Following Jim's well-reasoned post, recall that Marx's method (although he did not follow it himself always) was to approach matters scientifically. He referred to capitalists as the character masks of capital -- meaning that they just play the role assigned to them. The problem is the script (Capitalism) not the actors.
On Thu, Dec 01, 2005 at 03:47:38PM -0800, Jim Devine wrote: > Leigh: > > > Here's one way of looking at it: > > > Every time a tree falls... the GNP goes up > > > Every time a cancer patient is diagnosed... the GNP goes up. > > > Every pandemic... Every war... the GNP goes up. > > > There's fraud in there somewhere. > > Walt: > > Not really. GNP is just a measure of the value of goods and services > > produced in a year. Wooden objects, cancer drugs, and bombs count as goods > > and services. The GNP isn't a perfect measure by any means. But blaming it > > for not measuring what it is not supposed to is not reasonable. In fact, > > its another side of the same coin of those who think the GDP measures > > progress, rather than a small pat of it. > > It helps to go back to Marx (and other classical economists) on this > one. GDP is a measure of exchange-value (though not in labor terms), > the price of all final goods and services sold through the market > during a given year (along with some market-prices that are > calculated, such as the value of the services provided by > owner-occupied homes). It's essentially a measure of market activity. > > On the other hand, measures such as the "Genuine Progress Indicator" > (GPI) are an effort to measure the use-value produced by an economy. > Alas, it's damned hard to measure this. What is the use-value of > leisure time, for example? and how can we add it to the (negative) > use-value of pollution? The Redefining Progress folks -- who calculate > the GPI -- use pretty neoclassical assumptions. The wage is used to > value leisure time, for example. > > Further, though use-value is most important from an ethical and > humanist perspective, capitalism doesn't follow ethical or humanist > guidelines. Instead, it follows a much more market-oriented > perspective. And if the capitalists aren't happy (following market > measures of profitability), they cut back on accumulation, which leads > to a fall in employment. So our livelihoods and our ability to attain > use-values depends crucially on market-oriented measures. > -- > Jim Devine > "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let > people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
