The Laws of Returns and Exogenous Distribution: The Metaphysics of Justice and Adjustment in Political Economy

Abstract

This paper reiterates and clarifies the heterodox economic assumption of exogenous distribution. It discusses Sraffa's analysis of the laws of returns and extends to the metaphysical questions of justice and adjustment in political economy. The laws of returns show the outcome of economic production from inputs to outputs. Returns have to be paid to the sources of production. In other words, returns are justice served to the works of capital and labor. However, there is a problem of knowledge and methodology about distributive justice in the measurement of capital. This paper applies Sraffa's critique of economic theory to capital accumulation, technological progress, and the distribution of income. Adjustment to the natural physical expansion of the system has a problem of knowledge and cannot be determined a priori external to the system. The paper argues about the adjustment and determination of the distribution of income according to the history of economic thought tradition of theory of value and capital. Capital is the metaphysical measurement and adjustment variable of our moral science and physical science. Without human conscience, it is impossible to measure systemic growth and quantify capital.