Both labour and nature can produce things of value. But it is society that gives
a value to things. It assigns a value to things appropriated from nature and to
transformations made to those things by labour.
Marx claims that the value of a thing will be proportional to the labour socially
necessary for this appropriation and transformation.
Presumably, in the case of the waterfall, things are produced with less labour
than is socially necessary on average. The sellers of the things produced can
thus sell them for more than the labour cost of producing them. Thus the rate of
surplus value will be greater than the average. Surplus value has been
transferred to the sellers from the rest of the society. So there has been a
redistribution of the surplus.
At the same time, appropriating the energy of the waterfall, allows a given
quantity of total social labour to produce more things than before. And so long
as the waterfall users are in a unique position, the value of the things produced
will not change. (i.e., the socially necessary labour time will not change). But
the total value of output of the society will increase. And the total surplus
value will increase.
So both sides in the debate are correct.
Rod
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> I think I am out of my depth in this. Five or six years ago I thought I had
> thought through a lot of this stuff (and maybe I had), and even published a
> bit on it, but I am running on hazy memories; it's not quite as bad as when I
> got down my old books on quantum theory and statistical mechanics and
> discovered I could not even understand the equations anymore--does anyone
> know Borges' poem on having learned and forgotten Latin, which I also have
> done?--but I definitely do not have enough of a grip on this stuff at the
> present to argue in a way that would make my participation worthwhile here. I
> need to go back and look over the material some more. maybe Iw ill start up
> again later whern I have done.
--
Rod Hay
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
The History of Economic Thought Archive
http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/index.html
Batoche Books
http://Batoche.co-ltd.net/
52 Eby Street South
Kitchener, Ontario
N2G 3L1
Canada
