Re: "Blindly operating averages" and price-value divergence

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Nov 29, 2006, at 10:01 PM, michael a. lebowitz wrote:

>         But Marx, when talking about the relation between surplus  
> value and profit/interest/rent (or value and price)--- which is the  
> relation relevant to 'transformation' issues--- is not talking  
> about 'shared characteristics' (which implies coexisting on the  
> same level); rather, he is explicitly talking about 'invisible  
> essence' and surface forms--- which cannot exist on the same level:
>
> "Surplus-value and the rate of surplus-value are… the invisible  
> essence to be investigated, whereas the rate of profit and hence  
> the form of surplus-value as profit are visible surface  
> phenomena" (Marx, 1981b: 134).

Of course that essence has no existence separate from the surface  
phenomena, does it?

Doug