[Marxism] Introductory remarks on Part Two of Karl Marxs Capital, volume one

[Haines Brown]

Louis, even after reading the document to which you provide a link,
I'm not sure of the purpose of your message, for you do not ask a
question. Are you merely offering your prefatory comments on your
study of Capital II for our commentary or contemplation?

I have no problem with your remarks concerning Marx's inserting labor
into the M-C-M loop, in contrast with the bourgeois hypostatization of
the sphere of circulation. In simpler terms, Marx seeks to develop
Smith's labor theory of value and address the central question of
classical political economy: what is economic "value"? In resolving
the problem that classical political economy had to abandon, Marx
makes production and circulation aspects of one process that embraces
both, and it is through their marriage that Marx explains the
emergence of new value. What had ended the search for value in
classical political economy (and reduced it from a science to merely
economic engineering) was that, while value is certainly real, it is
not simply definable as a set of empirical qualities.

Beyond this, your essay seems merely prefatory, which it of course is
as it should be. It does not really refer to any hypothesis to which
we at this point might react.

However, I'd like to make a brief comment about the ghost of a
hypothesis in it. I'll be brief and simple lest I'm off base about your
intentions.

The capitalist purchases the factors of production in the marketplace,
and this practice apparently serves for the bourgeoisie to define the
capitalist theory of production; theory is only a reflection of
capitalist practice. The factors of production entail what in
traditional Marxist terms are the "means of production" and the
"forces of production". The reason for this important distinction is
that the means of production cannot create new value, but only
transfer it; the forces of production on the other hand are what
create new value because they represent social potentials ("labor
power") (social capacities are greater than the sum of the individual
capacities from which they emerge). It is nice to link this point to
that made by scientific realism that the engine of change (and the
basis of scientific _explanation_) are causal powers or potencies. 

However, the capitalist does not purchase these social powers that the
worker brings to the point of production, for he purchases only
empirically defined entities that are available in the
marketplace. Labor is considered no different than any other factor of
production that are purchased at a "fair price". Like other entities
in the marketplace, this price is _basically_ the costs of production.
(in the case of labor, the cost of its social reproduction), not its
capacity for creating new value. 

Incidentally, such a purchase of potentials is not unconventional, for
when we hire a professional, such as a teacher, doctor or lawyer, we
pay for their capacities, not their effects. The difference between
the costs of the reproduction of labor and the value created by labor
that is actualized in the sphere of exchange is known as "surplus
value", which is the measure of the degree of labor's exploitation. It
is the ratio of our social capacities brought into production and the
cost of our social reproduction as individuals.

-- 
 
       Haines Brown, KB1GRM