Date: Tue, 3 Jun 1997 03:17:19 +0200 From: Hugh Rodwell <m-14970-AT-mailbox.swipnet.se> Subject: M-TH: Crisis-free accumulation Rakesh wrote: >There are no deeper attacks on Marx than those at the foundations of value >theory; however, more pressing problems may remain the reconciliation of >what seems to be Marx's model of crisis free accumulation in the >reproduction schemes with his theory of crisis and breakdown and may now >include the value-theoretic analysis of global capitalism (to which >Carchedi has made a most important contribution). Haven't we been through this business about the point of Marx's reproduction schemes before? They *aren't* a model -- Rakesh's *seems* here is too weak by far. We should say: "the illusory use made of Marx's reproduction schemes to suggest the possibility of a model of crisis-free accumulation." What the schemes do is provide a point at which the figures balance out -- a fleeting moment of "equilibrium" in the churning tornado of capitalist development. Marx himself stresses the fact that the figures are averages that can only be fixed after the event, and all the weight of his arguments are for crisis and disequilibrium. As for Doug's question about the use of value theory that can't be provided by bourgeois statistics, the obvious answer is that it provides an answer to the question of the centre of gravity of prices, around which they fluctuate. No statistics can do this, unless mere superficial observation satisfies our need for explanation. Prices have a stability to them over time that wouldn't be there if their fluctuations were arbitrary and subjective. Value theory not only explains what it is that gives firmness to prices in all their fluidity, but (as developed in Capital) also shows how all the phenomena of modern capitalist society -- overproduction crises, centralization and concentration of capital, the falling rate of profit and the relentless pressures of competition -- combine to socialize the mode of production behind the backs of the capitalists and shake the grip of the bourgeoisie on political and economic power in as much as the simplest democratic needs of the people producing value are more and more openly violated in the interests of the profit-greedy few. In other words it explains imperialism as a natural development of capitalism, and October as its natural solution. All vulgar economics, bourgeois and "Marxite" alike, has its roots in the removal of objective criteria of value formation and their replacement by subjective desire and marginalist superficiality. The cohesion of production and distribution is then removed from conscious theory to a consensus of praxis external to the study of economics. It becomes personalized and fetishized in the big capitalists. Economics becomes a mere decoration, like the belly-dancer's seven veils. Only the belly-dancer's a blood-drenched werewolf and the veils are desperately needed as covers for deceit and brutality rather than falling off to reveal beauty. No wonder it's called the dismal science -- dispiriting and demeaning and demoralizing don't begin to do it justice. Cheers, Hugh --- from list marxism-thaxis-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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