This question <470|442> overall <502|504> Camera: <387|51>.

Question 250: Why can the laborer not sell commodities instead of his labor?

[503] Camera: The laborer can not sell commodities instead of his labor because as stated in chapter 19 in order to sell labor as a commodity in the market, it must exist before it is sold. To remedy this, the laborer would have to give the labor an independency so that it exists on its own and not as a result of the laborer's efforts. Then he would be selling a commodity instead of his labor; but of course this is not how the market works. Commodities sold on the market are produced in order to exchange, then brought to the market, whereas labor is created the moment it is brought to the market.

Another explanation comes from chapter six where Marx states that there must exist two conditions in order for labor power to be a commodity; one was that the person creating the labor power must offer the labor power for sale as a commodity, and the other, which helps to answer the question at hand, is that the producer of the labor power must free himself from the market where his labor power is sold as a commodity.

Hans: Good answer!

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