Economics Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Karl Marx: Karl Marx (1818 – 1883) was a German philosopher and economist whose ideas played a major role in the development of modern political and economic thought, as well as the socialist and communist movements. His major works include The Communist Manifesto, Das Kapital, and Critique of the Gotha Programme. See also Marxism, Communism, Socialism, F. Engels, Economic systems._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Dictionary of Arguments. | |||
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Piero Sraffa on Marx - Dictionary of Arguments
Kurz I 165 Marx/Sraffa/Kurz: Marx, as Sraffa noted approvingly, had introduced two important concepts into political economy that paved the way to a better understanding of some of the properties of the modern economic system: first, "constant capital," that is, that part of social capital that consists of (produced) means of production; and, second, the "organic composition of capital. " The former concept expresses the fact that commodities are produced by means of commodities, a fact that can never be made to disappear completely in a circular system of production. This means that the rate of profits is bounded from above: whereas in Ricardo vanishing wages would be reflected in a rate of profits that tends to infinity, in Marx there is a finite maximum rate of profits, R. The maximum rate corresponds to zero wages and is equal to L/C; it is thus equal to the inverse of the organic composition of the system as a whole. Marx considered the maximum rate of profits to be a purely technological datum of the system as a whole, independent of relative prices and the actual rate of profits. (…) the actual rate of profits depends on two magnitudes instead of on only one, as Ricardo had contended: on the Share of wages, w (or the rate of surplus value, and on the maximum rate of profits, R. If the maximum rate of profits falls in the course of economic development, and proportional wages (the rate of surplus value) remain constant, the rate of profits is bound to fall. Even moderately falling proportional wages (a rising rate of surplus value) cannot prevent this fall of the rate of profits. In Sraffa's reading, Marx had developed his law as a critique of Ricardo's explanation of the falling rate of profits, incorporating major elements of Ricardo's in his own analysis. Thus Marx had argued that an accumulation process without technical change is bound up with a tendency of rising money wages and a falling rate of exploitation (i.e, rising proportional wages) - quite independently of rising costs of food production or the so-called law of population (see Marx [1867] 1954, 581—582)(1). Ricardo/Marx/Sraffa: According to Sraffa, Marx had incorporated also another element of Ricardo's doctrine in his own analysis: Ricardo's "machinery substitution argument" recurs in Marx's law of the falling rate of profits in terms of an "increasing organic composition of capital. 1. K. Marx. 1867. The Capital.The Process of Production of Capital. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ (21.11.2024) Kurz, Heinz; Salvadori, Neri 2015. Revisiting Classical Economics: Studies in Long-Period Analysis (Routledge Studies in the History of Economics). London, UK: Routledge._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. "Vs" indicates differences in content, not necessarily the chronological progression of a controversy. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Sraffa I Piero Sraffa Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities. Prelude to a Critique of Economic Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Cambridge 1960 Kurz I Heinz D. Kurz Neri Salvadori Revisiting Classical Economics: Studies in Long-Period Analysis (Routledge Studies in the History of Economics). Routledge. London 2015 |
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