From: Sandwichman
Here's a concrete policy proposal but I suspect it will elicit either howls of utter incomprehension or total silence (with the exception of Gene). Rob Bryer is an accounting professor at the University of Warwick in the U.K. In a 2006 article, "Accounting and the Labour Process," Bryer argued that Marx's analysis can best be understood from an accounting perspective. Double-entry book-keeping was the technology that enabled the domination of labor to pass from the subjective master/slave, lord/serf relationship to an objective balance sheet driven one between abstract capital and social labor. In his conclusion, Bryer wrote, "The socialist mentality is not utopian but turns the capitalist development of calculation and accountability to other ends." This phrasing is uncannily similar to what Engels said about the 1821 pamphlet, The Source and Remedy of the National Difficulties -- that it was "but the farthest outpost of an entire literature which in the twenties turned the Ricardian theory of value and surplus value against capitalist production in the interest of the proletariat. The 1821 pamphlet was the origin of the phrase about wealth being disposable time that Marx was so fond of. It follows from the above that a socialist accounting would be one founded on the premise that wealth is disposable time. So how would one construct such an accounting model? I propose just such an accounting model grounded in the concept of disposable time in Chapter Four of my Jobs, Liberty and the Bottom Line. If Breyer is correct in his assessment of Marx's Capital then my proposed model might be considered the sequel to Capital. Of course if Bryer is wrong and/or I am wrong, it may still be worthwhile to point out exactly where the error lies. Even better would be to propose an alternative strategy (other than climbing on the capitalist growth bandwagon and wishing for a pony). ^^^^^^^ CB: I have heard it said that socialism should retain cost accounting. What is ur strategy for overthrowing the current accounting system and instituting the new one ? _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
