| This question <144|149> overall <146|148> Gus: <141|208>. |
| Question 115: Make a thought experiment comparing two situations. In situation a, you are an artisan producing something for sale. In situation b, you are also an artisan, but you know the people who will use the things you are producing, and these are the same people who are producing the things you are consuming. Would you act differently in situation a than in situation b? Would, over time, the use value of your product and the technology of your labor evolve differently in situation a than in situation b? |
| [147] Gus: Thanks for the clarification In response to my [141], Jimi wrote in [144]: |
| Does he mean that he/she stops paying attention to what the consumer wants? Marx would refute this. In fact, he says that the private producer anticipates the market's expectations even before his/her product is completed. Over time, a producer (for the market) seeks to improve his/her production processes without lessening the apparent use value of his/her product. His/her motivation is to minimize cost (while making it appear that his/her product has retained its use value), and thus improve his/her profit. |
| That makes much more sense than what I was trying for. I was trying to show that human selfishness and greediness could ener the equation - that - over time a producer would concentrate on the customers who were known to him/her in a trading situation and could slip in attention to detail to other customers. You said it better than I when you said: |
| If everyone in situation “b” thinks that the use value of their good affects the use value of the goods they receive, then certainly they will seek to improve their product over time to increase their own utility. |
| Thanks again! |
| Hans: Thank you for your gracious response to Jimi. |
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