Vulgar economy in Marxian garb: a critique of Temporal Single System Marxism

This paper presents a critique of recent efforts, under the rubric of Temporal Single System Marxism, to defend Marx’s value theory against the claim that his transformation algorithm is flawed. Although Marx did make a number of errors in elaborating his theory of value and the profit rate, these missteps do not undermine his larger scientific project. Far greater damage has been inflicted by his would-be Temporal Single System defenders, who camouflage Marx’s errors by detaching him from his Ricardian roots; in the process they redefine value in a way that trivializes its function in Marx’s system.     

非物质劳动条件下马克思的劳动价值论过时了吗——评哈特和奈格里基于“共同性”的价值理论

哈特和奈格里根据当代资本主义劳动范式的转型提出了非物质劳动概念,并认为在非物质劳动条件下马克思的劳动价值论需要做出修正,进而提出了基于"共同性"的价值理论。本文通过批判性地分析他们的观点,得出以下结论:(1)以"工作时间与生活时间的模糊"来质疑马克思的劳动价值论是对劳动价值论的误读,马克思的"社会必要劳动时间计量商品价值量"是抽象意义的"计量",是对本质的规定,而非具体意义的"计量",它由商品生产与交换的社会过程客观决定,不能以具体意义的"劳动时间难以测量"来否定价值的质的规定;(2)基于"共同性"的价值理论服务于哈特和奈格里主体政治的理论建构思路,他们对价值的解读具有很强的主体性特征,这种价值与其说是商品价值,不如说是政治价值;(3)哈特和奈格里的理论建构方法,早已脱离了辩证唯物主义和历史唯物主义,走向唯心主义。因此,当代资本主义的政治经济学批判仍应建立在马克思劳动价值论的基础之上。     

是劳动有价值还是劳动力有价值--兼与关柏春同志商榷

马克思认为资本主义制度下劳动力是商品,具有价值;劳动作为流动状态,本身没有价值,但可以创造价值。在社会主义市场经济体制下,劳动力也可以成为商品,因而具有价值,而劳动本身也没有价值。     

Marx and Ricardo on machinery: a critical note

This article critically discusses the important and relevant—not to mention controversial— views of Ricardo and Marx on the impact of machinery on labor productivity, the organization of production and the wages and employment prospects of the working class during the capitalism of their day. First, the article turns to Ricardo’s assessment of the introduction of machinery and its likely effects on the laborer and the rate of profit and accumulation—one which went through a substantial revision (and reversal) between the first and third editions of his Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. Then, we discuss Marx’s own critical analysis of the historical development of machinery and its impact on the labor process, the so-called “compensation principle,” and how the rising organic composition of capital ostensibly generates a “redundant or surplus-population” during the course of capitalist development. We highlight Marx’s intellectual debt to Ricardo, John Barton (and George Ramsay) insofar as his theory of technological unemployment is concerned. Lastly, the article summarizes the views of Ricardo and Marx and offers some concluding remarks.     

A Behavioral Analysis of Technological Change in the Computer Industry, 1930–1950

This article presents a binary economic critique of Milton Friedman's thesis that a competitive, free market, private enterprise, capitalist system is an essential condition for freedom. After identifying deficiencies in Friedman's understanding of private property and economics, this article explains how a market economy based on Friedman's flawed understanding concentrates economic power in a plutocracy, perpetuates chronic underemployment of labor and capital, and suppresses the freedom of most people. It advances a "binary economic approach" to create a more productive and democratic market system characterized by greater, more sustainable, and more widely-distributed prosperity, economic power, and individual freedom than prevails in any existing capitalist economy.     

MARX@200

ABSTRACT

The article begins by outlining the philosophic anthropology that Marx derived from his reading of Hegel. We continue by arguing that this formed the basis of his materialist conception of history and his analysis of the political economy of the capitalist mode of production, with particular reference being made to Marx’s theory of value and his account of the economic contradictions of the capitalist system. We then discuss his views on the nature of post-capitalist society, concluding with a critical but broadly positive account of the relevance of his ideas to modern capitalism. Marx, we suggest, should not be regarded as a purely 19th-century thinker, as some recent biographers have maintained.     

Hayekian evolution reconsidered: a reply to Hodgson

This is a reply to Geoffrey Hodgson's Comment on an earlierpaper by Caldwell (Hodgson on Hayek: a critique). Though certainareas of agreement are noted, differences in interpretationconcerning Hayek's views on the Malthus–Darwin relationship,on cultural evolution, on the extent to which Hayek may be characterisedas an ontogenist, and on methodological individualism remain.     

