[was: Re: [PEN-L:8031] Re: Re: RE: Social Capital]
At 10:17 AM 2/13/01 -0800, you wrote:
> In order to come to grips with this expanded vision of the labor force,
>economists devised a new concept. Specifically, they invented a new resource,
>which they called, "human capital," a theoretical quantity, which is
>supposed to
>reflect the effect of the education and experience of a worker. Thus, human
>capital is separate from and in addition to the conception of the worker
>as a basic
>mechanical device.
in CAPITAL, vol. III (Intl. Publ. pp. 465-6), Marx remarx on the concept,
though he doesn't call it that. He argues that wages are totally unlike
interest on capital, since (a) the worker must labor -- typically for a
capitalist -- to earn this "interest" and (b) he or she cannot liquidate
the capital value of the human capital, i.e., convert it into money.
What I don't understand is why Gary Becker and Jacob Mincer never read
this. It would have prevented the publication of their research on "human
capital."
;-)
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
