Jonathan Nitzan wrote:
>
> OK.
>
> Now, how much "labor performed" goes into the production of a car, a
> modern drug or a capitalist movie? What units should we measure this
> labor with? Marx came with the answer of "abstract labor."
If you ask Marx to answer question that (a) he didn't ask and that (b) are not worthwhile answering, then you will find that the answers he gives to the questions he _does_ ask fail to answer the questions that for reasons I don't understand have your knickers in a twist.
Marx asked, "How, under given historical conditions, is living human activity allocated?" It is more a "cultural" than an "economic" question. After all, Marx did not write a book entitled _Capitalist Economics_. Nor did he write a book entitled, _Political Economy_. He wrote a book subtitled _A Critique of Political Economy_, in which he dissolves from inside the pseudo-questions which "economists" try to answer. We are concerned with human social relations under capitalism, not with getting accurate figures on the GDP.
Carrol