Re: More on the labor theory of value

[Gil Skillman <gskillman@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

But Michael, "number of pages produced" is a measure of labor performed,
not labor power. And in Marxian terms, "the value produced by labor" is to
some extent redundant, since to Marx labor *is* the substance of value,
no?  It would be more accurate to say on the basis of your example that the
British paid by, ahem, the value marginal product of the author's labor.
But Dickens was indeed paid by the word, since his stories were
serialized.  In much the same way, Samuel Clemens was in effect paid by the
page, since his books were sold by subscription, and the book price
increased with its length.  Which explains why a lot of his books --A Tramp
Abroad, e.g.--benefit from significant editing.  Gil

> In a way, the violinists' demands are not as strange as they seem.
> Richard Biernacki has argued that the Germans and the British had a
> different conception of labor -- the Germans historically measured labor
> by something like Marx's labor power; the British, by the value produced
> by labor.  For example, in German publishers paid authors by the number
> of pages they produced rather than by the sales of the books.
>
>
> --
> Michael Perelman
> Economics Department
> California State University
> Chico, CA 95929
>
> Tel. 530-898-5321
> E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu