"That's exactly right Joam-- for Marx, consumption is analyzed insofar as it forms a necessary part of the logic of production-- in the form, as he puts it, of either 'productive consumption' (consumption which reproduces the means of…"

"Re. your comment: "Capitalism is founded not upon labor and production (though perhaps on specific modes of labor relations and modes of production). Indeed, labor and production predate capitalism. What is perhaps unique to capitalism is the…"

"agreed Keith, that the dialectic is a complex enough idea (and tradition of thought) to accommodate many interpretations-- I would only add, in defense of the project of defining capitalism, that what I think at least I, and possibly Noam also, had…"

"Sounds like interesting research Elaine. So do the freemen draw upon the kind of 'natural rights of freeborn Englishmen' rhetorical tradition charted in detail by E P Thompson (eg. in 'Customs in Common'), Christopher Hill, and…"

"I agree with the thought (a reminder almost), which I take to be implicit in what Noam and Keith have said, that underlying the very idea of a variety of anything there must logically lie some thing being manifested in different ways-- and so…"

"..Or, to put the point more clearly, if a central idea in capitalism is something like possessive individualism, then that which does the possessing, the person, logically has to stand outside the sphere of exchange-- goods (and services) are…"

"A more general way to make this point is that under capitalism, value is understood as legitimately created by "free" labor, with labor construed as alienable from the person. Trading women under capitalism is suspect for the same reason…"

"Welcome to the OAC, Steve!"