At 07:48 AM 2/13/96 -0800, you wrote: >What about Lisa's film stars? Here I have to disagree with you. >Marx does not IMHO treat all labour as unskilled, and skilled labour as >a 'multiplicand'. Rather, he argues that THE MARKET, aka the law of >value, renders a relation of equivalence. Thus, if it were the case >that e.g. de Niro was employed in the same way as John Doe, and if it >were the case that the difference between them could be seen as one >of 'skill', what matters is that I would pay only $1 to see a film >with John Doe in the starring role, but $10, say, with de Niro. By >the very fact that commodities produced with labour of different >skills are all sold for sums of money, skilled labour becomes >commensurable with unskilled. John Doe is currently appearing in the film *Georgia* (which I read did quite well at Cannes). John Doe has also appeared in *Salvador* (excellent movie), *Roadside Prophets*, *Pure Country*, as well as more popular efforts in a few minor hits that I cannot recall. In my opinion Robert de Niro is a better actor with a slightly broader range but I would not call John Doe's acting unskilled. Regardless, John Doe would likely be a slightly bigger draw as a musician (John Doe Thing or X). Yes, I could not resist. Jim Westrich Institute on Disability and Human Development University of Illinois at Chicago "The works of women are symbolical. . . . . This hurts most, this . . . that, after all, we are paid The worth of our work, perhaps." Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-61), English poet. * Aurora Leigh*, bk. 1 (1857).
