Abstract
The missing time dimension of value, that corresponding to the future, will be established here. The two triads of value and time will then be complete: value linked to the past, exchange-value to the present and use-value that ties to the future. This formulation allows for the understanding and characterization of contemporary capitalism and in turn will show the way to the emancipation from the rule of capital. Further, the nature and origin of profit will be established as a basic corollary of monetary exchange under capitalism; this does not invalidate Marx’s characterization of surplus value and exploitation but is the necessary form of expression of these. The key to all this is in the understanding of the two triads. The total wealth of the system needs to be classified and mapped and this will be seen to be composed of two elements, one representing the past and the other the future.
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Notes
- 1.
I am building upon Marx’s analysis in Part V of Capital Volume 3 of interest-bearing capital, credit and fictitious capital. This section is well known to be at best a draft, as Marx acknowledges, but chapters 21, 27 and 29 in particular do provide important insights.
- 2.
My late father put this point very cogently in the early 1990s (Fishman 1992). He argued for the placing of asset value centrally on the agenda for both capitalist and socialist systems. He also correctly identified the key importance of the link between prices and asset value/capital value.
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Fishman, D. (2020). Value Forms and the Structure of the Capitalist System. In: Silver, M. (eds) Confronting Capitalism in the 21st Century. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13639-0_7
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