"True, but an increasing technical composition of capital (the real stock of fixed means of production per worker hired) does not mean that the amount of constant capital rises either per worker or a share of output. Technical change means that less labor is required to produce each unit of fixed means of production. The key to me is the fixed capital/output ratio, which has been remarkably constant over the long haul (i.e., many decades)."
Oh I should have been clear, I follow Fred Moseley in thinking that Constant Capital is a quantity of money used to purchase non-labor inputs to production. Nothing can grow faster then output forever. trends that can't continue won't. technological innovation is one check against constant capital growth relative to output. Technological innovation reduces the reproduction costs of older fixed capital and when the new technology becomes more generalized, causes severe "moral depreciation" in the older machinery. This often leads to it getting scrapped which obviously reduces the amount spent on constant capital (by reducing the amount of raw materials used and reducing the amount spent on repairs). -- -Nathan Tankus ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
