Im reading Francis Wheens book on Das Kapital. While the book doesnt mention this as a flaw in Das Kapital, I was struck with the question of inherent value at the beginning of the book. Marx discussed how the value of something included the value of the workers. In fact, he thought the value was primarily the value of the workers. The problem is that inherent value is a null concept. Value does not exist without an external party perceiving a value. You can calculate a cost of an object, but not a value. Different parties will perceive different values. I wish I could say this is a problem just with Marxism, or even of the Left. But its not. The Right is just as willing to talk about somethings value as something inherent to the object, and not a matter of perception. (Sometimes its just lazy language. But other times its justification for the rest of the argument.) This leads to a crap ton of bad economic analysis, poor decision making, and faulty policy development. And we get to live with the results. And that concludes todays sermon.
Posted on: Sun, 13 Apr 2014 15:40:47 +0000
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