nach oben

Erschienen in:

2018 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

Profit, Elasticity and Nature

verfasst von : Kohei Saito

Erschienen in: The Unfinished System of Karl Marx

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Einloggen

Aktivieren Sie unsere intelligente Suche, um passende Fachinhalte oder Patente zu finden.

search-config

KI-gestützte Suche

Aus

Abstract

The problem of Marx’s ‘law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall’ remains highly controversial today. Marx ceased emphasising the importance of the ‘law’ after 1868, as if he also started doubting its validity. Defending the validity of the law, Saito attempts to explain why Marx seemed to alter his emphasis. According to Saito, this change occurred as Marx more clearly recognised the enormous ‘elasticity of capital’ based on the elasticity of the material world. Marx began intensive research in natural sciences to comprehend how the elasticity of nature could be appropriated by capital to counteract the falling rate of profit. The elasticity of nature is, however, not infinite. When it reaches a limit, it suddenly loses its benefits. Capital continues to overcome any limits of nature, but it ultimately causes ecological crises and undermines the material conditions for free and sustainable human development.

Sie haben noch keine Lizenz? Dann Informieren Sie sich jetzt über unsere Produkte:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

Jetzt informieren

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

Jetzt informieren

Vorheriges Kapitel ‘Secular Stagnation’ and the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall in Marx’s Critique of Political Economy

Nächstes Kapitel The Social Constitution of Commodity Fetishism, Money Fetishism and Capital Fetishism

For an overview of the extensive debates over the validity of the ‘law of the rate of profit to fall’, see Cullenberg (1994).

Marx wrote: ‘Simple as this law appears from the above analysis, not one of the previous writers on political economy has succeeded in discovering it, as we shall see later on. These economists perceived the phenomenon, but tortured themselves with their contradictory attempts to explain it. And given the great importance that this law has for capitalist production, one might well say that it forms the mystery around the solution of which the whole of political economy since Adam Smith revolves and that the difference between the various schools since Adam Smith consists in the different attempts made to solve’ (MEGA II/4.2, p. 288; Marx 2015, p. 322).

MEGA II/4.2, p. 287; Marx 2015, pp. 321–322.

Marx 1973, p. 748.

In this vein, Jürgen Habermas (1976, p. 55) also argues that Marx’s law of the rate of profit to fall was correct in the nineteenth century but does not apply to late capitalism because ‘reflexive labor’ becomes predominant and compensates the rate of profit by increasing surplus-value: ‘The variable capital that is paid out as income for reflexive labor is indirectly productively invested, as it systematically alters conditions under which surplus value can be appropriated from productive labor. Thus, it indirectly contributes to production of more surplus value’.

MEGA II/4.3, pp. 57–77; MEGA II/14, pp. 19–150.

Engels integrated Marx’s remark into the third edition of Capital, see MEGA II/8, p. 591: ‘Note here for working out later: if the extension is only quantitative, then for a greater and a smaller capital in the same branch of business the profits are as the magnitudes of the capitals advanced. If the quantitative extension induces a qualitative change, then the rate of profit on the larger capital rises at the same time’.

Marx 1973, p. 775.

Ibid., p. 421.

MEGA II/4.2, p. 294; Marx 2015, p. 329.

MEGA II/4.2, p. 298; Marx 2015, p. 332; See also Miyata 2011, p. 61.

MEGA II/4.2, pp. 324–325; Marx 2015, pp. 359–360.

MEGA II/4.2, p. 113; Marx 2015, p. 147.

Another counter-tendency is fictitious capital. Decreasing profitability in the real economy would decrease the attractiveness for capitalists to risk investing. Idle capital flows into the stock market.

MEGA II/14, p. 19, emphasis added; translated by the author.

Ibid., p. 28; translated by the author. ‘ ʆ’ represents the sum of constant and variable capital in Marx’s manuscript.

MEGA II/4.2, p. 323; Marx 2015, p. 358.

Marx 1973, p. 410.

The problem of ‘elasticity’ is what Rosa Luxemburg (2003) misses in her discussion on the reproduction schemes. The disequilibrium between production of means of production in Department I and that of means of subsistence in Department II is normal in reality. It does not lead to an economic crisis because various elasticities sustain production to get the capitalist system going.

MEGA II/11, p. 346; Marx 1978, p. 433.

MEGA II/11, p. 344; Marx 1978, p. 431.

Marx 1976, p. 508.

