I'm not quite understanding what is at stake in debunking the marginalist revolution in economics, a project undertaken if not completed by Ronald Meek, Maurice Dobb, et al., years ago (cf. also the debate on marginal productivity set off by Joan Robinson and Piero Sraffa). Marx himself predicted that the labor theory of value would lose its explanatory adequacy with the advent of "large industry," which would make of living labor a "mere watchman and regulator" of goods production. Of course Francis Walker looks the fool from our distant point of view. So what? Who doesn't at our safe remove?
Thanks for this, Jim. I'm not sure this post is really that interested in debunking marginalism, which I more take for granted than attempt to do myself. The main question concerns the origin of the risk/uncertainty distinction. I attempt to historicize that distinction here within the context of the struggle over control of the investment function and managerial authority. I suggest "uncertainty" and "entrepreneurship" are discursive effects of this struggle rather than simply natural kinds, which also link up with changes within higher education and bourgeois culture. Maybe this isn't clear enough, or insufficiently original, but that's the idea.
I'm not quite understanding what is at stake in debunking the marginalist revolution in economics, a project undertaken if not completed by Ronald Meek, Maurice Dobb, et al., years ago (cf. also the debate on marginal productivity set off by Joan Robinson and Piero Sraffa). Marx himself predicted that the labor theory of value would lose its explanatory adequacy with the advent of "large industry," which would make of living labor a "mere watchman and regulator" of goods production. Of course Francis Walker looks the fool from our distant point of view. So what? Who doesn't at our safe remove?
Thanks for this, Jim. I'm not sure this post is really that interested in debunking marginalism, which I more take for granted than attempt to do myself. The main question concerns the origin of the risk/uncertainty distinction. I attempt to historicize that distinction here within the context of the struggle over control of the investment function and managerial authority. I suggest "uncertainty" and "entrepreneurship" are discursive effects of this struggle rather than simply natural kinds, which also link up with changes within higher education and bourgeois culture. Maybe this isn't clear enough, or insufficiently original, but that's the idea.