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RE: What is profit? (was: Re: [ox-en] Re: "At Cost")



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Patrick:
I'm busy reading
http://Marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour so I can
understand those special terms for a more fruitful discussion.

I do not agree with the apparent assertion that profit has something
to do with the worker; I see it as a measure of consumer dependence on
the Capital owners, but I do not yet have a clear explanation or proof
of that.

Paul:
If you look at industrial statistics you will find that value
added in industries correllates to around 95% with their wage
bills, implying that value added has a lot to do with employees.

 
Stefan Meretz wrote:
When competition is "perfect" then commodities are sold at their value.
The commodity value is the amount of necessary work to produce the
commodity at given level of societal productivity.

When you say "sold at their value" are you talking about the "costs of
production"?

Paul:
Although I do not fully agree with Stefan's formulation here, I think
that what he means is that in perfect competition goods will sell
in proportion to the labour required to produce them. This is not
a specifically Marxist idea, Adam Smith says the same thing.


Patrick:

If so, are you saying "consumer price" would equal "owner costs"?  If
so, then doesn't that mean profit would be zero?


Paul:
No it does not imply this. Value added can be proportional to labour
provided that the customary share of value added between wages and
profits is approximately the same in all industries.
 


Patrick:

 If profit would be minimized, then wouldn't that "cut into" the
perceived reward due the worker according to Marx's claim that surplus
value belongs to the laborer?
 

Paul:
Marx does not say that surplus value belongs to the labourer, rather
he says that it belongs to the owner of capital. If private capital
did not exist, thus in a society of freely
associated individuals, he envisaged the surplus belonging to society as a whole
to be used for provision for those unable to work, as social
insurance funds, social investment etc. 

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