> Com. Monaco,
>
> I think you make the mistake generally common to statist-communist
>analyses which is, in short, to simplify away the important legal-economic
>distinctions among different acts of what might loosely be termed
>"production".
These "legal-economic" distinctions are not absolute truths. They were created, defined, refined by various groups, for various purposes, in various locations, at various times in history.
> Production as such refers to activities of economic
>interdependence. There are secondary and informal markets for white teeth,
>hard bodies and dinners but as I said, this is to be expected with such
>generalized activities. The proportion is small.
Only if one defines it that way.
> While badly-raised kids
>may indeed increase the probability that money will be spent on social ills,
>that does not create an economic arbitrage because parent-child
>relationships are not for sale.
But social ills do indeed affect production so there is economic interdependence. I don't think economic interdependence and economic arbitrage are the same thing. Arbitrage can occur over many different dimensions -- time, location, even product quality -- but it still almost always involves fairly similar products over those dimensions. Economic interdependence may involve very dissimilar products, factors, actors, or whatever.
> People like baby smiles but if babies are
>not smiling enough, it creates no economic opportunity for surrogate
>parents.
[...]
>No, babies are not economic actors. What they produce,
>as a general matter, nobody wants.
>
> Think of it this way: if I make baby bottles, what I need you to do is
>buy bottles.
I agree that a baby not smiling enough does not create economic opportunities for surrogate parents (similar products with arbitrage opportunities???), but it may affect production. If the baby's not smiling enough due to a virus, causes the parent to stay home to care for the baby instead of going to her job to make baby bottles for those willing to pay for them, then the production doesn't happen. Also, if the sitter who normally cares for the baby while the parent makes baby bottles for those willing to pay for them doesn't care for the baby due to the viral illness, she also doesn't work or get paid. There is economic interdependence as you call it...and I was connecting social reproduction to production in various ways.
Boddi, your definition of production sounds so hard-core, capital uber allis, free flowing markets with arbitrage opportunities and all that, that I hesitate to interpret what you mean by "Com." Monaco :).
All best, Diane