This question <92|115> overall <106|108> Sinatra: <55|115-2>.  
  Question 84: Think of a real life situation (not necessarily related to what Marx is speaking about here) where someone says, “a pair of shoes is a pair of shoes,” or “a car is a car,” or “20 yards of linen are 20 yards of linen,” or “I am I” (compare footnote 18 on page ... below). Describe exactly what is meant by this phrase in the situation you chose.   
  [107] Sinatra: I agree that the statement “a table is a table” is a false one in that case. The money you had to spend on the table purchase was obtained through some sort of labour( I hope,to make this thing simple) and now to validate that labour in social terms, you are looking to exchange it. The way in which the value of your labour is to express it through the use value of the commodity for which you will exchange it, the table in this case. If the only use value for a table that you held important was to eat of it, than indeed, a table is a table in every case. But as Message [92] mentioned, other use-value facts come into play, size, color, durability, etc. If your only concerns were size and ability to eat off it, all tables of the same size, no matter material or color, would be equal expressions of value. What you really desire, or at least will accept, in exchange for the labour power you expend, will be the determining factor on whether a table is indeed just a table.   
  Hans: See my messsage [115]  
 
 
 
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