Re: nochmal Gebrauchswert | war: [ox] Werthaltigkeit von Informationsg...
- From: Graham Seaman <graham seul.org>
- Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2003 19:38:10 -0400 (EDT)
On Fri, 26 Sep 2003, Franz Nahrada wrote:
Graham Seaman writes:
It seems to me that perhaps keeping
the distinction between Gebrauchwert and Nuetzlichkeit might be part of
the beginning of one. But the lack of one is a practical problem for
me - when I see people enthusiastic about the development of free
designs which just copy all the features of commercial ones, I would
like to be able to say 'but why don't we create something more genuinely
useful' (?? high nuetzlichkeit, don't care about gebrauchwert??) but have
no way to do this without being both completely moralistic and completely
subjective. Maybe in this case the answer is not to refine abstract terms,
but to work on concrete examples, but it would be better to do both.
Now we are talking business. Lets forget the Marx-Exegesis and really
analyze what is going on in terms of usefulness of products of this
economy.
I think you are right that there is an intrinsic limit to usefulness in a
commodity economy.
This is indeed the real center of discussion.
We have some elements of the answer like:
- producers are not regularily standardizing their products so they fit
together
- once a product is sold it does not bring any more benefit to the
producer (example of chinese doctors who are paid for health instead of
being paid for sickness)
But we can add to this list forever. Is it worth doing?
- product has to be a commodity. Example: Russian work on bacteriophages
which can target specific bacteria (so, no problems with resistance as
with antibiotics). Usefulness depends entirely on being not mass produced
but bred for one specific outbreak of disease, therefore abandoned with
end of USSR.
- products which cannot be repaired but must be thrown away when faulty
(almost all modern electronics). Repairability is part of nutzlichkeit,
has no gebrauchwert ;-)
- (also relevant to Utopische Klo): modern british toilets
have flat tops, so they fit together in a warehouse when stacked. In
use, urine stays on the flat surface and leaves a stain which needs to be
cleaned. Usefulness in production has taken priority over usefulness to
the purchaser.
- products designed not to be understood by users (if a mystery can be
sold for more), making user innovation and understanding impossible
- products only designed for large enough markets. So it is not possible
to buy computers which resist high levels of humidity (eg parts of Africa)
for long periods.
etc etc.
If you seriously think making such a list is a good idea, a wiki or
somewhere more permanent would be better. We would need some convention
for how abstract or concrete the list should be?
Graham
We should try to write this (long) list of inherent flaws of commodity
economy. These will all center around the deficiencies of "Gebrauchswert"
and will explain it. Eventually we will find out that "Gebrauchswert" is a
single transaction mode rather than a systemic connection mode.
Franz
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