| This question <29|18> overall <57|59> Hans: <57|64>. |
| Exam Question 63: Is labor the only source of use value? Is labor the only source of value? (“Value” is here the property which makes things exchangeable.) |
| [58] Hans: More about “carrier” versus “source” Y says in [29] that labor is not the only source of value because commodities must also have a use value. He confuses here the “carrier” of value with its “source.” |
| Let me give an example. A reporter interviews an athlete who just won the ski race, and asks him, why did he win? Was it due to his new kind of training, or the new kind of equipment he was using? The athlete answers: yes, but the snow was another reason. Had there not been any snow, I could not have come down the hill at all. |
| Just as snow is a prerequisite for a ski race but not the reason why people win, so in Marx's view the use value is a prerequisite for exchange value but does not contribute anything to the exchange value. This is what he means by “carrier.” |
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