[robbo203]

Thanks for that Adam . Yes very interesting.  I notice on the very first page Bukharin distinguishes  Adam Smith’s subjective LTV from Marx’s objective version of the same  characterising the latter as an extreme example of objectivism.   Its a long peice so it will take some time to read through but it will be interesting to see what comments he comes up with on marginalist economics. 
This question of how to allocate inputs under conditions of scarcity in proportion to the relative importance of end uses needing them is something that is preoccupying me just at the moment.  I wonder if anyone here has any thoughts on the matter?  We cannot just assume that in socialism the available supply of an input will be ample enough to satisfy every possible end use .  We have to prioritise end uses in that case and allocate the input accordingly  but how and in what proportions?  Are we talking about some kind of cascading model of allocation – end use 1 gets is requirements fully met, end use 2 likewise and then, when the supply starts running out, end use 3’s requirements are partially met , while 4 and 5;’s are completely neglected.   And so on and so forth.
Capitalism can, of course, fall back on the “equimarginal principle” to resolve this particular problem.  But  what about socialism? Might  marginalist economics actually have something useful to say after all  about  the practical organisation of a non market  socialist system?  Hhmmm

[robbo203]

Thanks for that  DJP  – I will follow up the links
 
I wasnt thinking so much of diseconomies  of scale  which relates more specifically to corporation size but the classic presentation of diminishing marginal utility. You know –  the one about  the first ice cream consumed yielding a high marginal return in terms of the pleasure it provides, the second somewhat less and  the third even less. And so on and so forth. Granted  utility or “utils “is not exactly something that can be measured in a cardinal sense although in the early period of utilitarian thought  (a la Bentham & co) the workinga assumption  was indeed  that utility  could be thus measured.  All the same as the icre cream example demonstrates there is undeniable kernal of  truth in marginalist economics – its not alll cock and bull stuff.
 
Question is – does it have any possible appplication to the way a socialist society could organise production?  For example , given two  or more  particular ends uses how might one allocate a given input common to both of  them ?   And in what proportions? Is there a case for saying that something like the “equimarginal principle” – the opttimal allocation of an input, as in this case, between several end uses  – might  apply and, if so, how might might  we apply it?

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