Say’s Law,Marxian Crisis Theory and the Interconnectedness of the Capitalist Economy

ABSTRACT

Scholars have long debated exactly why Marx felt that general gluts were not just possible, but inevitable. This article argues that Theories of Surplus Value anchored that necessity in the complex interconnectedness that characterizes capitalist production. There, Marx’s criticism of Say’s Law builds on a version of crisis theory that begins with raw material shortages in a leading sector. The disturbance is then transmitted through the many inter-industry linkages in the capitalist economy. What starts as a supply-side shock in a leading sector is transformed into a broad crisis of aggregate demand as workers are laid off and businesses fall into insolvency. This article argues that Marx’s later discussion of other types of crises in Capital can be read as consistent with this approach. A severe profit squeeze in a leading sector (whether originating in intermediate good prices, market demand, rising wages or rising use of fixed capital) necessarily turns into a general glut. In this context, Say’s Law becomes an irrelevant theorem concerning an imaginary economy. What Marx sees as fundamentally new under capitalism is not the use of money and the separation of sale and purchase, but massive interconnectedness.     

论“生产方式”

"生产方式"一词在马克思经济学著作中的基本用法有两种:第一,指社会生产的类型或型式,第二,指社会生产的劳动方式。在讨论《资本论》研究对象时对"生产方式"一词的理解争论极大。根据马克思"生产力———生产方式———生产关系"的一贯分析原理并结合《资本论》第一卷的实际内容,"资本主义生产方式"似应理解为"资本主义劳动方式"。"劳动方式"是生产力与生产关系矛盾运动的中介体。特定的劳动方式以一定的生产力为基础,同时受到特定生产关系的制约,具有显著的社会历史特征。马克思在《资本论》研究对象中首先强调"资本主义生产方式",意味着他在研究资本主义经济时将直接生产过程中经济关系的考察放在了基础位置,把对资本主义生产方式的批判置于首位。我们应以《资本论》为范例,把劳动过程和劳动方式纳入政治经济学的研究对象。     

马克思相对过剩人口理论视角的我国当前失业问题探析

马克思的相对过剩人口理论是伴随着资本主义社会资本积累和资本有机构成提高而产生的,对研究我国当前的失业问题具有重要的理论指导意义。劳动力总供给大于总需求、产业结构调整、科学技术进步与广泛应用、劳动力素质与市场需求脱节等是我国当前失业问题产生的原因。其解决对策主要有,保持经济稳定增长,增加社会财富;发挥人口优势,大力发展第三产业;加快科技创新,推进社会分工;实施扩大就业战略,努力实现充分就业;改革教育制度,提高劳动者就业能力等。     

劳动价值论与生产要素参与价值分配问题研究

马克思劳动价值论中只承认直接从事物质生产的活劳动才创造价值,而作为社会劳动凝结物的劳动手段和劳动对象是物化劳动,只能转移价值,同时也承认非劳动生产要素在价值创造中的作用.笔者梳理了理论界对传统劳动价值一元论的新认识,认为马克思劳动价值论与生产要素参与价值分配并不矛盾.     

自然资源价值探讨

目前国内外尚未建立成熟的自然资源价值理论,这对于定量化研究自然资源价值和价格造成了严重的阻碍。本文在深入分析马克思劳动价值论和西方边际效用价值论的基础上,借鉴价值哲学中关于价值本质的定义,从价值哲学的角度对边际效用价值论进行修正,认为马克思的劳动价值论和修正后的边际效用价值论都是自然资源价值的理论基础,并在此基础上进一步界定了自然资源的价值构成。     

The Counterfactual Method of Marx's Theory of Surplus

The aim of this paper is to show that Marx supports his theory of surplus value by developing a counterfactual argument, that is, by comparing the 'normal' state of a capitalist economy against a hypothetical state in which no surplus is produced. Marx then divides his analysis of value into three successive steps. The first deals with the production of new value in the sphere of production; the second with the process of creation of surplus value, both in the sphere of production and in the sphere of circulation; and the third with the process of equalisation of the rate of profit, which is accomplished via capitalist competition in the sphere of circulation. The paper proposes a formalisation of the three-step analysis and of the counterfactual argument. Marx's three-step analysis is shown to be a scientific analysis of the hidden connections between social relations (expressed in labour flows) and commodity exchange; thus it is not a useless detour.     

