File spoon-archives/marxism-thaxis.archive/marxism-thaxis_1997/marxism-thaxis.9707, message 14


Date: Tue, 22 Jul 1997 11:30:27 +0100
From: Lew <Lew-AT-dialogues.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: M-TH: Re: Info Revolution


In article <0550b39.199707220958.003ADEEE-AT-art.derby.ac.uk>, "R.Pearson"
<R.Pearson-AT-art.derby.ac.uk> writes

>Aye up Thaxists,
>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,

They could always try selling blank CDs, without the "intellectual
labour", and see if anyone buys them.

> and can anyone shed a bit more light on the
>productive/unproductive labour dichotomy?
>Ta.

Productive labour is that employment which creates surplus value for the
capitalist, whereas unproductive labour does not. For example, a chef
employed by a capitalist to work in his hotel is productive, whereas if
that same chef was employed to work in the capitalist's home she would
be unproductive. 

The distinction is useful for analysing the structure of capitalism. For
instance, it sets theoretical limits for the size of the state sector of
the economy, since this must be paid out of the surplus value arising
from productive labour. Feminist criticism of the concept complain that
it belittles women in domestic work, but this does not follow. No value
judgement is necessarily implied on the importance or worth of either
type of work, and both are carried out by the working class. 

-- 
Lew


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