Victor, thanks for the Grundrisse quote. I went back to review that
section "(3) The Method of Political Economy." Marx is discussing his
reasoning for how to present his analysis of capitalism in Capital. Some
xmca'ers may be familiar with this section. Here, Marx discusses that
formulation "rising from the abstract to the concrete, as in "... the
method of rising from the abstract to the concrete is only the way in which
thought appropriates the concrete, reproduces it as the concrete in the
mind." (pg 101).
I am still thinking, perhaps quite erroneously, that your update of Marx to
the 21st Century is leaving behind his law of value as having become
obsolete some time in the 20th. Just as the law of value (which refers to
the measurement and exchange of abstract labor in terms of socially
necessary labor time) is the foundation upon which Marx builds his analysis
of capitalism, your interpretation of the measurement and exchange of
abstract labor - and the law of value - must form the basis of yours. Or,
at least, so a "paleo" (early) Marxist might argue. From this point of
view, much of the other discussion of your proposals, for example, the
question of full compensation for labor, the primacy or secondariness of
profit, etc., hinges on this fundamental question of the source of value.
- Steve
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