Michael writes: >One more short, but obvious point regarding profit and surplus value. >Marx did offer one simple "proof" of the role of surplus value in the >creation of profit. Suppose, he says, that we take the working class as a >whole. If the working-class did not produce anymore than it consumed, >profits would be impossible.
Michael, no one disputes that surplus *labor* is a necessary condition for both the existence of profit and the existence of surplus value. It does not follow from this that surplus value has a "role" in the creation of profit. It could with equal (non-) logic be said that profit has a "role" in the creation of surplus value. Similarly, it does it follow that "value... is fundamental to price, in the sense that prices and profits depend on what happens in the sphere of value." Gil
