Comment 28207

By LL (registered) - website | Posted January 15, 2009 at 00:33:35

"A", we obviously have strikingly different views on economics, so I'm not going to debate them with you at length. After all, this thread is supposed to be about oil prices.

Briefly, I refuse to believe that the money that the bosses make represents value they've contributed to the economy. (I meant "profits" in the broad sense.) The exchange of labour for a wage is an exploitative one. To me, the notion that in the "free market", there are no classes, strata, or castes - just individuals with differing merits - is a completely naive fantasy.

So, I agree broadly with Marx' notion that labour creates value, and some of that value is "expropriated" by the owners and controllers of capital. And that's what creates the class system.

However, on a more fundamental level, I think value can be looked at in different ways, and economics in general can be problematic. I think a lot of value (economic and otherwise) is embedded in ecosystem processes that function on a completely different timescale to human society.

Fossil fuels were created roughly 80 million years ago - the remnants of organisms. The energy that's embedded in them is essentially a huge store of solar energy. These gifts of natural history are extremely useful substances - the basis of much material culture today. Capitalism might not be able to conjure a replacement. And we're burning them away - disrupting the whole energy cycle of the planet in the process. For what? A transportation system that's objectively inefficient.

LL believes that the problems of the city reflect deeper social contradictions

Permalink | Context

Events Calendar

There are no upcoming events right now.
Why not post one?

Recent Articles

Article Archives

Blog Archives

Site Tools

Feeds