Marx on entrepreneurship: A note

This paper argues that in mainstream economics the concept of entrepreneurship is imposed by the theoretical framework adopted in order to justify the source of profits. In contrast, in Marx’s analysis there is a consistent theory of profit which inevitably leads to a specific theory of entrepreneurship. (JEL: B10, B14, B21)     

Joan Robinson as a teacher

Sraffa's construct, the standard commodity, responds to Ricardo's search for an ‘invariable’ measure of value, since it is a measurement unit invariant to changes in distribution. But Sraffa suggests that there is no ‘counterpart,’ no analogous search or needed construct, for the ‘problem’ of ‘difference’ as distinct from change (‘why two commodities produced by the same quantities of labour are not of the same exchangeable value’). Difference in this sense is crucial to Marx, who distinguishes value and surplus-value from capitalist price and profit in part in order to theorize differences as systematic value transfers. In that effort, Marx repeatedly poses commodities and capitals as ‘aliquot parts’ of the whole, so that profit is a redistributed share of aggregate surplus-value. This paper shows that, when Marx's aliquot part imagery is formalized, the resulting hypothetical system represents a meaningful ‘counterpart,’ a construct with a function in Marx's analysis of difference comparable to that of Sraffa's standard commodity in analyzing distributional change. A Marxian ‘standard system’ posing each commodity as an aliquot part of the social capital (a) defines the needed labor-time unit of social account by homogenizing heterogeneous concrete labors as socially average (‘abstract’) labor while simultaneously (b) allowing the derivation of exchange-value (e.g., capitalist production price) on that scale via summation of directly and indirectly embodied labor. Indeed, Marx's approach to production prices as resulting from an inter-industry redistribution of aggregate surplus-value is shown to be algebraically identical to the calculation of labor-embodied under ‘aliquot part’ production conditions.     

Realization and accumulation in a Marxian model of the circuit of capital

A mathematical model of Marx's circuit of capital is presented, whose elements, the composition of capital, the rate of surplus value, the rate of capitalization of surplus value, and production, sales and financial time lags, are measurable from the accounts of capitalist firms. The model is solved for exponential paths. A solution with a positive rate of accumulation generally exists. On paths with positive rates of accumulation and positive time lags in the recommital of realized value to production an expansion of credit is required to permit the sale of commodities. A model of demand pull inflation is incorporated in the framework.     

On Hegel,imperialism, and structural stagnation

The essentials of the economic theory of imperialism à la Hobson-Luxemburg are anticipated in two paragraphs of Hegel's Philosophy of Right. Marx did not pay attention to this aspect of Hegel's thought, perhaps because it implied a longer survival probability for capitalism than Marx cared to acknowledge. The second part of the paper shows the formal similarity between the economic theory of imperialism and the theory of structural stagnation that was proposed in Latin America in the 1960s. The blindspots and early demise of that theory have the same psychological root as Marx's neglect of Hegel's insights.     

经济学为什么研究价值理论——兼论马克思劳动价值论面临的历史性挑战

经济学家研究价值理论,其根本目的是为其所代表的阶级以及所要求的生产方式的历史必然性和正义性申辩。西方经济思想的主流价值论之所以发生由劳动价值论到效用价值论再到价格论的逻辑演变,正是遵从了论证资本主义合理性、公正性、有效性、和谐性的需要,这是西方经济学研究价值论的根本使命所在。我们要创造和构建适应社会主义市场经济要求的价值论,就要明确我们的历史使命,并把这一使命作为我们研究价值理论的基本出发点。     

Searching for New Jerusalems: P.H. Wicksteed’s “Jevonian” critique of Marx’s Capital

Abstract

In 1884, P.H. Wicksteed published a critique of the first volume of Marx’s Capital, the first detailed analytical encounter in English between Marx’s value theory and the new discourse of “marginalism”. In revisiting that episode, this article has three principal objectives. The first is to show how Wicksteed developed his understanding of political economy, as he moved from initially following Henry George’s Progress and Poverty. The second is to examine why Wicksteed’s defence of George necessitated criticizing the Marxist Social Democratic Federation. The third is to show that Wicksteed’s criticisms of Marx were simply incorrect.     

The market and exploitation in Marx's economic theory: a reinterpretation

Adopting the view that Marx's notion of 'commodity' has a widerreach than is usually supposed, and that it is this notion,rather than a 'labour theory of value' that is the cornerstoneof his economic theory, this paper shows that Marx's accountof capitalist exploitation is one that accords equal priorityto the production and market domains. Central to this demonstrationis an unorthodox explanation as to why Marx posits two alternativerules of prices in Capital.