SOCIAL IMBALANCE AND THE MARXIAN SYSTEM

Within the framework of Marxian concepts one can construct a theory of 'soc imbalance', defined here as a secular & progressive tendency towards a misallocation of soc resources. K. Marx distinguishes a number of depts of production, ranging in differential productivity from that which contributes wholly to the continuing accumulation of soc capital to the category of soc waste, centering primarily in certain financial & commercial activities uniquely associated with capitalism & contributing nothing to accumulation. Within these depts, the relative intensity of sectoral development varies in an historical progression. The accumulation of soc capital begins in the indust'al sector. However, as accumulation proceeds, resources are allocated in relatively growing proportions into less & less productive realms. Once production achieves a certain scale in the productive sector, relative cost disadvantages attend further increases in scale & lead to a spilling over of accumulating capitals into less productive lines. The law of the falling general rate of profit assumes alterations in sectoral cost relationships which contribute to the allocational progression. As a result of cost pressures, finance capitalism succeeds indust'al capitalism, but regressive developments continue far beyond this phase. They terminate ultimately in a widespread commercialization of values, in the degenerate state that figures in the collapse of the system. The Marxian hypothesis rests upon a theory of sectoral costs of production which postulates intrasectoral, intersectoral & intertemporal cost variations. These variations are, in principle, subject to confrontation both by empirical evidence & by deductions from the premises of the 'orthodox' theory of costs of production. Supposing that there is a tendency towards soc imbalance, as some observers have noted, econ'ts should perhaps consider the sci'fic & pol'al implications which would follow upon a prediction, from orthodox premises, of the kinds of cost variations which the Marxian theory assumes. AA.