Note 251 — Chapter XI · THE ULTIMATE RELATION OF COST TO VALUE

Suppose a machine is destroyed in the making of 100 units of a certain product. Then the total labor cost of each of these units contains ¹⁄₁₀₀ of the total labor cost of this machine. This is explained by Ricardo and by recent followers of Ricardo, as for instance by Professor Macvane in his text book. Another earlier machine was partly used up in making this first one. Perhaps it contributed ¹⁄₁₀₀₀₀ of its total labor cost to this first. Then each of our products contains in its total labor cost ¹⁄₁₀₀ of ¹⁄₁₀₀₀₀ of the total labor cost of the machine of the second generation back.