Re: Labor theory of cost

On Sat, 26 May 2007 12:22:16 +0000, Edmund Esterbauer wrote:

Cost under your definition is still subjective because it is derived from
the value an individual attaches to the effort of providing that labour
whether or not you assume land is free. Or to put it slightly differently,
labour results from human action and is therefore subjectively measured by
each individual. The value of the price paid to produce the good is called
cost. Cost is equal to the value attached to the satisfaction that must be
foregone in order to produce the good.

Well.... You have launched the attack exactly as I anticipated. We will
see where we go from here. Unlike the word "value" which in its stand
alone form has all sorts of wild subjectiveness the word cost is a
little more contained. In this case we speak not of the "value" of labor
but in the aristocratic view of such value. This cost/value is well
documented in aggregates and in per capita statistics. It is not subject
to the whim and fancy of an individual laborer/worker or even an
individual neoconomist/aristocrat. Regardless of what the aristocrat or
the laborer might think about it the statistics provide an objective
measurement of the "value" of labor. And that is, in fact, an
objective view of COST from the 20K foot level where it actually matters.

"Michael L. Coburn" <mikcob@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:pan.2007.05.24.22.19.45.497276@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have given up on ever actually communicating with utility
freaks about the _real_ value theory as opposed to the Marx
Communist Manifesto. So I have decided to take a different
approach to the problem:

It is axiomatic that natural resources have NO COST. The
stuff simply exists. The abbreviation for natural resource
is "land". Now then: I will define something here called
"goods" and I will say that all "goods" (as distinct from
"land") are a product of land and labor (labor of course
is human effort). If land is free, i.e. it has no cost,
then the total cost of any "good" is the labor expended in
its creation. This observation holds true for ALL goods,
whether we speak of capital goods, durable goods, or comsumable
goods, or red, green, purple, orange, tall, short, or fat
goods. So if the cost of "capital" (i.e. capital goods) is
the labor expended in the creation of same, and it certainly
seems that this would be true, then the cost of every thing
that will ever be, other than land (which we have agreed has
no cost), is therefore the sum of labor expended in
creation. And while the neoconomist may screech that value
is subjective, we find that cost isn't. Cost is anywhere and
everywhere the labor to produce that which is desired.

--
"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers
of society but the people themselves; and
if we think them not enlightened enough to
exercise their control with a wholesome
discretion, the remedy is not to take it from
them, but to inform their discretion by
education." - Thomas Jefferson
http://GreaterVoice.org

.

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