Roger Odisio wrote:
> Since I think productive labor is a useful category, I would like to hear
> why you think it might not be.
I said I was not convinced. Primarily because most discussions I have seen of it (including Smith's and Marx's) seem to exhaust themselves in defining and establishing it, with no energy left to make use of it. Beyond that, as I approach my 69th birthday I'm a bit strapped for time to study this that and the other thing and have to choose carefully what I'll examine and what I won't. I would be interested in a brief statement from someone on it -- that is a statement which piqued me enough to suggest further exploration might be useful.
I do have one positive thing against it: some have used it to define the working class, thus excluding millions from the class. That may be -- probably is -- a misuse of it though, for which the theory itself is not responsible.
Carrol