) having the goal of
raising surplus-value (a macrocategory), I believe he is talking about a
microcosm, the representative capitalist. (In vol. I of CAPITAL, he usually
 uses the textile industry to make the discussion more concrete.) The
representative capitalist is not the firm of neoclassical economics but an
abstraction from all of the individual characteristics of heterogeneous
capitals (part of the abstraction from the heterogeneous use-values
produced that occurs after ch. 3 of vol. I). In later volumes, he lowers
the level of abstraction step-by-step.

in pen-l solidarity,

Jim Devine   jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://clawww.lmu.edu/1997F/ECON/jdevine.html
"The only trouble with capitalism is capitalists. They're too damned greedy."
-- Herbert Hoover