[lbo-talk] on the transformation problem

[Shane Mage]

On Jul 20, 2010, at 1:44 PM, Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> ...I've long thought the whole value theory/transformation problem  
> debate was a total goddamn waste of time. Everyone who tries to put  
> some numerical meat on the bones of the theory comes up with  
> different results. Trying to specify the OCC seems to me an utterly  
> vain pursuit...

Considering that I spent years in that endeavor, with solid  
theoretical and empirical results, in my dissertation: *The "Law of  
the"Falling Tendency of the Rate of Profit": It's Place in the Marxian  
Theoretical System and Relevance to the US Economy*, I think I might  
be excused for regarding such a statement as an assertion of ignorance  
and a cavalier dismissal of the entire Marxian stream of economic  
thought.

and for regarding


> ...To me, value theory is a story about the origins of the  
> phenomenal categories of profit, interest, and rent in exploited  
> labor...

as proclaiming a truly American superficiality in regard to theory in  
general, and Marxian theory in particular.

Shane Mage

"All things are an equal exchange for fire and fire for all things,
as goods are for gold and gold for goods."

Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr, 90