this post was submitted on 22 May 2024
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submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

lets-fucking-go

Not going to say it was an easy read, and certainly not as visceral or witty/scathing as Volume I. Also not going to say I 100 percent followed all the math in the sections on reproduction. But damn if it isn't fascinating to see the fundamental mechanisms of capitalism being explained from first principles.

Funny enough, he keeps mentioning the credit system periodically throughout the book, but always deferring a discussion of it in favor of understanding first understanding the underlying mechanisms that precede credit. Then about three quarters of way through, a complete understanding of what the credit system actually is popped fully formed into my mind. He had so carefully explained the circulation and reproduction of capital that it just so clearly followed logically from what he had already shown.

spoilerAlso, I just skimmed the detailed critiques of Adam Smith sorry not sorry

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[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I did some spreadsheet maths to understand some of the reproduction stuff, it did clarify, and also I found some mistakes. Seems like Marx was actually not great at math, lmao.

Vol 3 has more stuff about the credit system, but I think that part was heavily edited, or actually authored by Engels.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Volume 2 was also cobbled together from a bunch of manuscripts by Engels. My edition had a couple of notes by him pointing out some math errors. I think Marx probably would have corrected them if he had been able to get it fully completed