File spoon-archives/marxism.archive/marxism_1994/marxism.Jul12-Aug17.94, message 103


Date: Sun, 24 Jul 1994 16:32:00 -0400 (EDT)
From: Alex Trotter <uburoi-AT-panix.com>
Subject: Labor, Surplus value, catastrophism



The economic dimension of Marx's ouevre is not my forte; I wonder, 
therefore, if those with deeper knowledge can elucidate something for me. 
If the labor theory of value is valid (i.e., that profit derives only 
from living labor and not from raw materials or machinery) and capitalism 
operates by a dynamic whereby the mode of production is constantly 
revolutionized toward an increasing ratio of constant to variable 
capital, then the theory of the historic tendency for the rate of profit 
to fall should also be valid. Looking at capitalism today, it does seem 
that the preponderance of speculative over tangible wealth is quite 
lopsided. Is this an indication that the rate of profit actually *is* 
falling? 
	This leads to another question: what about the predictions 
proffered by Marx and later, by Marxists, that capitalism would succumb 
to catastrophic economic crisis? Certainly we know that capitalism is 
prone to crises or "business cycles," the worst so far having been the 
great crash of 1929. World War II and postwar reconstruction gave the 
system a new lease on life, but it started to slow down again in the 
early 1970s. Are we reaching, or have we reached, a situation in which 
Keynesianism, the welfare state, and permanent war production can no 
longer keep the engine running? What importance is now placed on the 
theory of catastrophe?
	A slew of other questions come out of this too, such as the 
relevance of Lenin's (or Luxemburg's) theories of imperialism, and also 
the question of to what extent the social revolution is brought about by 
the subjective will of the proletariat, or depends on the determinism of 
objective processes in the economy. What do y'all think about this?

--Alex Trotter


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