In a previous post ( https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/28385 ) I discussed Paul Burkett's analysis of labour power as a common-pool resource. It is a superb example of the benefit of incorporating good "non-Marxist" theory into Marxist analysis. Elinor Ostrom, who was awarded a Sveriges Riksbank Nobel Prize for her work on the management of common-pool resources, was a "new institutionalist," as was Ronald Coase. The basic idea is that different kinds of goods can be classified according to their boundary conditions of consumption and access. This doesn't exclude the possibility that some goods will have characteristics of more than one of those classifications.
I have talked before about a modification of Burkett's scheme that separates out the surplus "disposable time" of labour power as the common-pool resource on the grounds that necessary labour time is essential to the continued availability of the worker to perform labour. That is a tautology. On further reflection, the boundary between necessary and superfluous labour time is itself elastic, which is the basis of Marx's discussion of relative surplus value, as distinct from absolute surplus value. I mention this now for two reasons. The first being that Marx's critique of political economy did not fall out of a coconut tree but was profoundly informed by the political economy he was crticizing and by earlier, radical criticisms of classical political economy. This is not a basis for assuming that all subsequent development must proceed from "within" Marx's critique. The second being that Marx's discussion of the "definite (albeit elastic) natural limits" of labour power, as Burkett put it, provides a compelling template for analysis of that other substance with definite but elastic limits, nature. My 2026 wish would be to see more discussion on marxmail, for example, of Paul Burkett's concept of labour power as a common pool resource and less indulgence of Andrey Vyshinsky's fever dreams. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#39925): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/39925 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/117002068/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
