Re: Capital is wrong

He says that wealth, not capital, appears as an immense accumulation of 
commodities. This
is an importance difference. The point is that wealth does not appear in 
this way. If
anything it appears as an immense accumulation of use values. Many use 
values are  just
use values --not commodities or even capital. Other use values assume the 
form of fixed
capital etc and yet are not commodities. Other use values exist as 
commodities --not by
far all use values.

Warm regards
George Pennefather

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----- Original Message -----
From: Steve Rosenthal <smrose@mailhub.exis.net>
To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
Sent: Friday, March 10, 2000 4:36 PM
Subject: Re: Capital is wrong


The debate over whether "Capital is wrong" produced many thoughtful
analyses of political economy, but I've been waiting for someone to
point out what I think is pretty obvious.  Specifically, Marx is
beginning his analysis of capital by pointing out the distinction
between appearance and essence.  He is basically saying that capital
appears to be an immense accumulation of commodities, but analysis
demonstrates that its essence is an accumulation of capital.  And
that is what Marx then sets out to show.

The notion that capital is an accumulation of commodities is a common
misconception among my students.  Those who come from relatively
affluent background experience capitalism mainly as businesses that
sell commodities which they purchase.  Some of them have never
thought about the labor power that produced those commodities.  Few
have thought about how profit is extracted from labor power, rather
than from charging high prices to consumers.  These students have
been mistrained to look at appearances, rather than essences.

Marx was right to emphasize the contradiction between the appearance
and essence of capital (and capitalism).  We should never be hesitant
about acknowledging and correcting errors Marx or anyone else made,
but the dialectic approach Marx devised to examining capital  was
right.

Steve Rosenthal

> From:          "George Pennefather" <poseidon@eircom.net>
> To:            WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
> Subject:       Re: Capital is wrong
> Date:          Fri, 10 Mar 2000 19:06:13 -0000
> Reply-to:      poseidon@eircom.net

> Below is a brief response to the many responses to my very brief piece on 
>Marx's
Capital.
>
> I wrote:
>
> "In the opening paragraph of Capital Marx proclaims:
>
> The wealth of those societies in which the capitalist mode of production 
>prevails,
> presents itself as "an immense accumulation of commodities," its unit 
>being a single
> commodity. Our investigation must therefore begin with the analysis of a 
>commodity.
> So the capitalist mode of production can prevail in more than one society.
>
> To say that the "wealth of those societies presents itself as an immense 
>accumulation of
> commodities" is not true. Much of the existing wealth is in the form of 
>industrial
capital
> which is
> not capital in the form of the commodity. This mistaken premise renders 
>the validity of
> making the commodity a starting point questionable on that basis."
>
> It is clear from many of the responses made in relation to my above 
>posting that there
is
> a lot of ignorance, confusion and down right refusal to face facts.
>
> To elaborate: The point is that the wealth of capitalist society does not 
>present itself
> "as an immense accumulation of commodities." Much of the wealth of 
>capitalist society is
> in the form of factories. Factories are forms of capital but not 
>commodities. The
> factories are a form of fixed capital. Fixed capital is not a commodity 
>form. Much
wealth
> too assumes the form of use values. Capital assumes different forms. It 
>assumes the form
> of money, of circulating capital, of fixed capital. of variable capital. 
>Capital also
> assumes the form of the commodity.
>
> The thousands of cars on the roads and televisions and computers in homes 
>are not
> commodities. They are use values. Concerning the consumer market once the 
>exchange
process
> has been completed the commodities in question cease to be commodities 
>and are at most
> simple use values.
>
> In short the wealth of capitalist society does not present itself as an 
>immense
> accumulation of commodities. That wealth presents itself as commodities; 
>as use values
> that are not commodities; as forms of capital that are not commodity 
>forms. The plain
fact
> is that Marx in his opening statement was plain wrong.
>
> Warm regards
> George Pennefather
>
> Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at
> http://homepage.eircom.net/~beprepared/
>
> Be free to subscribe to our Communist Think-Tank mailing community by
> simply placing subscribe in the body of the message at the following 
>address:
> mailto:rev-commies-subscribe@eGroups.com
>
>
>
>
>
> Warm regards
> George Pennefather
>
> Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at
> http://homepage.eircom.net/~beprepared/
>
> Be free to subscribe to our Communist Think-Tank mailing community by
> simply placing subscribe in the body of the message at the following 
>address:
> mailto:rev-commies-subscribe@eGroups.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>