Re: Re: Question on the rate of profit

[ALI KADRI <akadri_00@xxxxxxxxx>]

Over the nineties, the share of corporate profits
rose, that is, apart from the rate. over the same
period as well, prices of raw materials including oil
exhibited a downward trend. term of trade losses in
africa aere fifty percent(barter terms of trade). this
latter point is essentially one of the mitigating
factors against a falling rate of profit. other
factors have to do with things closer to your home and
that is the deepening of a capitalist labour process
cum higher productivity. forgive the leaps of faith.
--- miychi <miyachi9@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 2002.05.08 11:28 PM, "Jurriaan Bendien"
> <j.bendien@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > Michael,
> >
> > I think your line of inquiry is a good one but
> very difficult for me to
> > answer, I cannot really answer it as put, maybe
> it's impossible. Perhaps
> > you weren't looking for an answer, or perhaps you
> could get a little bit
> > more specific and elaborate the thought ? The
> point you raise certainly
> > merits further development.
> >
> > Jurriaan
> >
> >
> Jurriaan
>
> I am an orthodox Marxist, so my answer is only from
> citing Capial
> If difficult, Please ask me Below is from Capial
>
>
>
> The rate of surplus-value measured against the
> variable capital is called
> rate of surplus-value. The rate of surplus-value
> measured against the total
> capital is called rate of profit. These are two
> different measurements of
> the same entity, and owing to the difference of the
> two standards of
> measurement they express different proportions or
> relations of this entity.
>
> The transformation of surplus-value into profit must
> be deduced from the
> transformation of the rate of surplus-value into the
> rate of profit, not
> vice versa. And in fact it was rate of profit which
> was the historical point
> of departure. Surplus-value and rate of
> surplus-value are, relatively, the
> invisible and unknown essence that wants
> investigating, while rate of profit
> and therefore the appearance of surplus-value in the
> form of profit are
> revealed on the surface of the phenomenon.
>
> So far as the individual capitalist is concerned, it
> is evident that he is
> only interested in the relation of the
> surplus-value, or the excess value at
> which he sells his commodities, to the total capital
> advanced for the
> production of the commodities, while the specific
> relationship and inner
> connection of this surplus with the various
> components of capital fail to
> interest him, and it is, moreover, rather in his
> interests to draw the veil
> over this specific relationship and this intrinsic
> connection.
>
> Although the excess value of a commodity over its
> cost-price is shaped in
> the immediate process of production, it is realised
> only in the process of
> circulation, and appears all the more readily to
> have arisen from the
> process of circulation, since in reality, under
> competition, in the actual
> market, it depends on market conditions whether or
> not and to what extent
> this surplus is realised. There is no need to waste
> words at this point
> about the fact that if a commodity is sold above or
> below its value, there
> is merely another kind of division of surplus-value,
> and that this different
> division, this changed proportion in which various
> persons share in the
> surplus-value, does not in any way alter either the
> magnitude or the nature
> of that surplus-value. It is not alone the
> metamorphoses discussed by us in
> Book II that take place in the process of
> circulation; they fall in with
> actual competition, the sale and purchase of
> commodities above or below
> their value, so that the surplus-value realised by
> the individual capitalist
> depends as much on the sharpness of his business
> wits as on the direct
> exploitation of labour.
>
> In the process of circulation the time of
> circulation comes to exert its
> influence alongside the working-time, thereby
> limiting the amount of
> surplus-value realisable within a given time span.
> Still other elements
> derived from circulation intrude decisively into the
> actual production
> process. The actual process of production and the
> process of circulation
> intertwine and intermingle continually, and thereby
> invariably adulterate
> their typical distinctive features. The production
> of surplus-value, and of
> value in general, receives new definition in the
> process of circulation, as
> previously shown. Capital passes through the circuit
> of its metamorphoses.
> Finally, stepping beyond its inner organic life, so
> to say, it enters into
> relations with outer life, into relations in which
> it is not capital and
> labour which confront one another, but capital and
> capital in one case, and
> individuals, again simply as buyers and sellers, in
> the other. The time of
> circulation and working-time cross paths and thus
> both seem to determine the
> surplus-value. The original form in which capital
> and wage-labour confront
> one another is disguised through the intervention of
> relationships seemingly
> independent of it. Surplus-value itself does not
> appear as the product of
> the appropriation of labour-time, but as an excess
> of the selling price of
> commodities over their cost-price, the latter thus
> being easily represented
> as their actual value (valeur intrinsËque), while
> profit appears as an
> excess of the selling price of commodities over
> their immanent value.
>
> True, the nature of surplus-value impresses itself
> constantly upon the
> consciousness of the capitalist during the process
> of production, as his
> greed for the labour-time of others, etc., has
> revealed in our analysis of
> surplus-value. But: 1) The actual process of
> production is only a fleeting
> stage which continually merges with the process of
> circulation, just as the
> latter merges with the former, so that in the
> process of production, the
> more or less clearly dawning notion of the source of
> the gain made in it,
> i.e., the inkling of the nature of surplus-value,
> stands at best as a factor
> equally valid as the idea that the realised surplus
> originates in a movement
> that is independent of the production process, that
> it arises in
> circulation, and that it belongs to capital
> irrespective of the latter's
> relation to labour. Even such modern economists as
> Ramsay, Malthus, Senior,
> Torrens, etc., identify these phenomena of
> circulation directly as proofs
> that capital in its bare material existence,
> independent of its social
> relation to labour which makes capital of it, is, as
> it were, an independent
> source of surplus-value alongside labour and
> independent of labour. 2) Under
> the item of expenses, which embrace wages as well as
> the price of raw
> materials, wear and tear of machinery, etc., the
> extortion of unpaid labour
> figures only as a saving in paying for an article
> which is included in
> expenses, only as a smaller payment for a certain
> quantity of labour,
> similar to the saving when raw materials are bought
> more cheaply, or the
> depreciation of machinery decreases. In this way the
> extortion of
> surplus-labour loses its specific character. Its
> specific relationship to
> surplus-value is obscured. This is greatly furthered
> and facilitated, as
> shown in Book I (Abschn. VI) [English edition: Part
> VI, pp. 535-43. -- Ed.],
> by representing the value of labour-power in the
> form of wages.
>
> The relationships of capital are obscured by the
> fact that all parts of
> capital appear equally as the source of excess value
> (profit).
>
> The way in which surplus-value is transformed into
> the form of profit by way
>
=== message truncated ===


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Shopping - Mother's Day is May 12th!
http://shopping.yahoo.com