[lbo-talk] What Would Have to Happen First

[Lakshmi Rhone]

You have gone to a lot of (cutting and pasting) work to prove nothing. You
have me mixed up with someone named Rakesh and  another Lakshmi Rhone who
seems to have the hardly idiosyncratic position that the  Haqqani network
and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar are themselves creations of imperialism and a major
threat to world peace today and that Enlightenment thinkers are obligated to
weaken a movement that has practiced  public execution through torture, the
enslavement of women, prohibition and destruction of art, surgery without
narcotics and the killing of girls who attend schools.

As for the labor theory of value--that's what I have been trying to get John
Gulick to explain to me-- it's intuitively plausible on two grounds, as I
said at the outset: first, "consumers" do judge the value of commodities in
relative terms and on the basis of estimated labor time (yes this handwover
sweater has greater value than a machine produced one, and the reason is
basically the greater time that went into making it or yes I'll pay more for
this fine meal because the foods were marinated overnight and fresh
vegetables were cut--in other words, abstract labor time is hardly only a
theoretical concept; indeed it has more practical application and less
metaphysical status than "utility"), and second, producers are compelled to
reduce prices in line with rates of labor productivity growth so that prices
will tend to track labor values.

However,  producers also want a fair return on their capital and that is not
compatible with prices being proportional to values.

All these forces could be in contradiction to each other. Societies are
probably composed of contradictory tendencies. Public debate requires the
articulation of contradictory arguments so that they can be assessed openly.
One should be wary of dismissing uncomfortable arguments on the basis of
badly reasoned and empirically thin replies.

LR