February 25, 2005
Robinsonades of the left
I was getting way down yesterday, thinking about New York as a labor camp, trying and failing to add up the anger and resentments against the ruling class and figure out how these could ever be victorious politically. I was sinking into darkness, and I needed help.
"What you have to think about," Molly said, "what you have to think about -- what helped me -- was this thing I was reading yesterday in this book on Marxism. If a capitalist trades money for labor for money, and gets back more money than he spent -- then where did this money come from? Labor is sold for less than it's value. And separately, if they compete with one another, workers will compete with each other, selling their labor for less and less, putting more labor on the market and driving down prices even further. The only way to get the best price for labor is to organize with each other. Does that help?"
It did. No resentment is necessary, anger is only secondary, mobilized as a reaction to the violence that capital unleashes once labor begins to organize. These forces, that for so much of the left, are the "true flames" of change, to be sheltered and fueled, are nothing compared to the mutual recognition of labor's value. This falls into what Marx calls the "Robinsonade" error, from Robinson Crusoe -- so Molly tells me from her reading -- in which the functioning of complex social systems is reduced to the multiplied action of single individuals, rather than considered as a whole.
Hardt and Negri's version of leftism, on the other hand, relies heavily on the "miracle" of collective labor, the superabundance which comes from our collaboration -- a mystification which, Molly informs me, was a specific target of Marx's scorn, and does not escape the Robinsonade quagmire, only layers mist over the marsh...
Posted by Sam at February 25, 2005 01:45 PM
a little more detail...
wage laborers time
is sold for
some sum
regulated ultimately
by the market "cost "
of such labor ability
a "cost" which
is itself regulated
by the production cost
of the laborers abilities
--- a true household crop ---
the three values
relevant here
are never equal
and especially not the wage paid
and the wagers value produced
the basis of the cap gimmick
is always to but laboring ability
and make it produce more value
then the labor ability itself " costs"
to produce
fouling this up
is the source of near
all the tit twisters
under capitalism
the game at the firm level
---"the robinson level"----
make
the diff here
max
not just
keep it less
make
labor's exchange value costs
always lesser and lesser
as compared to this labors value added
sometimes
if the other firms in your market push harder
and push
increasing the diff
faster
they'll blow you out with a price cut
so nice caps lose their firms bankrupt
its a law
survival of the maxers
for the cap class
being priced
the least u can be...
leads the spiral down
the fuckers can't help themselves
only class action by wagery
can halt this
remiserization process
walmart any one ?
of course
the story goes on
comes back on itself
round and round
but never
lose this key value diff
---the one the caps thrive on ---
and its all simple
this case :
obviously
as with all supply demand deals
even
with this "pecular" commodity
supply restriction raises prices
restriction of laboring hours offered
will raise the cap's price paid
above the actual cost of producing
the human means
behind these sold hours of toil
now some of the "surplus"
that went to caps
becomes
"relative scarcity rent"
labor power rent
the only rent
collected
by the wagery themselves
want a big micro example
bobby bonds pay check
he prolly cost little more to make and up keep
then some useless bench built
san francisco door man
only here we're talkin takin it klass wide
and since this happens
without changing
the value of output produced
in a closed system
like our globe
if its universal
no pure upping
of output price
will allow caps a straight forward
long term escape
in fact caps'll have to trigger
a crisis
to restore the old surplus rate
up the RAU
and even if tech changes
intervene at the micro level
WITH wagery operating
at the universal level
as a whole class
no escape there either
labor power rents
can be as kool
as land rents long
as the h whole class acts as one
the caps can't
"robinson fallacy "
part v whole
their way out of the surplus squeeeze
Posted by: pinky at February 25, 2005 04:41 PM
as to the surplus squeeze itself
well
proper balance between the two departments
becomes a macro managed collective decision
sure
optimal social
"investments"
oughta be made:
building neat new machines
and r&d- ing new machines
64 trillion dollar question :
with a rampent
unity crazed
nation wide wagery
on the march
pushin its
order of the day
(wage min max
hours max min)
how in heavan's name
if not out of
the now so squeezed
private surplus
is all this necessary investin
to get "paid for "
answer
the fucking
credit system
and
gubmint budget spending shifts
i.e.loaned funds plus
sense you can't make firms
voluntarily invest enough
some times
direct gubmint expenditures
that oughta keep things flyin
get orders to produce headed
to the plants
buying new machines
and
if thats not enoughto keep department one at capacity
gub gist
orders new stuff directly
from the plants building
these new machines
still not addressed
how to stymeeeee
private firm's
price uppin folly ?
the great
wage and profit rate race
next post maybe
or maybe i'll ask you guys to figure it out
knowing pink has an air tight answer right in his left pocket
Posted by: pinky again at February 26, 2005 09:25 AM
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