Jonathan Nitzan <nitzan at yorku.ca> quoted from the backcover:
Conventional theories of capitalism are mired in a deep crisis: after centuries of debate, they are still unable to tell us what capital is. Liberals and Marxists both think of capital as an 'economic' entity that they count in universal units of 'utils' or 'abstract labour', respectively. But these units are totally fictitious. Nobody has ever been able to observe or measure them, and for a good reason: they don?t exist. Since liberalism and Marxism depend on these non-existing units, their theories hang in suspension. They cannot explain the process that matters most ? the accumulation of capital.
This book offers a radical alternative. According to the authors, capital is not a narrow economic entity, but a symbolic quantification of power. It has little to do with utility or abstract labour, and it extends far beyond machines and production lines. Capital, the authors claim, represents the organized power of dominant capital groups to reshape ? or creorder ? their society. **********************************************************
According to the Marx I read, Capital is a social relation of power between capitalists and wage workers. The accumulation of wealth is accomplished through purchasing workers time for what their skills sell for in the marketplace of commodities and keeping control and ownership over the product of their labour. Thus, capitalists accumulate commodities and as they market their commodities gaining both wealth and with it, political power. Ownership of the means of production and employing wage-labour to produce wealth is what gives capitalists the political power to, "reshape ? or creorder ? their society."
On the road,
Mike B)
*********************************************************************** http://www.iww.org.au/ Skype: mike.ballard66
Need a Holiday? Win a $10,000 Holiday of your choice. Enter now.http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylc=X3oDMTJxN2x2ZmNpBF9zAzIwMjM2MTY2MTMEdG1fZG1lY2gDVGV4dCBMaW5rBHRtX2xuawNVMTEwMzk3NwR0bV9uZXQDWWFob28hBHRtX3BvcwN0YWdsaW5lBHRtX3BwdHkDYXVueg--/SIG=14600t3ni/**http%3A//au.rd.yahoo.com/mail/tagline/creativeholidays/*http%3A//au.docs.yahoo.com/homepageset/%3Fp1=other%26p2=au%26p3=mailtagline