Part 04: Marxian Theory Series.
MARX illustrates
Enfetterment
of Productive Force Growth by
the Capital-Relation:
Another Neglected Key Passage
in Capital III.
GLOBAL STRATEGIC
HYPOTHESES.
Dear Reader,
It
is my pleasure,
and my honor, as an elected member
of the Foundation Encyclopedia
Dialectica [F.E.D.] General Council, and as a voting member of F.E.D., to share, with you, from time to time, as they are approved for public release by the F.E.D. General Council, Encyclopedia
Dialectica definitions ‘of
the key terms of Seldonian Theory.
The 4th text in
this new such
series is posted below [Some E.D.
standard edits have been applied, in the version presented below, by the editors
of the F.E.D. Special Council for the Encyclopedia,
to the direct transcript of our co-founder’s
discourse].
Seldon
–
“In Capital, volume III,
Marx presents the following ‘‘‘numerical’’’ example of how the capital “social
relation of production” and “the growth of the social forces of production”
part ways.
In
this passage, excerpted below, Marx gives a detailed, highly particularized ‘arithmetical
model’ of the inherent limits of capitalist productivity-increasing innovation.
This
model illustrates a way in which “the capital-relation”, as the predominant
“social relation of production” of a capitalist society, once the
development of the “social forces of production” – initially fostered by “the
capital relation” – reaches a sufficiently ‘fixed-capital-intensive’, “relative-surplus-value”-pursuant
stage, begins to retard the further growth of the “social forces of production”.
The
“capital-relation” does so because the accelerating growth of the productive
forces begins to attack and destroy especially fixed-capital value, by productive-force-growth
induced, prior-to-amortization competitive obsolescence of increasingly massive
and costly fixed-capital plant and equipment –
“Suppose, a certain
line of capitalist industry produces a normal unit of its commodity[-kind] under the
following conditions: The wear and tear [depreciation] of fixed capital amounts to ½ shilling [abbreviated by “sh.” or “s.”] per piece; raw and auxiliary materials go into it to
the amount of 17 ½ shillings per piece; wages, 2 shillings [per piece]; and
surplus-value, [also] 2 shillings at a rate of surplus-value of 100% [s/v = (2)[s.]1/(2)[s.]1 = (1)[s.]1-1 = (1)[s.]0 = 100%].”
“We
assume for the sake of simplicity that the capital in this line of production
has the average [organic-]composition of social capital, so that the price of
production of the commodity is identical with its [abstract labor-time]
value, and the profit of the capitalist with the created surplus-value. Then the cost-price [ (c + v) ] of the commodity [per piece] = ½ + 17 ½ + 2 = 20s. [(½)[s.] + (17 ½)[s.] + 2[s.] = (20)[s.]], the average rate of profit 2/20 = 10% [s/(c + v] = 2[s.]1/(20)[s.]1 = (1/10)[
s.]1-1 = 10%],
and the price of production per piece of the commodity, like its value[,] =
22s. [(c + v + s) = ((18)[s.] + (2)[s.] + (2)[s.]
= (22)[s.])].”
“Suppose
a machine is invented which reduces by half the living labour required per
piece of the commodity, but trebles that portion of its [of each commodity unit’s] value accounted for by wear and tear [depreciation] of the fixed
capital.”
“In
that case, the calculation is: Wear and tear [depreciation expense] = 1 ½ sh. [3 ´
(1/2)[sh.] = (3/2)[sh.]], raw and
auxiliary materials, as before, 17 ½ sh., wages 1 sh. [(½) ´
(2)[sh.] = (1)[sh.]]; surplus-value 1
sh. [s/v = 100% or 1,
´ v = (1)[sh.], = 1 ´
(1)[sh.] = (1)[sh.]], total 21s. [(c+v+s) = (1 ½ + 17 ½)[s.] + (1)[s.]
+ (1)[s.] =
(19 + 1 + 1)[s.] = (21)[s.]].”
“The
commodity then falls 1 sh. in value; the new machine has certainly increased
the productivity of labour [i.e., the productive
force].”
“But
the capitalist sees the matter as follows [a
‘‘‘psychohistorical’’’ insight]: his
cost-price [ (c + v) ] is now 1 ½ s.
for wear [i.e., for fixed capital “wear
and tear” depreciation cost/expense for each commodity unit produced using the
new machine], 17 ½ s. for raw and
auxiliary materials [c
= (1 ½ + 17 ½)[s.] = (19)[s.]], 1 sh.
for wages [v], total 20s. as before. Since the general rate of profit is not immediately
altered by the new machine[‘s commodity output
entering into the market, in price-competition with similar commodity product
outputs offered in that market by other capitalists, using the old
machines], he will receive 10% over his
cost-price [ (c + v) ], that is 2s. [profit per commodity unit = s/(c + v)
= 10% = (2)[s.]/(20)[s.]]. The price of production, then, remains
unaltered[,] = 22s. [(c + v + s) = (19+1+2)[s.] = (22)[s.]].”
“For
a society producing under capitalist
conditions [i.e., under “the
capital-relation” as predominant “social relation of production”], the commodity has not cheapened. The new machine is no improvement for
it. The capitalist is, therefore, not
interested in introducing it.”
“And, since its introduction would make his present, not as yet worn out machinery simply worthless, would turn it into scrap iron [i.e., the old machinery would be retired and, if possible, sold for scrap, if replaced by the new machine [unless, coincidently, the scale of production of the example commodity could be profitably »doubled through a growth in market demand]], hence would cause a positive loss [a subtraction to/from capital, in the amount of the un-worn-out remaining value of the old machine], he takes good care not to commit this, what is for him a utopian mistake.”
[Marx:
Preface, «Zur Kritik»: “From
forms of development of the forces of production these relations turn into
their fetters. Then comes the period of
social revolution.”:
“The
law of increased productivity [i.e., of
increasing productive force] of labour is
not, therefore, absolutely valid for capital [i.e., for a society within which “the capital-relation” is the dominant
“social relation of production”]. So far as capital [i.e., so far as the human, capitalist «mentalité»;
so long as this ideological «mentalité» is socially dominant] is concerned, productiveness does not increase
through a saving in living labour in general, but only through a saving in the paid
portion of [present] living labour, as compared to [‘‘‘stored’’’]
labour expended in the past [ratios like (v/c) = (c/v)-1, or (v/f) or (v/(f + c)), in
relation to the profit-rates, (s/(c+v)) or (s/(c+v+f))], as we have already indicated in passing in Book I [Capital,
volume I, New World paperback ed., pp. 392-393].”
“Hence
the capitalist mode of [human-societal self-re-] production is
beset with another contradiction. Its
historical mission [justification] is the unconstrained development in geometrical
progression of the productivity of human labour [i.e., is the exponential growth of the ‘human-societal ‘‘‘self-force’’’
of self-expanding human-societal self-re-production’, and hence of the
‘meta-Darwinian fitness’ of the human species, genome and phenome united].”
“It goes back on its mission wherever, as here, it checks [“fetters”] the development of productivity [“productive force”].”
“It
thus demonstrates again that it is becoming senile and that it is more and more
outlived.”
[Excerpted
from: Capital, volume III; PART III, The Law of the
Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall; CHAPTER XV, Exposition of the Internal
Contradictions of the Law; Sec. IV Supplementary Remarks, pages 261-262, New
World Paperbacks edition, 1967].”
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Seldonian insights, please see --
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Regards,
Miguel
Detonacciones,
Voting Member, Foundation Encyclopedia Dialectica [F.E.D.];
Elected Member, F.E.D. General Council;
Participant, F.E.D. Special Council for Public Liaison;
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