tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6263577133333272085.post8870269131041802921..comments2024-03-28T11:04:16.315+00:00Comments on Boffy's Blog: Workers As An Exploiting Class?Boffyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08157650969929097569noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6263577133333272085.post-66378537102513121772013-05-29T19:10:35.119+01:002013-05-29T19:10:35.119+01:00Yes, that's quite right David, and a point I m...Yes, that's quite right David, and a point I made in my previous analysis. In fact, you can see that happening already. One of the biggest areas of job growth is indeed already in personal services.<br /><br />There is a large number of people now employed as nannies, domestic cleaners/housekeepers, and so on. Marx made a similar point about the effects of mechanisation in the 19th Century.<br /><br />But, also the other point I made in the previous analysis in another blog entitled "Capital Consumes Itself" is that it leads to an increase in all forms of unproductive consumption by Capital, for example, arms production. That is not the same as the Permanent Arms Economy Thesis. There is no reason why it has to be arms, for instance.<br /><br />There is an interesting question here though. For Marx the provision of those personal services does not constitute surplus value production. It is not productive labour, it is an exchange of revenue with revenue.<br /><br />But, could it be here a means of Capital selling commodities above their value? That is the products produced by the robots would have little value, and no surplus value. But, if a cleaner needs 100 units of these commodities to live, which takes 1 hour to produce, but has to provide 10 hours of cleaning to obtain those 100 units, do we class this as a profit arising from unequal exchange? How exactly would this differ in practice from surplus value?<br /><br />Its not such an esoteric discussion as it might seem. 3D printers are only the start. Nanotechnology is already on the foothills of a slope that leads to the kind of fabricators you get on Star Trek i.e. the fabricator takes atoms from the air, and builds up anything you like from an atomic level upwards. <br /><br />With the pace of development in computing power fully automated factories are not too far away. I knew a comrade 20 years ago who worked for I_Cl, and even then was producing programmes that would produce the programmes that controlled CAD/CAM.Boffyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08157650969929097569noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6263577133333272085.post-6863149660796396942013-05-29T16:12:52.745+01:002013-05-29T16:12:52.745+01:00A more likely outcome is that robots, as capital, ...A more likely outcome is that robots, as capital, will be owned by an elite, just as they are today.<br /><br />Workers (humans who don't own capital) would then move from being factors of production (i.e. labour / variable capital) to forms of consumption - i.e. the providers of personal services to the elite.David Timoneyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03568348438980023320noreply@blogger.com