value and common good, was: Re(2): [ox-en] extrinsic motivation = coercion
- From: "Franz Nahrada" <f.nahrada reflex.at>
- Date: Tue, 05 May 2009 17:12:11 +0200
Stefan Meretz writes about Free Software:
Why not? It is a perfect example for our discussion. Being free of value
does not come from the fact, that there is no price. The other way
around is true: no value - no price (in most circumstances). Free
software is "general work" (Marx) which is per definition free of value,
because general work _is_already_ societal work.
One should add this is a plausible addition to Marx' System which is not
treated explicitely in "the Capital". There casual observations on science
as "Gratisproduktivkraft", the general intellect of a society as adding to
the
productive forces but not commodified.
The problem arises much later when general intellect gets actually
commodified and has a price tag. Stefan and some other german theorists
like Ernst Lohoff have made thsi observation explicit.
Marx says that there are many cases where the original "general"
value relation is violated by putting a price tag on things that
have not gone through the process of value-competition like the
ordinary industrial commodity. He lists rare goods and natural land,
saying these phenomena are rather phenomena of monopoly pricing
than expression of labor value.
One could observe that the packaging of a Free Software distributor,
for example Open Office in the SuperMarket, shows an industrial commodity
(and that is indeed the DVD, the packaging and commercial operations
of transport and logistics) while the price difference to an MS Office
package on the side of it makes the monopoly pricing visible and
understandeable. The free software part is literally "value free" and
does not touch the price tag.
Labor that his been spent for its production cannot be captured by
a value-producer unless he uses methods of monopolisation.
Franz
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