Response to Moseley

2021 ◽  
pp. 048661342110033
Author(s):  
Robin Eric Hahnel

In “A Marxian reply to Hahnel: The relative explanatory power of Marx’s theory and Sraffa’s theory,” Moseley begins by arguing that I misrepresent Marx. For any like myself, who believe that because we now have linear algebra, and the theorems of Frobenius and Perron to take advantage of, we are able to elaborate a better formal framework for understanding prices and income distribution in capitalism than was available during Marx’s time, the past fifty years has become a game of whack-a-mole: whenever anyone rebuts one particular defense of using a labor theory of value framework, a different variation rises in its place.

1986 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 13-13
Author(s):  
George Galster

The following note describes a skit designed primarily as a pedagogic device to illustrate in a meaningful (and, hopefully, provocative and humorous) way Marx's analysis of capitalism. Numerous concepts and phenomena are “brought to life” in the skit: exploitation, immiseration and alienation of workers, maintenance wage, labor theory of value, mechanization and the division of labor, systemic tendencies toward economic crises, relationship of various superstructural components (welfare, religion, etc.) to the economic base, and the radical theory of the state. More specifically, the economic base of a hypothetical capitalist society consists of a stylized production process involving “resources” (Oreo cookies), “labor” (students selected from the class) and eventually “capital” (table knives). The ability of the monopoly capitalist to accumulate surplus by exploiting workers becomes manifest. Other elements of the social superstructure (unions, government, religion, etc.)


2009 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 401-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane P. Koenker

The idea of leisure and vacations in the Soviet Union at first glance suggests a paradox. As a system based on the labor theory of value, the USSR emphasized production as the foundation of wealth, personal worth, and the path to a society of abundance for all. Work—physical or mental—was the obligation of all citizens. But work took its toll on the human organism, and along with creating the necessary incentives and conditions for productive labor a socialist system would also include reproductive rest as an integral element of its economy. The eight-hour work day, a weekly day off from work, and an annual vacation constituted the triad of restorative and healthful rest opportunities in the emerging Soviet system of the 1920s and 1930s.


2011 ◽  
Vol 69 (274) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Valle Baeza

Labor theory of value has received considerable attention among Marxists and their critics. No agreement has been reached as to what labor theory of value is (Foley, 2000), Itoh, 1988; Kliman, 2006; Laibman, 1992 and Mohun, 2000). Paradoxically there are empirical studies showing strong association between labor values and market prices. Such works could inject new energy into Marxist theory of value; nevertheless some critics have questioned such empirical findings because: a) there is a problem of spurious correlation involved, and b) measures of association vary with changes in the physical units of the analyzed merchandises.


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