Jonathan Fitz

Globalist, pro-establishment, pro-elite, pro-trade, pro-immigration, pro-service worker, anti-populist, anti-moron.

[Jonathan Fitz @JonathanFitz820]

@mattyglesias "Everyone knows" private equity is bad, even though what most people know about private equity is wrong.

[Jonathan Fitz @JonathanFitz820]

@ygzgzot @cenochron @aphofer I'll even grant you that your paper is sound. What Marx tried to argue about declining profit rates (sorry, the tendency) is that it was this massive contradiction that would be the death of capitalism, which hasn't happened

[Jonathan Fitz @JonathanFitz820]

@ygzgzot @cenochron @aphofer So Marxists tested Marx's theory and have come to the unsurprising conclusion that he was right. Care to define 'profit'? In order for it to matter, it has to be the number incentives interact with

[Jonathan Fitz @JonathanFitz820]

@cenochron @ygzgzot @aphofer What are the odds that corporate profits have been doing exactly what Marx predicted for the last 150 years? Lmao, just accept the fact that Marx was a failed economic theorist.

[Jonathan Fitz @JonathanFitz820]

@cenochron @ygzgzot @aphofer More recently: https://t.co/hQunecpfHZ

[Jonathan Fitz @JonathanFitz820]

@cenochron @ygzgzot @aphofer It's a famous one, yet there's no conclusive evidence. It's not hard to find studies showing the opposite of this prediction -ie rising profits. So now we're down to picking cherries

[Jonathan Fitz @JonathanFitz820]

@ygzgzot @cenochron @aphofer And lol @ "without using Grok" -weren't you the one who tried making the transformation problem seem like the Rosetta Stone of economics? It's completely insignificant and irrelevant to the progress of economics.

[Jonathan Fitz @JonathanFitz820]

@ygzgzot @cenochron @aphofer No, but he believed that S&D determined temporary fluctuations that hovered around a baseline, and the central point was, wouldn't you know, labor. Hence all these math puzzles he devised to show the 'real' value of a commodity over time

[Jonathan Fitz @JonathanFitz820]

@cenochron @ygzgzot @aphofer What prediction would that be? Let me guess, tendency of the rate of profits to fall?

[Jonathan Fitz @JonathanFitz820]

@cenochron @ygzgzot @aphofer Or in other words, if progress in economics hinged on the transformation problem, it'd be stuck in the 19th Century. This is nothing but a fringe little side debate that most economics scholars moved on from a long time ago.

[Jonathan Fitz @JonathanFitz820]

@cenochron @ygzgzot @aphofer The point of utility theory is that it's possible to quantity preferences without factors of production, either labor or capital. Marxists think the failure to solve the transformation problem implies it's an open question, when it really just shows how convoluted it is.

[Jonathan Fitz @JonathanFitz820]

@cenochron @ygzgzot @aphofer There's no implication for me -it was Marx, not me, who constructed an entire economic system around one factor of production, and it's Marx's disciples who are still trying to breathe life into this defunct way of thinking about prices & value.

[Jonathan Fitz @JonathanFitz820]

@cenochron @ygzgzot @aphofer Grok's reply again: "The transformation problem assumes the premise that labor-values are the underlying determinants that somehow govern or explain prices and profits. If that premise is false, the problem of “transforming” them becomes irrelevant"

[Jonathan Fitz @JonathanFitz820]

@cenochron @ygzgzot @aphofer No, because when I explained that the transformation prob is irrelevant if LTV is false, the response I got was that it all hinges on this math puzzle. Rather than going back and forth with you 2, I used AI to settle it

[Jonathan Fitz @JonathanFitz820]

@cenochron @ygzgzot @aphofer Which is more or less what I said -it is not necessary to solve this math puzzle to show that it's premise, LTV, is false. Labor does not determine prices, supply & demand does. There’s more demand for ice cream in summer because of weather, not labor

[Jonathan Fitz @JonathanFitz820]

@cenochron @ygzgzot @aphofer Grok's reply: "The transformation problem assumes the premise that labor-values are the underlying determinants that somehow govern or explain prices and profits. If that premise is false, the problem of “transforming” them becomes irrelevant"

[Jonathan Fitz @JonathanFitz820]

@cenochron @ygzgzot @aphofer Grok, is it necessary to figure out the transformation problem in order to discredit the labor theory of value, or can one bypass the transformation problem and still discredit LTV?

[Jonathan Fitz @JonathanFitz820]

@ygzgzot @cenochron @aphofer Matter of fact let's ask our friend Grok. Hey Grok, is it necessary to figure out the transformation problem in order to discredit the labor theory of value, or can one bypass the transformation problem and still discredit LTV?

[Jonathan Fitz @JonathanFitz820]

@cenochron @ygzgzot @aphofer Sorry I have a life and don't hang out on Xitter all day and night. Don't expect instant replies.