- Capitalism and Alternatives -

Correct.

In Reply to: More objections OR Barry Strikes Out posted by Joel Jacobson on December 01, 1999 at 10:35:19:

: Hmmm, it seems as if Stoller just posted some random minutiae in response to my challenge. My main point was that his precious LTV is absolutely impotent in providing for economic decision-making whereas the TMU is a real-world applicable model of how economic entities behave. It seems as if he has some sort of last resort mantra stating that “labor creates value”. He then blathers on about some pseudo-phenomenon he labels exploitation and how the TMU somehow sanitizes it, but nowhere does he even bother to respond to any of my objections.

Don: Correct. That's what happens when your believe system depends on faulty economics.

: Okay, let’s look at this assertion that it is labor alone that creates value*. Specifically, the claim is that labor creates value* in the act of production, and that only labor is the source of value* since what we call capital is merely dead or congealed labor (1). In short, all value* is created by labor. So, we can make the following identities:

:

a) Labor = Production
: b) and following from a) Production = Value
: c) therefore Labor = Value
: /

Don: But is the claim made that *ALL* labor creates value?

: So far so good. We have produced a logical identity demonstrating that as labor produces all value*, value* may by identically referred to as congealed labor; therefore ==>> c) Labor = Value. Philosophers would call such an identity analytic truth, that is something that holds true in all possible worlds, and thus all possible situations. Using this identity we can substitute any object synonymous with either labor or value* and still maintain the integrity of our identity. Great! Let’s call digging holes in the ground and filling them back up “activity X”.

:

d) Activity X = Labor
: e) Labor = Value
: f) and Activity X = Value
: g) by substituting our variable back in we can see that we have taken our original identity and logically derived that digging holes in the ground and filling them back up again creates value*.
: /

Don: I don't know if LTV supporters believe that *ALL* labor creates value. They seem to think that *ALL* value is created by labor, but it does not follow that *ALL* labor creates value. I think this is a problem with your proof.

Follow Ups:

• Correct---as in INcorrect Stoller December 02 1999 (0)