Date: Thu, 7 Mar 1996 14:21:44 +1300
From: wrc1961-AT-midland.co.nz (William Cochrane)
Subject: Re: "Value Pump"


Adam Rose writes 
>And finally, it is very hard to actually determine the real organic composition
>of capital in any particular industry, because prices do not reflect values
>very directly. 
At the risk of appearing picky I suppose it depends on what you mean by
very directly,In a number of quantatative works the likes of Shaikh,
Petrovic, Ochoa, Cockshott, Cottrell and Micaelson have found that the
correlation between labour content and price is usually well over 90%.That
is to say, with the exception of a few industries such as the oil industry
where rents play a major role, that relative prices are almost entirely
determined by labour content.
Hence I dont see any major problem in using price denominated National
Income data to calculate basic marxian value ratios, particularly when no
obviously superior alternative exists.
While not related to the above I'd like to say that perhaps the only good
thing to come out of the defeat of the australian labour party will be the
steming of the seemingly endless flow of smug ACTU officals comming to New
Zealand to tell us how wonderful workplace reform and the accord are. Our
own peak labour organisation, the NZCTU, mounted no opposition to 12 years
of neoliberal reforms,under both Labour and conservative governments, and I
suspect that the ACTU will prove no more effective or enthusiastic in
opposing whats about to happen in Australia.
Regards
Bill Cochrane




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