productivity miracle or workhouse?

[Fabian Balardini]

On Mon, 14 Feb 2000 15:12:10   Doug Henwood wrote:
>Michael Pollak wrote:
>
>>But practically, isn't productivity actually about adding more value per
>>unit of work time *paid for?* In that sense, it is up; it's not
>>overstated.  In which case Mr. Roach may have put his finger on exactly
>>where the rise in productivity comes from and how the information
>>revolution makes it possible.  It's made it possible to get more unpaid
>>work out of people.
>
>That's exploitation, not productivity!
>
No, the rate of exploitation refers to the extraction of extra labor out of all workers.  The rate of exploitation of productive workers is the rate of surplus value of the whole economy. The productivity rate implies a definition of what is productive in capitalism, ie: the production of surplus value.  Therefore, Michael's notion of productivity is more correct, the extraction of surplus value rather than Doug's notion of productivity which fails to differentiate between use-value and value.  In fact the failure to make this distinction among the so called marxist economists is the result of why the economics marxist tradition in its majority supports the Okishio theorem as opposed to Marx's own proposition of technical change leading to a fall in the rate of profit. 
Fabian 

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