Pure Economics (Samir Amin) from Jim O'Connor

[Barbara Laurence]

This is a wonderful piece.  One comment.  As Samir writes, "Bourgeois
ideologies preferred fable is of (Robinson) Crusoe on his island -- the
timeless, the placeless, individual human." "Pure economics starts off with
musings about the behavior of R Crusoe on his island, choosing between
consuming now and storing up for the future." Years ago Steve Hymer wrote
an essay on Crusoe, published in MR (I forget the year).  Steve noted that
at a certain point Robinson got bored with keeping a record of what he
consumed now and how much time he spent storing for the future.  And
stopped his record-keeping. And began to experience the process, as it
were, without worrying about its rationality in present/future value terms.
Then he captures Friday and sets Friday to work for him. At this point he
begins anew his record keeping, because he needs it to know whether he's
exploiting Friday's labor most efficiently.  Moral of the tale:
microeconomics is the science of exploiting other people's -- workers --
labor.  No exploitation, no need for science, which Crusoe finally grasped.
Jim O'Connor