MEGA II/11, p. 344; Marx 1978, p. 432.

Marx and Engels, Collected Works, Vol. 32, p. 442.

MEGA II/4.2, p. 140; Marx 2015, p. 173.

MEGA II/4.2, p. 322; Marx 2015, p. 357.

MEGA II/4.2, p. 117; Marx 2015, p. 151.

Marx 1976, p. 637.

MEGA II/4.2, p. 709; Marx 2015, p. 754.

MEGA II/4.2, p. 334; Marx 2015, pp. 368–369.

MEGA II/4.2, p. 188; Marx 2015, p. 226.

Marx 1973, p. 409.

MEGA II/4.3, p. 80; translated by the author.

IISG, Marx-Engels-Nachlass (MEN), B 106, p. 336; translated by the author.

IISG, MEN, Sign. B 112, p. 53; translated by the author.

MEGA, II/11, p. 203; Marx 1978, p. 322.

Marx and Engels, Collected Works, Vol. 42, p. 559.

MEGA IV/26, p. 8; translated by the author.

Ibid., p. 478.

Ibid., p. 642.

Ibid., p. 15.

Ibid., pp. 78–79.

MEGA II/4.2., p. 723; Marx 2015, p. 768.

Marx and Engels, Collected Works, Vol. 46, p. 411.

This does not mean that O’Connor fully accepts Marx’s own analysis. He rather thinks that Marx did not sufficiently develop these ecological aspects: ‘Marx hinted at, but did not develop, the idea that there may exist a contradiction of capitalism that leads to an “ecological” theory of crisis and social transformation’ (O’Connor 1998, p. 160). This type of critique is quite common among so-called ‘first-stage ecosocialists’ such as Gorz (2013), Kovel (2007) and Löwy (2015). They tend to underestimate Marx’s theoretical contribution to ecology.

Marx 1976, pp. 637–638.

MEGA II/4.2, p. 120; Marx 2015, p. 154.

Marx 1976, p. 348.

Akashi, H. (2016). The Elasticity of Capital and Ecological Crisis. In Marx-Engels-Jahrbuch 2015/16 (pp. 45–58). Berlin: De Gruyer.

Anderson, K. (2010). Marx at the Margins: On Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Non-Western Societies. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.CrossRef

Böhm-Bawerk, E. (1896). Zum Abschluss des Marxschen Systems. In O. von Boenigk (Ed.), Staatwissenschaftliche Arbeite. Festgaben für Karl Knies (pp. 87–205). Berlin: Otto Haering.

Bortkiewicz, L. (1952 [1906–7]). Value and Price in the Marxian System. International Economic Papers, 2, 5–60.

Brown, H. (2012). Marx on Gender and the Family: A Critical Study. Leiden: Brill.CrossRef

Burkett, P. (1999). Marx and Nature: A Red and Green Perspective. New York: Palgrave.CrossRef

Burkett, P. (2006). Marxism and Ecological Economics. Chicago: Haymarket Books.

Carchedi, G. (2011). Behind the Crisis: Marx’s Dialectics of Value and Knowledge. Leiden: Brill.

Cullenberg, S. (1994). The Falling Rate of Profit. Recasting the Marxian Debate. London: Pluto Press.

Foster, J. B. (2000). Marx’s Ecology. Materialism and Nature. New York: Monthly Review Press.

Foster, J. B., & Burkett, P. (2016). Marx and the Earth: An Anti-critique. Leiden: Brill.CrossRef

Foster, J. B., et al. (2011). The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on the Earth. New York: Monthly Review Press.

Fraser, N. (2014). Beyond Marx’s Hidden Abode: For an Expanded Conception of Capitalism. New Left Review, 86(March–April), 55–72.

Gorz, A. (2013). Capitalism, Socialism, Ecology. New York: Verso.

Habermas, J. (1976). Legitimation Crisis. London: Heinemann.

Heinrich, M. (1999). Die Wissenschaft vom Wert: Die Marxsche Kritik der politischen Ökonomie zwischen wissenschaftlicher Revolution und klassischer Tradition, überarbeitete und erweiterte Neuauflage. Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot.

Heinrich, M. (2012). An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx’s Capital. New York: Monthly Review Press.

Heinrich, M. (2013a). Crisis Theory, the Law of the Tendency of the Profit Rate to Fall, and Marx’s Studies in the 1870s. Monthly Review, 64(11), 15–31.CrossRef

Heinrich, M. (2013b). Marx’ Ökonomiekritik nach der MEGA: Eine Zwischenblianz nach dem Abschluss der II. Abteilung. In Marx-Engels-Jahrbuch 2012/13 (pp. 144–167). Berlin: Akademie Verlag.

Kliman, A. (2012). Failure of the Capitalist Production. London: Pluto Press.

Konishi, K. (2014). Shihonshugi no Seijyuku to Tenkan [The Maturity and Transformation of Capitalism]. Tokyo: Sakurai Shoten.

Kovel, J. (2007). The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World? (2nd ed.). London: Zed Books.

Kurz, R. (1995). Die Himmelfahrt des Geldes: Struktuelle Schranken der Kapitalverwertung, Kasinokapitalismus und globale Finanzkrise. Krisis, 16/17, 21–76.

Lebowitz, M. A. (2005). Following Marx: Method, Critique and Crisis. Leiden: Brill.

Löwy, M. (2015). Ecosocialism: A Radical Alternative to Capitalist Catastrophe. Chicago: Haymarket Books.

Luxemburg, R. (2003). The Accumulation of Capital. London: Routledge.

Marx, K. [1858] (1973). Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy (Rough Draft). New York: Penguin Books.

Marx, K. [1867] (1976). Capital: A Critique of Political Economy (Vol. 1). New York: Penguin Books.

Marx, K. [1885] (1978). Capital: A Critique of Political Economy (Vol. 2). New York: Penguin Books.

Marx, K. (2015). Marx’s Economic Manuscript of 1864–1865. Leiden: Brill.

Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1975a–). Gesamtausgabe. Section I–IV. Berlin: Dietz Verlag/Akademie Verlag/De Gruyter.

Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1975b–2004). Collected Works (50 Vols). New York: International Publishers.

Miyata, K. (2011). Ippanteki Rijyunritsu no Keikoteki Teika Hosoku to Kyoko [The Law of the Tendential Fall in the General Rate of Profit and Crisis]. Political Economy Quarterly, 48(1), 60–71.

Moore, J. W. (2015). Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital. New York: Verso.

O’Connor, J. (1998). Natural Causes: Essays in Ecological Marxism. New York: The Guilford Press.

Okishio, N. (1961). Technical Changes and the Rate of Profit. Kobe Economic Review, 7, 85–99.

Perelman, M. (1987). Marx’s Crises Theory: Scarcity, Labor, and Finance. New York: Praeger.

Roberts, M. (2016). The Long Depression: Marxism and the Global Crisis of Capitalism. Chicago: Haymarket Books.

Robinson, J. (1942). An Essay on Marxian Economics. London: Macmillan.

Rosdolsky, R. (1977). The Making of Marx’s Capital. London: Pluto Press.

Roth, R. (2002). The Author Marx and His Editor Engels: Different Views on Volume 3 of Capital. Rethinking Marxism, 14(4), 59–72.CrossRef

Saito, K. (2016a). Natur gegen Kapital. Marx’ Ökologie in seiner unvollendeten Kritik des Kapitalismus. Frankfurt am Main: Campus.

Saito, K. (2016b). Marx’s Ecological Notebooks. Monthly Review, 67(9), 25–42.CrossRef

Shaikh, A. (1978). Political Economy and Capitalism: Notes on Dobb’s Theory of Crisis. Cambridge Journal of Economics 2(2), 233–251.

Stedman Jones, G. (2016). Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.CrossRef

Sweezy, P. (1942). The Theory of Capitalist Development: Principles of Marxian Political Economy. London: D. Dobson.

Tugan-Baranowsky, M. (1905). Theoretische Grundlagen der Marxismus. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot.

Vollgraf, C. E. (2016). Marx über die sukzessive Untergrabung des Stoffwechsels der Gesellschaft bei entfalteter kapitalistischer Massenproduktion. In Beiträge zur Marx-Engels-Forschung Neue Folge 2014/15 (pp. 106–132). Hamburg: Argument Verlag.

Titel: Profit, Elasticity and Nature
verfasst von: Kohei Saito
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Buch: The Unfinished System of Karl Marx
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-70346-6

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-70347-3

Copyright-Jahr: 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70347-3_6

Springer Professional

Abstract

Bitte loggen Sie sich ein, um Zugang zu Ihrer Lizenz zu erhalten.

Sie haben noch keine Lizenz? Dann Informieren Sie sich jetzt über unsere Produkte:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Premium Partner