Philip Pilkington wrote:
>
>
> I think the basis of this distinction comes down to value theory. Is the
> price regulated by the amount of labour-input in the production sector or
> does it "free-float" in the consumption sector? I'm with Doug on this one,
> consumption is just as much a determinate as production. But one thing I
> have been thinking about since the crisis is whether back in
> Marx's/Ricardo's time prices WERE in fact set majorly by production costs
> while in our time they're set increasingly by guesswork and consumer
> sentiments. If this were the case and if most theories of political economy
> rely heavily on notions of clean information and equilibrium this could
> introduce serious distortions... Maybe...
Value theory is NOT, repeat NOT, a theory of price. Value does not determine price. Value theory is a theory of social relations under capitalism.
It is also not a moral theory. Marx does not condemn capitalism morally. Marx does not make moral judgments. And Marx is not interested in teh questions that interest economists.
You are talking about Ricardo, not Marx.
He wrote a critique of political economy, of political economy as a whole.
Carrol