At 10:02 AM 7/15/97 -0700, you wrote: >>At the same time, the introduction of labor-replacing technology means the >beginning of the end of productive investment capital. All value (and >profit) comes from the exploitation of labor. Laborless production means >valueless production - and hence, >profitless production. With laborless production, capital can no longer be >utilized to create more value and more surplus value.< _______________________ In my opinion, this is a common mistake commited by Marxist scholars. Since profit in capitalism is seen as resulting from the exploitation of labor, it does not mean that an economy with labor input being zero (i.e. 100% mechanized production process) would necessarily mean that 'profit' will be zero in such an economy. As long as the total input needed in the process of production is less than the total output, you have surplus production; and 100% mechanization does not ipso facto rule out this possibility. So one can imagine a totally mechanized economy with division of 'capital' and prices of goods such that the rate of 'profit' is equalized accross sectors. The economy will simply be not a capitalist economy because it would be missing an essential element--the wage labor. But a theoretical possibility of such an economy cannot be denied. Cheers, ajit sinha
