Ajit asks: >>As a member of that "crowd", do you believe that Marx's 'labor-values' are the satistical average of "real market prices"?<< where "crowd" here refers to the disparaging term that Ajit uses to describe those who have learned from Farjoun and Machover's LAWS OF CHAOS. My answer: No I don't see either values or prices of production as mere "statistical averages." Rather, I see them as theoretical constructs appropriate to higher levels of abstraction than the world of appearances we live in. NB: I do not think that these "theoretical constructs" are simply ideal categories in a theorist's (or Marx's) mind. Rather, they are theoretical constructs that capture real aspects of the real world that are not revealed simply by looking at statistical averages and the like. Values are appropriate to the abstract world of what I term "the social factory" of capitalism -- but this social factory is a part of the empirical world, i.e., the unified and socialized nature of the capitalist system (and its historical tendency to reveal that unified and socialized nature). Prices of production are appropriate to a less abstract world, where the heterogeneity of different capitals appears and profit-rates are equalizaed. This is an abstraction but reflects the real-world, empirical, tendency toward profit-rate equalization. The fact that there are also real-world, empirical, tendencies toward disequalization does not make prices of production irrelevant. In fact, they are very useful for understanding synchronic relations within capitalism, which contribute to our understanding of the diachronic tendencies. Footnote: Farjoun and Machover do not use the word "Chaos" in the way economists currently do. It is also interesting to note that (last time I heard) both were political activists in the same movement in Israel (MATZPEN, a socialist group) even though one is an Arab and the other a Jew. in pen-l solidarity, Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] Econ. Dept., Loyola Marymount Univ., Los Angeles, CA 90045-2699 USA 310/338-2948 (daytime, during workweek); FAX: 310/338-1950 "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- K. Marx, paraphrasing Dante A.
