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

[Ted Winslow <egwinslow@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Jim Devine wrote:

> It's hard to say using any kind of brevity. One shared characteristic
> would having zero surplus-value.

Does "surplus-value" in the sense applicable to capitalism have  
meaning in an ideal community?  Production in the realms both of  
"necessity" and "freedom" of an ideal community is production by  
"universally developed individuals," i.e. involves a form of "labour"  
antithetical to the alienated form taken by wage labour in  
capitalism.  Labour time in the realm of necessity of an ideal  
community would have meaning, but not the meaning it has in  
capitalism, so a measure of it requiring the latter meaning would not  
be applicable.

“On the basis of communal production, the determination of time  
remains, of course, essential. The less time the society requires to  
produce wheat, cattle etc., the more time it wins for other  
production, material or mental. Just as in the case of an individual,  
the multiplicity of its development, its enjoyment and  its activity  
depends on economization of time. Economy of time, to this all  
economy ultimately reduces itself. Society likewise has to distribute  
its time in a purposeful way, in order to achieve a production  
adequate to its overall needs;just as the individual has to  
distribute his time correctly in order to achieve knowledge in proper  
proportions or in order to satisfy the various demands on his  
activity. Thus, economy of time, along with the planned distribution  
of labour time among the various branches of production, remains the  
first economic law on the basis of communal production. It becomes  
law, there, to an even higher degree. However, this is essentially  
different from a measurement of exchange values (labour or products)  
by labour time. The labour of individuals in the same branch of work,  
and the various kinds of work, are different from one another not  
only quantitatively but also qualitatively. What does a solely  
quantitative difference between things presuppose ? The identity of  
their qualities. Hence, the quantitative measure of labours  
presupposes the equivalence, the identity of their  
quality.”  (Grundrisse, pp. 173-4)

Ted