--Hitch: Do you mean that oil isn't
> worth
> fighting for, or that oil resources aren't worth
> protecting?"
>
>
Willy:
> He
> didn't ask the obvious companion questions such
> whether the need for rubber and copper resources
> justified what we did to the Philippines, or if,
> when
> fighting one of his blood-for-oil wars, whether
> blood
> and oil should be exchanged at parity.
>
This raises the question of the relative value of various natural resources in blood. Let me suggest the following. We can analyse the matter as follows:
1 American life/30,000 Iraqi lives(average number of barrels of oil extracted per annum 1990-2000/labor value content of petroleum/barrel in the same period) = 1 American life/X Phillipine lives (avg pounds of rubber extracted from Phillpines 1990-2000/labor value of rubber/pound 1990-2000)(avg tons of copper extracted from Phil. 1990-2000/labor value of copper/ton in that period)
Solve for X and you have the answer to Willy's question, I believe. If you don't like value theory, use equlibrium mkt price instread of labor value content. (This illustrates why NCE is fundamentally silly.)
jks
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