> The reason a trip to grandma's house is not
>productive of SV is that it occurs outside the market
>economy and is not done for wages to make profits.
Only if you walk. Barefoot. If you use any form of industrially produced transportation, you contribute towards someone's profit. So while it is true that the trip to Granma's is not productive of real values, it does usually consume real value, thus it makes someone (the big bad wolf?) a profit.
> The
>paper pushing work of a commercial lawyer (an
>associate, leave out the complications of partnership)
>occurs inside the market and is done for wages to
>produce profits. The work is productive of SV,
>therefore even if it only involves taking words off
>WEstlaw, thinking about them, and putting words on
>paper.
Of course, its like education. That is to say it produces something of value, even if only a better understanding of some detail. The labour of the trained or skilled worker is a higher value commodity than the labour of the unskilled worker. Hence it must be that the labour of the teacher is productive labour. Its akin to refining of raw materials.
As for the labour of the retailer, who these friends of yours would probably argue is unproductive, s/he obviously also refines a product, creating something of real value to the end-user.
Its utter nonsense to suggest that these people are unproductive of either real value or profit. The gold miner doesn't actually make gold, but by extracting it from the earth they add to its value by refining it.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas
>--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> On Feb 12, 2008, at 11:42 AM, andie nachgeborenen
>> wrote:
>>
>> > I got into a dispute at a recent Solidarity
>> meeting
>> > about "unproductive labor," whether labor that
>> does
>> > not involve production of physical object
>> generates
>> > surplus value and real profit as opposed to mere
>> rent.
>>
>> Minor point: it's not about the production of a
>> physical object -
>> services can be "productive" in this view. The
>> transportation of
>> vehicular components can be productive. The
>> transportation of people
>> to visit grandma isn't.
>>
>> Doug
>> ___________________________________
>>
>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>>
>
>
>
>
>____________________________________________________________________________________
>Be a better friend, newshound, and
>know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.
>http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ
>
>___________________________________
>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk