- Capitalism and Alternatives -

Well, you lasted a bit longer this time.

Posted by: Gee ( si ) on November 01, 1999 at 14:14:52:

In Reply to: Exchange value, use value, and repitition posted by Samuel Day Fassbinder on October 31, 1999 at 18:13:39:

: use-value is an idiosyncratic (i.e. unquantifiable, and thus conceptually NOT AMENABLE to the measurement of profit) quality of human behavior with AT BEST a tangential relation to the process of profit-making.

Its therefore a bit useless on its own isnt it - a bit of a club for which to beat one's morality into the heads of non-believers. At its best its utilitarianism, with all its subjectivism, an assumption that if you spent $500 on a bottle of wine you must have had some use for it, certainly more use than for a $5 bottle - and thats pretty much all you can derive from the concept.

: One has to ask whether anything at all is being added to this debate. With a classroom full of first-grade students (ages 4-6 or thereabouts), I might have confidence that something was conceptually gained by my fifth explanation in a row of the concept of "addition". But here, with one who has made an elaborate PRETENSE of understanding the Labor Theory of Value, same pretense to be repeated over and over again at McSpotlight's expense?

Well, you lasted a bit longer this time, but that "I am right and you are mere fools" arrogence is hard to resist. Thats ok, I can accept that now - its a regualar pattern. Youre analogy however is telling. A group of 4-6 year olds will be suitably silenced and awed by your authority on the role of teacher in the safe controlled environment of a classroom - qualities you simply can't depend upon here.


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