Re: [Pen-l] The Irrelevance of Workers In Economic Theory

["Jim Devine" <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx>]

Les Schaffer wrote:
> what do you mean by measure labor? time spent design/building X? calories
> burned doing Y? resources put into motion by hands and brain creating  Z?

strictly speaking, labor (effort) can't be measured at all. But just
because we can't measure something doesn't mean that it doesn't play a
role. I doubt that utility can be measured either: orthodox economists
don't use utility these days. Instead, they assume people are
"rational" (consistent goal-seekers) and crank out the results using
models. (Behavioral economics shows that we aren't very rational,
however.)

The normal workings of capitalism tend to make labor more measurable,
however. The deskilling process that Marx sketched and Braverman
developed simplifies the labor process and labor itself, making the
latter more measurable.
-- 
Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own
way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
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