The Value of Value Analysis

Abstract

labour is itself cont ingent on the original specification of the exchange of commodi t ies as the making-identical of those commodi t ies , as the revelation of their essence, Le. human labour. This is where the real problem lies (as Cutler, Hindess, Hirst and Hussain show hereafter CHHH of p roduc t ion can be determined from the specifi­ cation of the technical requirements of various industries if t he real wage is given. This much we already knew, but Steedman a t t empts t o work it up in to a full scale critique of the use of value analysis in economic thought* Thus he uses von Neumann and Morishima to establish tha t the social allocation of labour power can be determined wi thout reference to any value magni tude and tha t ' t he relation between surplus labour and the existence of profits can be established qui te independent ly of Marx's concept of value' . This along with critiques of the Transformation Problem and the Law of the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Decline, which basically use Marx's own concepts t o demonstra te the invalidity of his arguments , const i tute the lines of a t tack of the book . The book is very technical and for obvious reasons the details cannot be extensively dealt with here. But what is impor tan t to no te is tha t , quite independent ly of the technicalities, we can see that the crit ique is a relatively superficial one. This has to be insisted on despite the hostil i ty that such posit ions rouse from o r thodox Marxism. Steedman has no quarrel wi th the basic form of the present­ at ion of capitalism in Marx, and he a t tacks analysis via the well-known complex problems tha t it gives rise t o when a t t empts are made t o cope with the details of mature capitalism (notably the formation of the rate of profi t) . This is in keeping with the fact tha t a l though Steedman wishes to construct a different form of analysis (after Sraffa) for the description of capitalism, tha t analysis is in its ontological presupposit ions and its basic form very similar t o value analysis. Fur thermore , a l though it can be said to relieve problems such as the Transformat ion Problems, it does exclude a good deal of the subt lety of Marx's thought . If we take Steedman 's t rea tment of the Transformation Problem as an example, we can see how this peculiar posit ion operates. Steedman manifests considerable irri tation with the issue, claiming tha t so much t ime has been spent on tedious discussions of the problem of input prices a problem which von Bortkiewicz claimed to have solved in 1907 that the essential point of the Transformat ion Problem has been missed. Tha t is t o say, Marx's basic s ta tement on the formation of a uniform rate of profit, L e . : tha t it will be governed by S/(C+V), is. wi thout foundat ion. There is no reason t o assert tha t to ta l surplus value as a propor t ion of to ta l capital out lays will have effects on the rate of profit in money terms as the latter is formed on the basis of calculations which take no heed of the ' real ' (Le. value) relat ions. S teedman constructs numerical examples to demonst ra te tha t this cannot be assumed (nor can the alternative, Le. that to ta l profit = tota l surplus value). The result of this critique for Steedman is the necessity for a theoret ical s t ructure expressed diagrammatically as: