The Falling Rate-of-Profit Falling and Its Implications for Use-values
摘要
Accountancy profit is the net financial surplus when cost of sales is deducted from sales revenue and is quite different from Marx’s rate-of-profit which is the amount of unpaid value generated by workers in production. The former measures quality of management, the latter an indicator of capitalist contradictions. A Marxian tendency for the rate-of-profit to fall (TRPF) has numerous implications for the provision of non-market use-values by the state, households and the 3S. This chapter presents theoretical arguments and empirical data relating to the falling rate-of-profit and discusses these implications taking a broad historical sweep from the transition from feudalism to capital and then transitions building socialism. Marx’s dialectics coupled to use-value analysis colours-in the story of these transitions showing how expanding use-value creation within capitalism is a school for the planned economy and demonstrates in practice the superiority of not-for-profit social relations. Examining the role of money in capitalism, is shown to be an unnecessary encumbrance, distorting social relations especially in developing countries. Discussion of modern monetary theory concludes that it is utopian. As a socialism evolves into its late stage, the law-of-value (and the state) wither away as abundance approaches, and so does money, which becomes redundant for distribution of good and capital resources. This leads to a discussion of these processes in Chap. 9 .