/edu/ - Education

Guys I just finished Capital Volume 2 I'm so proud of myself. That book was really long and contained a lot of calculations but at long last I have finished. Of course I don't binge read it all the way, sometimes I try to read one chapter then switch to less intensive stuff, like reading Stalin or Hoxha (or anything that I like) for instance. So here is what I think:
1) So the first several chapters is spent discussing the circulation: M-(C+LP)-Pr…Pr1-C1-M1.
M: original money capital
C: Commodity
LP: Labour power (basically you hire someone).
Pr: The production process
Pr1: After you have produced stuff
C1: New commodity (to be sold)
M1: A larger amount of money (after you have sold stuff).
The discussion is rather long-winded, but I think here Marx tries to hammer the fundamental points again and again so that's fine i guess.
Here there is also some mention about 1) Gold 2) Services, such as transportation which is slightly different but will need to be referred to later on
2) Then there are the chapters about circulation time, labour time, production time (for example when you let wine in a barrel for like 10 years, that's when production time > labour time), so on and so on and so on. I think those chapters are quite okay, although there is a chapter in which the authors investigate the effects of advanced capital and turnover period, in which the maths is quite complicated, but I just do not think that there is much to it although it's true that the results show that this requires credit but i mean that's obvious. There are also some parts about fixed and circulating capital which is important, and Marx hammers down on Adam Smith and Ricardo which is rather complicated yeah I know I want to know how capitalism is bound to have crisis not watch some economist dissing on other economists.
After that there are also some chapters discussing effects of circulating surplus value, variable capitals, … Here there is discussion of how the hell can the system get the money for the surplus value. So for pre-credit time it's from gold-producing industries, and for credit-era the capitalists keep sending in money so that later on they will get back that money and even more money. Think Keynesian spending or other such stuff. Also effect of wage increase is discussed.
I think that some parts about fixed and circulating capital is rather complicated and do not show the main points.
3) Now we venture to the big picture: The reproduction scheme. Here the authors shows the way the two big departments (the one producing tractors, metalwork, … or Dep I, and the one producing biscuits, tobacco, … or DepII). The authors first discuss simple production, which takes more time than expanded reproduction which is understandable since the important thing is that I(v+m)=IIc (the variable+surplus part of DepI must be traded for the constant capital part of DepII). I like how the authors give an example of machinery deprecating value over time to say that this necessitates overproduction, even in simple production. Then is the expanded production. Basically replaces "=" with ">" in the previous equation. There are some complicated examples involved but hey at least it's not full of math symbols and equations like the Western economists would have it right ? :wink:. Also Adam Smith is criticized for thinking that all annual products resolve into wage+profit. The truth is that the constant capital of Dep I does not.
I am so proud of myself, but now I want to read something less intensive before tackling volume 3.