FWIW, I have a simple model that assumes that the cost of hiring a unit of labor-power (LP) equals the marginal physical product of a unit of LP. However, a worker does not receive all of the cost of hiring her or his LP, since the cost of hiring includes the "normal" profits that capitalist firms must receive in order to stay in business (just as in textbooks). These positive normal profits correspond to the surplus-product per unit of labor (or in an economy with money, surplus-value). They do not exist in a pure neoclassical world but only in the real capitalist world which has normally a reserve army of unemployed workers. It's only in the zero unemployment (NC) world that we see normal profits = surplus-product = 0.
If you want to see the model, I can send you a copy of the entire paper which it's a part of. Ask off-list, please. Your comments on the model (or anything else in the paper) are welcome. On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 8:43 AM, Julio Huato <[email protected]> wrote: > Fred wrote: > > > both of these orthodox versions are based on marginal > > productivity theory. > > Hi Fred, > > I'm puzzled by this. Can you summarize quickly what you mean > specifically by "marginal productivity theory" or, at least, the part > of it you object? Is it (1) the theory that there's a correspondence > between the marginal product (revenue) of an input and its market > price? Or is it (2) the more basic notion that a quantitative > correspondence between outputs and productive inputs (means of > production and labor power) can be established in general? How does > this theory (1 and/or 2) exclude the notion that distribution is > determined by the "surplus labor of workers"? > > So you see where I'm coming from on this: I think 2 is self evident. > And I don't have a problem with 1 either, provided the levels of > abstraction are duly sorted out. I don't see how 1 and/or 2 are > mutually exclusive of surplus value as the source of all non-labor or > property income. I don't see how either 1 and/or 2 is incompatible > with class struggle and capitalist competition in the output and input > markets. > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
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