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I'm worried about this tendency, brought about by "environmental awareness", to put numbers (in US dollars) on everything from the air we breathe to the quality of life we enjoy. We are being told that the old capitalistic GDP is no good indicator of the standard of life we enjoy, because it does not factor in ecological and social externalities, such as the suffering of the unemployed or the pollution of our coastlines, or turning the whole of Europe into some gaudy theme park. I agree. But, I don't, I really don't understand the sudden trend among progressive and even marxist economists, to "put a figure on" the quality of life. We already have GDP as a measurement of output in Capitalist (and even ex-Soviet) societies. We already have statistics on life expectancy, unemployment, suicide rates, child mortality, alcoholism, or the gap between the highest 5% of incomes and the lowest 10% of incomes. I think measurements of the "cost" of such and such a natural resource (air, sea, health, civility...) are a great waste of time (oh yeah, time can become a "cost" : how much time do you spend on marxmail ? That is time you prefer spending on Marxmail instead of working 'productively". Your "disinclination to work and preference for leisure" and your preference for Marxmail could be measured, graphed and an appropriate sum of money given to you in case you were prevented from mailing to Marxmail, depending on your occupation). Which is why I am against the new "social and ecological indicators" that are supposed to replace the good old GDP we have been using since the 1920s. There is an irreducible difference between use value and exchange value. That is the fundamental distinction in MArxism. Capitalists dream of bridging that gap. They want to transform the whole world into a commodity. 800 trillion dollars is what unemployment costs society (once we factor in all the hidden externalities in terms of health and lowered quality of life). Great ! We've got a "figure that includes externalities" ! Why should we "factor in" all the externalities. Are we preparing one gigantic class action lawsuit against Capitalism per se ? Shall Capitalism repay us in US dollars once we have achieved a revolution ? Oh but wait ! Revolution is not part of the agenda. And transforming all use values into exchange values (that can be bought and sold) is not possible. The air we breathe is not produced for consumption so it has no price. Unless you were brought up on US capitalistic propaganda that a price can be set on anything so long as it "is acceptable" to the someone (i.e. a government agency, surely not the working class as a whole). And yet, this notion of buying off; of putting price tags on the future of mankind, is becoming increasingly common in environmental circles. Once they have it all figured out, and capitalist corporations are taxed to the appropriate extent, all will be better. Amen. For "the system" to continue, we just need to "pay the workers a decent salary" and "protect the environment". That is pure social democracy. Nothing new under the sun. ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
