tom walker quotes :
Jonathan Nitzan wrote: "Finance is the only real form of capital. The notions that machines can have a "quantity" is the fiction. Finance, or capitalization, represents the present value of expected feature earnings. The earnings and their discounting mechanism have nothing do with the quantity of any "stuff" such as machines, goods or services. Rather, they are the numerical representation of the power of exclusion. This power permeates the entire social process, from the assembly line, through formal politics, to religion, culture, consumption and what not. In that sense, capital represents the capitalization of power." ^^^^ CB: I believe Marx is explicit in characterizing the quantifiying of congealed labor as a fiction. Abstract labor is a fiction. There isn't any material "thing" in a commodity that we can find that corresponds to abstract labor. Then, isn't quantifying power a fiction too ? If so, then the problem is not using fictions, but ,which fiction best helps us overthrow the actuality of capitalism. A "power" or "power of exclusion" that permeates everything may very well be a better way to think about it. The argument needs to be made more clearly from my standpoint.
