Originally published at: https://www.indep.network/tomas-hardin-respond-to-robin-hahnel-on-labor-time-accounting/
One thing that I believe Hahnel is trying to say is that disaggregation of labour power for the purposes of planning has not been sufficiently theorized. On this I agree. Cockshott has argued that planning must be carried out in as disaggregated a manner as possible. But unless I’ve missed something, Cockshott still talks only of abstract labour power in planning, rather than realizing that labour power must also be disaggregated. Planning should not be carried out on the basis of abstract labour power, but on what I will call concrete labour power. Concrete labour power is distinct from concrete labour in that the latter is the actual expenditure of labour on some task, whereas concrete labour power is merely the ability to carry out such labour. Abstract labour power is the ability to carry out any task that a human can do.