Table of Contents
Preface 9
1 Introduction 15
2 Pre-Class Economy 27
2.1 Agriculture 28
2.2 Reproduction 40
2.3 Class Formation 42
2.4 War, Patriarchy, Religion, and the Laws of Statistics 45
3 Slave Economy 51
3.1 Technology Complex 51
3.2 Scheme of Reproduction 56
3.3 Contradictions and Development 58
3.4 Human Reproduction 61
3.5 Commodities and Prices 65
3.5.1 Neoclassical Prices 65
3.5.2 The Classical Theory of Prices 68
3.5.3 Evidence for the Theory 69
3.6 Labor and Price under Slavery 69
3.7 Money 72
4 Peasant Economy 81
4.1 Natural and Technical Conditions 83
4.2 Forms of Surplus 85
4.3 Reproduction Structure 91
4.4 Comparison with Capitalism 94
4.5 The Smithian Critique of Feudalism 96
5 Capitalist Economy 101
5.1 The Capitalist Price Mechanism 102
5.2 Recurrence Relations 106
5.3 Capitalist Surplus 111
5.4 Technology and Surplus 112
5.4.1 Vital Energy 113
5.4.2 Hero's Turbine Not Enough 115
5.4.3 Practical Turbines 116
5.4.4 Why Power was Essential 118
5.4.5 An Iron Subjugation 124
5.4.6 Automation or Self-Action 128
5.4.7 Profit of First Use 132
5.4.8 Wage Levels and Innovation 132
5.4.9 Relative Exploitation 143
5.4.10 Summary 145
5.5 Capitalism and Population 145
5.5.1 Population, Food, and Empire 146
5.5.2 Family and Population 149
5.6 Domestic and Capitalist Economy 151
5.6.1 Gender Pay Inequality 152
5.6.2 Narrowing the Wage Gap 156
5.6.3 Division of Domestic Labor 157
5.6.4 Reducing Overall Housework 158
5.6.5 Moving Tasks Out of the Domestic Economy 160
5.7 Distribution of Wage Rates 161
5.8 The Next Generation 169
5.9 Long-Term Trend of Profitability 172
5.10 Productive and Unproductive Activities 183
5.10.1 Violence 185
5.10.2 Vice 190
5.10.3 Finance 193
5.10.4 Modern Rents 196
6 Socialist Economies 203
6.1 What Does Socialism Mean? 203
6.2 Power 211
6.3 Reproduction and Division of Labor 218
6.4 Determination of the Surplus Product 229
6.5 Socialist Economic Growth 232
6.6 Why the Socialist Economies Still Used Money 243
6.7 Socialism or State-Owned Capitalism 247
6.8 Why the Law of Value Really Applies in Socialist Economies 250
6.8.1 Intersectoral Relations 251
6.8.2 Intrasectional Constraints 257
6.9 Crisis of Socialism and Effects of Capitalist Restoration 264
6.9.1 Long Term 267
6.9.2 Medium Term 270
6.9.3 Results 270
7 Future Economics 273
7.1 Technology Complex 274
7.1.1 Materials 278
7.1.2 Transport 280
7.1.3 Information 291
7.2 Population 294
7.3 Politics 295
Appendices:
A Showing which Sectors are Productive 301
B Illusions Engendered by Averages 304
B.1 Constraints on Reproduction Schemes 314
B.2 First Experiment 314
B.2.1 Results 318
B.3 Discussion 318
B.4 Second Experiment 320
B.4.1 Results 322
B.5 Further Discussion 324
B.6 Model and Reality 324
Bibliography 327
Notes 346
Index 369
