File spoon-archives/marxism-thaxis.archive/marxism-thaxis_1997/marxism-thaxis.9707, message 12


Date: Tue, 22 Jul 1997 08:03:30 -0500
From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood-AT-panix.com>
Subject: Re: M-TH: Re: Info Revolution


R.Pearson wrote:

>On a side point, Lash and Urry in _Economies of Signs and Space_argue that
>when a commodity such as a CD is sold, the *real* sale is for the bit of tin,
>rather than the software/music etc. This would appear to imply that all the
>labour expended in creating said item is purely unproductive and that only
>the labour expended in physically making the CD generates value. Thus, that
>intellectual labour does not create value.
>Any thoughts on this, and can anyone shed a bit more light on the
>productive/unproductive labour dichotomy?

In their book Measuring the Wealth of Nations, Anwar Shaikh and Ahmet Tonak
include entertainment among the productive services (the unproductive ones
include wholesale & retail trade and finance). I think the logic is that
these aid in the reproduction of the working class; education and health
are considered productive as well.

Their book includes a good review of what everyone else has said on the
subject.


Doug

--

Doug Henwood
Left Business Observer
250 W 85 St
New York NY 10024-3217 USA
+1-212-874-4020 voice  +1-212-874-3137 fax
email: <mailto:dhenwood-AT-panix.com>
web: <http://www.panix.com/~dhenwood/LBO_home.html>




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