I'm merely interested to point out that if you're asking me questions such as "So Marx opposed mechanisation because it replaced live labour?" then you've got something new to discover about the labor theory of value.

The point of said theory is to make clear the idea of the surplus -- that portion of the productive process which constitutes the capitalist's potential profit-margin.  Capitalist production produces to maximize that surplus, which goes a long way toward explaining why it is unsustainable.

The alternative, as Joel Kovel (among zillions of others) pointed out in The Enemy of Nature, is production for use-value, or "worth," production for human needs rather than "effective demand."

My perspective is not "traditional Left / Marxist / Socialist worldview."  Do explore my diaries with DailyKos.com, then come back and tell all what you've discovered.

"Imagine all the people/ Sharing all the world" -- John Lennon