Lecture 7: Value, Use-value, and Price 

read his book competition, conflict etc. it synthesizes all economic thought periods.

😂

100% it does on a commodity production economy. It’s the gravitational central point of price variances/imbalances namely, demand and exchange. Labour cost=value=central point of prices=abstract value and universal across the whole economy. And competition between commodity producers makes that fact about price even more crude.

@@charli212 No it does not. It was like that for a very short time in Marx's times. Not anymore as capitalism now is in the stage of imperialism. Read Lenin "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism". Lenin proved that competition leads to imperialism = monoply capitalism. Prices are set by oligopolis/monopolies. Also Marx in Capital pointed out that competition leads directly to monopoly.

@@Diamat1917 I don’t agree with Lenin thesis because it was heavily based on the Russian case and cannot be extrapolated to all cases. And monopolies due to concentration and centralisation are a feature of capitalism, but prices are rooted in the labour process and not in the boardrooms.

@@charli212 Lenin was 100% right and history proved it. The highest state of capitalism = imperialism is a global system of interconnected and mutually interdependent institutions: private monopolies and companies, financial institutions, states and international bodies, various political organisations and networks, which secure the interests of the big capital and bourgeoisie. Lenin defined imperialism through accumulation of capital and power. In the last century this process was deepened with even higher degree of concentration of wealth and resources in the hand of even smaller minority. This wealth and resources are concentrated in so-called West, with US, EU, Japan and Canada accounting for more than half of world’s economy and 168 poorest countries accounting for merely 16%. 90 out of the world’s 100 biggest companies are based in and owned by the West and its allies, with only a handful of enterprises and banks from China, India and Russia and none from the rest of Asia, Africa and Latin America, which constitute vast majority of world population. US, Germany, Japan and UK are also leading countries in export of capital in form of the Foreign Direct Investments. This data leaves no doubt that the core of the imperialist system is now even more centred on in US / EU / Japan axis and their allies. In XXI century we can add another type of monopoly - technological dominance. Western imperialism has maintained its monopoly position in the high-tech sector of world industry, including navigation satellite systems, cybersecurity and semiconductors. This unprecedented monopoly power over industrial standards is backed by patent and licencing system, with US-based corporations being the key technology owners. This advantage is being weaponised and used not only to exert pressure on countries like China, Russia or Iran, but on their own allies at the expense of their own industries. Prices are set directly by imperialists to secure monopoly profits which is backed by military power. Other countries, aware of this process are attempting to gain technological independence by developing their own technology. Time is running out for imperialism to ensure its global dominance in the sphere of technology. One more decade of peaceful development could lead to the loss of the West’s hegemonic position in technology sector. This is the main reason why imperialist centre (USA) has stepped up its aggressive acts, staging colour revolutions and inciting military conflicts, which can potentially escalate into World War III.