So on the strength of recommendations from the worthies on this list, I read the Introduction to Capital. A few notes for any interested. I make no claim to expertise on Marx, so feel free to correct me on anything. I know you will.
Often, especially in the early value theory sections, I get the feeling I could say the same thing in many fewer words. I've found this in other Marx commentaries, so maybe I'm missing a lot. The account, due to Marx and not the guide, glosses over the salience of uncompetitive markets and monopoly industries. There is also some inconsistency between the premise that capitalists must invest to compete and the logic of a low- or zero-profit equilibrium that results from stiff competition. As a bean-counter, I found myself wondering how anyone would measure any of this stuff (s, c, v, etc.). Especially c. That doesn't mean it's useless, just limited in some ways. The crisis discussion is murky. (Again, maybe the fault of Marx, if not Heinrich.) The decisive channel for crises, especially now, is the credit system -- so-called fictitious capital. We might excuse Marx for not being around to witness the failure of finance in all its glory. I am not suggesting evil finance is separate from virtuous production -- I got off that wagon a while back. Minsky's account of financial breakdown, which I read as genuinely intrinsic to credit markets, is much more clear and compelling to me. There is more to Lenin on imperialism, not necessarily the final stage of capitalism, but a logical stage of capitalism, than the author makes out. At this point at the end of the book, my impression is he is speaking more for himself than for Marx. Which is fine, but it might have been made more clear. Naive question: if market competition is so fierce, why can't workers capture surplus value? I can think of all kinds of reasons why they don't, but none that are intrinsic to the basic value relation. On the whole, the book gave me some motivation to try (again) to crack Capital. Feedback welcome.
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