A NOTE ON THE SHORT‐RUN “PRODUCTIVENESS” OF LABOR SERVICES
Since the time of Adam Smith, classical and Marxist economists have made a distinction between productive and unproductive labor. According to Smith, productive is that “labour which adds to the value of the subject upon which it is bestowed” (Smith, 1937, 314).
Unproductive Labor and the Contradictory Movement of the Rate of Profit: A Comment on Moseley
This paper criticizes Moseley's claim that the cause in the fall in the conventional rate of profit in the postwar U.S. is due to the rise in unproductive labor over this period. I argue that Moseley employs a one-sided and static conception of unproductive labor. Unproductive labor is seen by Moseley to be simply a drag on surplus value production. In contrast, I argue that unproductive labor should be understood as both a drag and as an enhancement for the dynamic production of surplus value. I show in a model of the distribution of surplus value how the redistribution of unproductive labor can have contradictory effects on the value rate of profit.
Symptomatic Trans-sexualism
A 24-year-old male schizophrenic had a delusion that he was female and had lived his life as a woman for almost two years. Unlike the only other reported case, his ‘symptomatic transsexualism’ responded to the effective treatment of his schizophrenia.