I have heard it said that Marx conflated interest with profit. I do not quite understand this objection; if someone could explain it, that would be great.
I suspect this will help: Chapter 6—Production: The Rate of Interest and Its Determination - Man, Economy and State with Power and Market by Murray N. Rothbard.
Böhm-Bawerk dose a great job explaining his theory, and even better job demolishing it.
[http://www.econlib.org/library/BohmBawerk/bbCI26.html#Book VI,Ch.III](http://www.econlib.org/library/BohmBawerk/bbCI26.html#Book VI,Ch.III)
So, the interest rate is the price of capital, or more accurately, the price of time. And profit is … what? Revenue minus expenses, obviously; but can’t interest be profit?
How is this a criticism of marx?
a synonym for (non entrepeneurial) profit is ‘originary interest’
From what I understand, this is a criticism of Marx in the sense that, it shows that the Capitalist plays an important role in advancing present goods for anticipated future goods.
Profits are a result of entrepreneurs taking advantage of misalignments in the market. This is only possible in the real world of uncertainty.
I was just wondering if a veteran could verify if what I said above was true? I’m currently reading Ch 6 of MES and would like some input!
Seconded.
This thread doesn’t have much meat on its bones. I’m not sure whether you are wanting to contemplate interest and profit , or whether you are looking for criticisms against any definite marxian arguments…
Andy, you are correct that capitalists are of fundamental importance to capitalism…A capitalist is the steward of capital (his means) by which he is able to attempt an entrepreneurial endeavour which necessarily is an act of production extended in time, which by definition involves turning things into other things, in the particular case of a profit seeking capitalist/entrepreneur, these are things which are demanded less into things that he expects will be demanded more; he enters into this productive endeavour in the hope of being rewarded for pleasing his consumers by a profit.