Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: My Take on Competition

[Doug Henwood]

Michael Perelman wrote:

>Let me start out by saying that I have no doubt that intellectual property
>increases surplus value, just as if the entire economy consisted of 
>a region, such
>as San Francisco, which experienced a rapid increase in rents, surplus value
>increased relative to what goes to labor.
>
>Doug asks for proof.  I cannot give it.  To begin with, Doug has a much better
>command of data than I do.  To make matters worse, data is not 
>collected about such
>matters.

Michael, I don't understand how you can be sure of something you not 
only can't prove, but for which you can't offer much nonconclusive 
evidence. Why you so convinced? Are you pushing the IP analysis as an 
antidote to something else? Given the unambiguous weakening of labor 
over the last 25 years, you almost don't need any other explanations 
for the increase in the US profit rate.

Doug