Date: Wed, 25 Feb 98 8:01:48 EST
From: boddhisatva <kbevans-AT-panix.com>
Subject: Re: M-I: Existence of Value






		C. Sid asks:



	"Why is gasoline more expensive...than rain water?".  I don't
know, Sid, use-value? or is it the amount of labor it takes to pump it out
of the ground? 


	He also asks: "What is the value created by an unemployed person?" 
I'm pretty sure there is a clever "reserve army of labor" argument
underlying this seemingly innocent question.  The tougher question is what
value is created by a person who creates something nobody wants, or a
person who takes hours to make someting that a machine can make in
minutes. 



	Welcome to the magical world of "socially necessary" labor time. 
This is a happy land where everything is averaged to create labor value
clothes for the nakedly dogmatic Emperor of the dual kingdoms of
Catastrophia and Equillibria.  In Equillibria, political economy works
with strict and inevitable Newtonian precision, driving the lucky denizens
into the promised land of Catastrophia where clever Marxists Munchkins
guide them out of their confusion and onto the yellow brick road. 
Unfortunately the denizens never seem to get where they're supposed to go. 
Perhaps they have been cunningly shod by the capitalists with diabolically
clever, self-clicking ruby slippers. 





	peace






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