CB wrote: Is it [profit] accumulated, does it become variable capital or constant capital ? Presumably if invested as variable capital ( i.e. lower the organic composition of capital) it can "earn" profit by exploiting the variable capital, i.e. labor power. If invested as constant capital, i.e. raising the organic composition of capital, it is not exploitable. That's Marx's logic on the role of the organic composition of capital in the tendency of the rate of profit to fall. More investment in means of production and less in labor is accumulating capital that is not the source of surplus value or profits. And of course, the rate of exploitation drops as the ratio of surplus value extraction to total capital investment drops........all theoretically.
^^^^^ Most of it becomes constant or paper capital, not variable capital. At some point a lot of capital must be written off, no longer able to evade the imperative that capital must earn profit. That is the bust after the boom. There is a cycle of boom (capital value on the books grows) and bust (capital value on the books destroyed) rather than smooth depreciation every quarter, for example, as Michael Perelman has illustrated in several of his books. The next mode of production will make investments that don't pan out, although fewer of them than capitalism. But the next mode of production will walk away from mistakes without throwing people out of work and reducing the income of the employed. No Rich, No Poor http://www.amazon.com/NO-RICH-POOR-CHARLES-ANDREWS/dp/096799053X/ _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
