| This question <72|81> overall <73|75> Hans: <68|80>. |
| Question 77: What does Marx understand to be the riddle of money? |
| [74] Hans: Money is not what gives the commodities their value In message [66], Orvee points out an important fact about Marx's theory of money. He writes: |
| Marx does not consider a commodities value to be evaluated in money. Money is not the value, it is the commodity that is the value. Money is a characteristic of the commodity. The money value or the ammount of money value already in the commodity is considered when the exchange of commodities is made. |
| This is very right. Money is not what gives the commodity its value, money is only a mirror of the value already in the commodity. The equivalent form of value is passive, not active. Orvee is going a little too far when he says: “money is not the value,” because at Marx's time, money was a commodity (gold) and was therefore indeed value. But today, money is no longer value. But money still has to perform the functions of mirror of value. In this week's reading assignment, Section 3, Marx is talking exactly about how value must be “mirrored.” |
| Now if the value of the commodity does not come from money, the question arises where does it come from? Orvee writes, and here Orvee is not in accordance with Marx's theory: |
| Marx is trying to tell us that the use value of a commodity is more important than the money value. It is the use value of the commodity that determines its money form. |
| According to Marx, value does not come from use value but from labor. |
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