Date: Thu, 3 Apr 97 4:48:58 EST From: boddhisatva <kbevans-AT-panix.com> Subject: Re: M-I: Law of value and labour time vouchers Lew, When Marx wrote his critique of capitalism (as opposed to a plan to revolutionize the modern capitalist system he never saw) he naturally demonstrated the new political primacy of money/capital and its power for evil. That was his job. He had to demonstrate the way in which money created new forms of power and created new forms of alienation. He did demonstrate those things - as principles. By no means did he demonstrate how a 21st century economy can be run without money. From his vantage point it might even have seemed reasonable (although I'm not sure that was even his contention). From our vantage point it is clearly impossible, unnecessary and dumb. Look, Marx was essentially warning the people, who were standing on the earthen levies of the feudal order, of the coming flood. From that levy water seems like an awful force, when you're trying to power a hydro-electric plant, it is a little different. Marx was demonstrating how money creatED capitalist power. Capitalists aren't even interested in cash any more. In fact, when they talk about holding "cash" they actually mean short-term interest bearing securities. Actual money is becoming a valuation tool almost strictly of goods, not capital. Capital is valued in equities, corporate paper and derivatives. Currency is a hedge against government behavior and commodity price fluctuations. If you were guided by Marx's principles, instead of involving yourself in debates over 19th century texts, you would see that money/capital is now equity/capital. Clearly, the communist model has no place for equity/capital as it overcomes the alienation between economic and political power. Equity/capital will still be necessary (in a distinctly modified form) under socialism, but only as something to be absorbed by the transition to communism. Cash will always be necessary in any interdependent economy. I don't have to "prove" that last statement by finding some quote in Marx. I simply posit it as self-evident. Your job is to create the elaborate utopian scheme that replaces money with merit badges or whatever. I don't think it is relevant to socialism. Karl Marx never saw a car, a plane, never heard a radio, and probably never talked on a telephone. He probably never held currency that wasn't backed by a precious metal. He was a visionary, but the man had historical limits. Consider the fact that the entire Russian economy - the product of all that socialist planning and debate, and the subsequent infusion of capitalism - is smaller than the economy of Mexico (according to CNBC). How tiny is the scale that he was working on compared to today? I don't challenge his principles (except the LTV, and even then not completely), but I apply them to current reality, which was a luxury he didn't have. peace --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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