ABSTRACT
All radicals agree that prices, wages, and profits in capitalism reflect the human, social, class relations of capitalism. The theory is stated in terms of the technology of commodity production rather than human relations: the value of any commodity is the inherent amount of socially necessary labor embodied in the commodity. Neoclassicals, however, begin with the physical marginal products of labor and capital, as if the economy were a purely technical process that could be understood apart from social relations; neoclassical economics assumes that social relations are held constant. The American Federation of Labor began in the 1880s and was at first quite militant and socialist oriented. Marxists welcomed Sraffa’s critique of marginal productivity, but some Sraffians used a similar critique against the labor theory of value, pointing out that labor is really very heterogeneous, with many types of labor.
