[PEN-L:27352] RE: LTV and income disparity

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

Title: RE: [PEN-L:27320] LTV and income disparity

I don't remember who it was who said:
>>>You are absolutely right in your fundamental perception that the
>>>distribution of exchange value is a zero sum game.

Justin says: >By this do you mean that Marx thought that value is not created in "distribution" of exchange values, i.e., in what he calls circulation? So that if one exchanger gains value, another loses?<

I would guess that the first person above was saying that the total amount of value in society is determined by production, so that if one capitalist is able to claim a larger part of the social value than he has mobilized the production of (if value claimed in exchange > value produced in his factory), then some other capitalist is only able to claim an amount of value less than what she has had produced (value claimed in exchange < value produced). These kinds of redistributions happen all the time, since commodities don't sell at value (and there are other ways besides exchange that capitalists can claim value, e.g., via lobbying or lawsuits or larceny).

More likely, given the context of this thread, he or she isn't talking about circulation: that means that the "distribution" of profit income to capitalists comes from the total value produced by workers. Workers do the labor that is the basis for the profits.

Jim Devine