Re: [ox] Die Anwendbarkeit der Werttheorie in der Informatik
- From: graham belegost.mit.edu
- Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 06:01:13 -0500 (EST)
Hi, Graham!
On Mon, 20 Nov 2000, graham belegost.mit.edu wrote:
And why concretely does " gehen tendenziell alle proprietären Produzenten
pleite" follow from this drop in value? The company I work for
uses almost entirely gpl software; this reduces their costs,
gives a competitive advantage, and so INCREASES profits.
This is only a temporary effect. As soon as other companies start to discover
Free software, they might become serious competitors. So the temporarily
increased profits will drop back to normal and result in a cheaper product.
However, companies who still have not switched to Free software will not be
able to compete anymore. So they go bankrupt.
Agreed.
Now imagine a world in which any product design is copylefted. This would
mean the maximum of imaginable competition. So the profits of each company
would be minimalistic. "This does not mean a breakdown of capitalism, but it
would at least make it much more value-exempt."(St.Mz.)
This is the part I don't understand. It would mean the removal of the
part of profit generated by monopolistic control of designs (eg Intel
would not have had their huge profits, because an AMD would have been
possible immediately). In a marxist scheme, assuming that design work
IS productive labour, it would mean the removal of the part of surplus
value involved in the design. So, a decrease in profits for
specific firms (like Intel), an increase for some (like mine), and
an overall decrease for capital as a whole. But why 'minimalistic'?
Any increase in productivity decreases the value of individual goods;
becoming increasingly value-exempt is the normal tendency of capitalism.
But it is a tendency which affects invidual goods, not necessarily
the rate of profit, nor a company which can compensate for lack of
value of individual goods by increased value of their total mass (ie producing
larger quantities) (eg. mobile phones).
I personally like the idea of a value-exempt capitalism, because that would
mean that democratic entities could take over the whole material production
for a small amount of money and reorganize it the way the people wants it to
be.
That assumes that not only the individual chip loses value
( and also loses value in relation to the value of our wages),
but that so does the chip factory, not only the car, but the car
factory. Or not?
{I know my argument is confused, but so am I! I am not trying to
argue a fixed position, but sort out my own ideas]
Graham
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