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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Just because I am in a school boy's mood. I
saw this model on Star Treck with the food replicator and I immediately grasped
why the LTOV was bogus. Then Q showed up and suddenly I was in the nth
dimension watching a vector of pigs fly. Then it hit me: Pins dance on
ferries heads not the other way around. Eureka! The age old
question is solved: Just assume that there is no labour indirect or direct
and bingo you can prove there is no labour involved. Paging
doctor Rifkin, Paging doctor Rifkin your utopia is
calling. </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Travis </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV>For those OPE-L'ers who are wondering what Justin and I were talking
about....</DIV>
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<DIV>To see how the technical conditions approach to the determination of
prices and profits seems to undermine the labor theory of value, consider the
following example in which it is shown that not unpaid labor time but a
surplus of use values determines what the profit rate will be. The surplus of
use values need not be caused by unpaid labor time at all; it may just be a
result of the technical conditions, the knowledge embodied therein. </DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Courier color=#000000 size=+2>A model of total automation;
Spencer Pack gives a simple example.</FONT></DIV>
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size=+2><BR><BR><BR>28
56 0
0<BR>16 0
48 0<BR>12
0 0
8<BR>56 56
48 8<BR><BR><BR>What we have in the first column
is inputs of computers (28,16,12, 56<BR>total) needed to make 56 computers, 48
units of gold, and 8 units of<BR>wheat.<BR><BR>That is, 28 computers => 56
computers<BR> 16
computers => 48 units of
gold<BR> 12 computers
=> 8 units of
wheat<BR> 56 computers
=> 56 computers, 48 units of gold, 8 units of wheat<BR><BR><BR>The economy
is in simple reproduction because it produces only 56 new<BR>computers, and 56
computers are needed to produce computers, gold and<BR>wheat at the same scale
again.<BR><BR>There is no direct labor in this economy; there is not even
indirect<BR>labor as computers, gold and wheat are themselves the products
of<BR>commodities--the literal production of commodities by
commodities.<BR><BR>According to Pack this economy can be solved for relative
prices and<BR>a uniform profit and absolute prices as well if we assume
by<BR>definition that the price of one unit of gold equals $1.<BR><BR>(1 +
r) (28pc) = 56 pc<BR>(1 + r) (16pc) = 48<BR>(1 + r) (12pc) =
8pw<BR><BR>r is the profit rate while pc and pw are the unit prices of
computers<BR>and wheat.<BR><BR> From the first equation we know the
profit rate has to be 100%; price<BR>of one computer is $1.50 and price of one
unit of wheat is $4.50.<BR><BR>So contrary to the LTV, there can be a positive
rate of profit and<BR>relative prices in a totally automated
economy.</FONT></DIV>
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