| This question <97|80> overall <77|80> Everclear: <43|143>. |
| Question 76: Labor does not exist in the abstract but must always be expended in some concrete form. How does it then show up that a commodity actually represents human labor in the abstract and not simply e.g. tailoring labor? |
| [79] Everclear: Abstract labor not concrete Labor expended in the concrete form is the final process of abstract labor. You see concrete not abstract. |
| I guess an example would be building labor i.e building a house. The laborer uses abstract labor to initiate the concrete labor. The brain sends signals to the body so the person is able to pick up the saw and cut the wood. The cut wood is the concrete for of labor, the labor you can see and touch. Or the brain sends signals to the body so they can pick up the hammer and drive the nails into the wood. |
| When the building process of building the house is finished, the workers energy is depleted, the abstract labor. The concrete labor, the hammer, saw, nails, etc., does not become tired. But the are swinging the hammer becomes exhausted. |
| The finished house you do not see the workers arms or legs or any other part of the body, which is the way the house was built. You see cut wood and driven nails, which is the concrete labor, you can see and touch the wood and nails. |
| Since labor is the substance of value, abstract labor is the labor time involved in a commodity, which is the value. But people who are buying the commodity see the concrete labor, the nails in which the hammer put into the cut wood that the saw cut. They do not see the actual physical interaction the worker put into the commodity, the exhausted muscles. Concrete labor is the visible commodity of abstract labor. And without abstract labor and time labor, there would be no concrete labor and no value. |
| Hans: Very well written. I hope that others in class learned a lot from reading this. However you did not answer this Question. I supplied what you were missing in my message [80]. |
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