Re:Efficiency

[ecwfm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (bill mitchell)]

>FROM:  Paul Davidson
>"      Economics Department
>"      523 Stokely Management Center  (615) 974-4221
>The term efficiency is borrowed (like most things in economics) from physics
>and implies a ratio between ergs (a unit of measurement of energy) in to
>ergs out.
.......[DELETIONS]
>        This distinction between economic efficiency and engineering efficiency
>involes a difference between measuring inputs and output in ergodic units
>(ergs) and in nonergodic units (benefits and costs) where the latter vary
>over time in unpredictable ways -- and may be market oriented (and therefore in
>volve property rights via market prices and consts and economic rents. But
>even on a non-entrepreneurial system  without markets, the production decision
>maker (even in a kibbutz or monestary without any individual property rights
> and all propert held in common-- decisions must be made involving costs and be
>nefits.

Paul, i think the point i have been making on this issue is sort of hidden
in your correct statement about the unpredictability of benefits and costs
(to use some very orthodox jargon). yes some things will remain
unpredictable in a co-operative or non-market system. but it is doubtful
whether labour (the use value flowing from labour power) would be quite as
unpredictable in such a co-operative. sure it would still get sick and tired
and have bad days. but one would guess, if the participants in the
co-operative were suitably inculcated with a collectivist sentiment, that
the managerial structures required under a capitalist market system to
maintain  control and maximise the unpaid labour would not be required. the
organisation of production would thus vary dramatically i suspect.

and this system (collectivist or whatever we call it) would more likely be
able to focus on productivity as an ecological concept, rather than a
material one. the system could produce human satisfaction in balance with
the needs of the natural world without the need for on-going material growth
b/c the imperatives of capitalist expansion would be absent.

kind regards
bill
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 William F. Mitchell            Telephone: +61-49-215027      .-_|\
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