Against Utility-Based Economics by Korkotsides Anastasios S

Author:Korkotsides, Anastasios S.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781135009724
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

5

On life-based value

The last clear definite function of man … To build a wall, to build a house, a dam, and in the wall and house and dam to put something of Manself, and to Manself take back something of the wall, the house, the dam; … For man … grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments.

(John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath)

Economic theories differ mainly according to their interpretation of three basic notions: scarcity, value and self-interest. Marx employed an apparently objective notion of labour as a base for value, seeing the human resource as scarce and value-ascribing. Jean Baptiste Say held that value lies in the thing itself, so that if you double the quantity of riches you double the quantity of utility. The same canon was observed by mercantilist, physiocrat and classical theories, which based value on what was thought to be the scarcest resource at the time: precious metals (money), natural resources (land) and labour, respectively. Gossen broke this tradition by explaining value in psychological terms, with his axiom that ‘the magnitude of value of any good is measured exactly by the amount of pleasure it gives us’ (1983: xxi). Along seemingly similar lines, Jevons held that utility is the measure of value, but with the existential component of Gossen's thesis removed, thus pulling its teeth out. The neoclassical strategy evolved along lines of ideological confrontation with Marx, basing value on utility, effacing intent and conflict in a shared context of space and time.

A capital culture discourages indulging in pleasures or luxuries licensed by an idleness that circumvents markets. Life is lived largely by producing things, earning money and spending it, at a pace set by the market mechanism. There is no time to reflect, take stock and reassess one's situation. But while time thus acquires greater import, commodity-based utility expels it from economics. A realist theory of value, therefore, must make time focal to the economic enquiry. A monist theory of value is called for, before detail or nuance is added, based on a single inborn scarcity and congruent notions of value and self-interest. Value cannot be physicalist, or a property of the commodity. It must be a property of the process through which commodities are produced, transferred and used, in pursuit of some goal that must be pressing enough to justify the pains people endure in pursuing it.

All our being and action are set against the backdrop of our self-conscious mortality, which is an underlying cause of motion: a compulsion to conquer vital time-space. All ascription of meaning is carried out against the backdrop of our finitude. One just hopes that the measurable outcomes of the valuation process will be in some kind of monotonic relation with the intensity of the force, as is physical force in relation with its effects. One hopes to find some valuation index for the mental and psychological processes whereby some inborn deprivation creates a cultural logic and code, concocts a

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.