Re: Re: oil and socialism

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>>> jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 11/17/00 03:53PM >>>
Charles wrote:
>First, intensification of production due to technological improvement that
>increases the productive power of labor reduces the rate of surplus value
>( or profit ?) , doesn't it ?  Isn't this part of the logic of the
>tendency of the rate of profit to fall due to the increase in organic
>composition of capital ?

all else (especially real wages) constant, increases in labor productivity
raise the rate of surplus-value.

((((((

CB: I'm always a little unclear on this. I know that the capitalists who make the initial innovations gain an advantage over those who don't because with the increase in productivity, they get more unit commodities to sell for the same total wage. But after all capitalists finally get the innovative technology, is it true that the rate of surplus value is up for everybody as compared with before the innovation ? In other words, surplus value can only be made on labor, so the less human labor that goes into a commodity , the less value goes in.

I have to think about the tendency of the rate of profit to fall due to organic composition.  Not that because Marx said it it is true, but I believe he said this . Of course, the empirical evidence you mention adds another dimension. The counteracting tendencies might just be very big in the concrete period you mention.




Jim D.:
I don't accept the standard story about
the tendency for the rate of profit to fall, since increases in labor
productivity also cheapen the means of production, undermining the increase
in the organic composition. FWIW, the capital-output ratio has been roughly
constant in the US since the 19th century. This is a sign that any
increases in the organic composition have been prevented by "counteracting
tendencies."