>If the use value does not matter, then why do we have such a diversity of
>products?
To make money. Why else? Henry Ford said that he wasn't in business to make cars, he was in it to make money, and any contemporary capitalist would agree. Like ExxonMobil president Rex Tillerson, who told the Wall Street Journal a few months ago explaining why the company was holding back on exploration, "You give me a choice of producing more barrels, or making more money, I am going to make more money every time."
> If the only thing that matters for the capitalist, why does
>he/she take a considerable risk of developing new products i.e. why is
>he/she risking the 'exchange value' for creating new "use value?"
To make money. Why else?
Sometimes being the first to market with a new product can make you a big bundle (e.g., the iPod). Sometimes not, and you fail. But it's the drive for higher-than-average profits that drives innovation - not for engineers, but for corporate managers who hire engineers.
> And how
>about joint stock companies that separate ownership and business decision
>making. Do "capitalists" (stock holders) also care only about exchange
>value?
If you mean the value of a stock on the exchange, you bet. That's the only thing they care about.
> And if so, how do they make the management who are de facto
>*employees* but who are also the decision makers to care only about exchange
>value which they fork over to the capitalists? And how about employee-owned
>stock corporations, are their owners capitalists who care only about
>exchange value and exploit themselves as workers? And then, there is pesky
>automation. Today, great value is produced by automated production line
>with minimal human involvement and with future technological advances it is
>likely that most material production will be carried by robots controlled by
>a handful of software engineers.
Aside from the fact that the LTV views capital as embodied labor, you're dreaming if you think the cappos will ever give up on human labor. The proletariat has doubled worldwide over the last decade or so.
Doug