RE: OWNERSHIP: The Labor theory of value

[John Médaille <john@medaille.com>]

At 01:48 PM 7/3/2005 -0400, Ed Dodson wrote:
>Ed Dodson responding...
>Bill Ryan wrote:
>
>
>JOHN MEDAILLE:
>The use values and the exchange values are always
>different, or else there could be no exchanges that
>were both just and profitable. ... If the use
>values were the same (if I could get "use" out of the
>wheat equal to the exchange value) then the exchange
>would not take place. If the exchange values were
>unequal, the exchange would not be just.
>
>BILL RYAN:
>This seems to be a rather strained attempt to
>reconcile economic reality with archaic Catholic
>doctrine, which stated that a transaction is "just"
>only if it involves the exchange of equal "value" for
>equal "value."
>
>Ed Dodson here:
>Bill, I would add a something of a clarifying condition that the parties
>engaged in the exchange are satisified they have received an equal value in
>the exchange. Certainly, third parties (e.g., economists or priests) might
>not have made the same deal, but that is an individual decision. The most
>important aspect to the exchange is the absence of coercion, of force.

No one would knowingly and voluntarily exchange the greater for the lesser; 
such transactions always involve fraud or coercion. As usual, Ryan's 
statement involves a disconnect from reality, especially his own reality, 
unless he is in the habit of giving 10 dollars for 5 dollars worth of goods.


John C. Médaille

"A dead thing can go with the stream...
but only a living thing can go against it."
         -G. K. Chesterton
http://www.medaille.com/distributivism.htm
john@medaille.com

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