[A-List] Academic life of Mises

[Waistline2 at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/19/02 1:13:10 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
hliu at mindspring.com writes:

> A Socialist organizer was sent to a small farming village to raise the 
> revolutionary consciousness of the masses.  He began his speech before a 
> gathering of villagers by saying that if a person owns two farms and he can 
> only farm one, he should give one to another who has none.  There was wild 
> applause of approval from the audience.  Encouraged, the organizer went on 
> to say that if a person has two houses and he can only live in one, he 
> should give one house to another who has none.  Against wild applause.  If 
> a person has two cars and he can only drive one, he should give one to 
> another who has none.  Again wild applause.  If a person has two chickens 
> and he only needs one, he should give one to another who has none.  Dead 
> silence.  Confused, the organizer turned to his local cadre and asked what 
> happened.  "They all have two chickens," was the reply. Henry C.K. Liu 
> 
> 



The law of value has to be understood not simply in its theoretical loftiness 
- which is important, but also as it is understood in the minds of men. If 
another man or rather "that man" as opposed to "this man" has to carry the 
burden, then we can all go home. Every man is "that man" to the other man. 

Henry,

I followed the entirety of the discussion on Marxline in which Mark J. 
article was the focal point and your reply's also.  Mark J.'s presentation 
contains an "element" of "less" while arguing against "less" in favor of 
that, which is called more rational. 

On the other hand I tend to agree with your assessment of what was once 
called Soviet Revisionism and crystallized in documents like "On Khrushchev’s 
Phony Communism and It's Lessons For the World." This is of course a historic 
document, which means it cannot be applied to today. 

In other words if China today does not embark - as it has been doing for 20 
years, on a crash program to modernize its economy, the social process will 
be set back another century. Modernization for a previously colonial country 
is not possible without foreign capital and technological transfer. Americans 
"forget" that is manufacturing processes came from - oftern stolen, from 
England. 

Then again, I have had an opportunity to be elected a leader and measure my 
particular theoretical projection against the mass conception of value. One 
must deliver the goods or good home. Relations between states are - as you 
state, more practical. 

My argument is simple: the injection into the production process of advanced 
robotics, computerization and digitalized processes places the value form 
under attack in a fundamental way. I do not know how the outcome will look.

In terms of your farmers and those two chicken. What happens and happened 
when the collective farmers refuses to alienate their 300 chickens on anyone 
except on the basis of exchange?  There is no escape from the law of value, 
except at a certain stage in the development of the material power of 
production. We are only at the beginning of the beginning of this process. 

Peace,


Melvin P. 
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