re: #186 Aceofwhat?

oh, hey. a few days ago when we were talking, you mentioned something about productivity…i wasn’t sure what you meant by it. i’d be interested in a longer explanation if you have the energy.

I don’t have much time or energy right now, really, it’s a long tangent. The ridiculously abridged version is that I was going to draw both a distinction and a connection between the “use-value” and “exchange-value” of goods and services using productivity and fixed capital as the intermediaries. It’s Marxist theory, discussed at length in Das Kapital.

The observation at the heart of it is this: As technology advances, the productivity of workers increases as a result. Why doesn’t the use-value of the goods obtainable using the capital gained from exchanging labor for capital increase as productivity increases? (The answer is long and hairy, but illuminates the critical flaw in capitalism.) The point is that federal tax policy can effectively address this problem, but it requires (in a democracy) that the electorate have some understanding of why the things that must be done to stabilize the economy are necessary.

It would also fatally derail the thread. Perhaps a rain check?