Life in a Northern Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C. B.M.A.T.C., and Etruscan typewriter erasers. Blogged by David Gorsline.
Thursday, 7 April 2005 
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Brad DeLong has been thinking about the Labor Theory of Value (a/k/a LTV), and thinking about thinking about it.
Admetos: I think that at bottom the problem with LTV is the result of a flaw
in our educational system. Our past lived experience gives us no idea what
to do when confronted with a morass like the Labor Theory of Value. `The
problem is that ever since we started grade school we had been set problems
that have solutions: a little more brainpower and a little more skull sweat
applied to a puzzle would always produce answers. We have done
this for seventeen years and it has always worked. Then—in graduate
school—we hit the LTV, and the transformation problem, and problems
where more skull sweat doesn't help because they have no solution.
As best as I can recollect, my reaction to the Labor Theory of Value (as an undergraduate) was, "This is rubbish! You mean people actually believe this?" But since it was only an undergrad course, all I was required to do was recapitulate what Marx wrote, not to actually try to do economics with it. I wrote a book report on Frank Norris's novel The Pit, and that was the end of my exposure to Marxism. posted: 12:35:14 PM |
 D. Gorsline, Proprietor
   
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