This question <48|48> overall <47|49> SF: <333-13|109>.  
  Question 50: In [mecw29] 274 Marx writes “It is as if the different individuals had thrown their labor time together and allocated different portions of the labor time at their joint disposal to the various use values.” Why the formulation “It is as if?” Have they done it or haven't they?   
  [48] SF: Labor time   Marx looks at this whole subject from a societal viewpoint. That is, instead of examining the individual trees per se in society, he instead looks at the entire forest. Thus, it is the cumulative value in society that is produced by the cumulative labor power. Since value is determined on a level higher than that of one individual, it makes little sense to look at labor power on an individual basis, given the hypothesis that labor power is what creates value. When Marx writes “It is as if the different individuals had thrown their labor time together...”, he means that while they didn't do it consciously, it happened nevertheless. This pool of labor is what creates the value, not any one individual per se. These workers have combined their labor into a pool, the same pool that determines value, and thus this labor power is then allocated to the various use values accordingly.   
  Hans: Excellent!   
 
 
 
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