Pat Bond:
But John, saying 'nothing more' is conceding enormous ground. If you are
serious about value as the core factor in 'the accumulation process', then that takes you onto all manner of political, economic, social, cultural and environmental terrains, does it not? As I understand the term, a 'heuristic device' is 'shorthand'; but value theory offers a deep-rooted explanation of the laws of motion of capitalism. 'Nothing more.'?
JG:
Take a look at Doug's response to my post. He more or less said what I wanted to say, with more elegance and precision. And actually, I'm just not sure HOW serious I am about value as the "core factor in the accumulation process." I rely on it because of force of habit, because of ongoing ideological- political affinities, and because for me at least, it's worked sufficiently well to help me make sense of economic crises, social conflicts, uneven development, this latest bout of financialization and its limits, and so on and so on and so on. But life's too short for me to painstakingly probe just how "scientifically correct" value theory is, especially when experience suggests that such an effort is endless, and hence the payoff minimal.
I do kind of miss the days, however, when we had conversations on this list about current events that were loosely grounded in value theory. And I suppose it's good that there is at least a scattering of young'uns who want to pick up that baton.
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