| This question <143-1|120> overall <20|22> Angus: <6|69>. |
| Question 62: First Marx says that the quantity of value is determined by labor time, and then he continues: “It might seem that if the value of a commodity is determined by the amount of labor spent in its production, the more lazy and inept the laborer, the more valuable his commodity would be.” Why does Marx write here: “it might seem that”? Does his prescription how to measure the quantity of value lead to absurd results or does it not? |
| [21] Angus: No, Marx's prescription of how to measure the quantity of value does not lead to absurd results. Marx mentions the thought of “It might seem...” because he wants the reader to become aware of the important dimension of socially necessary labor-time. |
| “Socially necessary labor time is the labor time required to produce any use-value under the conditions of production normal for a given society and with the average degree of skill and intensity of labor prevalent in society.” (Capital pg. 129) |
| Therefore, the extent of value depends on the amount of socially necessary labor. That is, socially necessary labor is the amount of labor necessary under normal conditions with the average degree of skills given the current technology of the day. As Marx also points out, labor must be homogeneous or if it is not homogeneous that there at least must be a way of adjusting for heterogeneous labor. The American Heritage Dictionary defines homogeneous as being uniform in structure or composition throughout-consisting of terms of the same degree or elements of the same dimension. On the other hand, heterogeneous by definition means something being completely different or incongruous. |
| An example might be if I was a indolent bread maker and it took me one week to make a loaf of bread, then the amount of socially necessary labor is the amount a reasonably competent bread maker would spend---say 30 minutes. Also, in terms of technology, if I used a hand beater versus a modern day bread-making machine, then the amount of my labor time exhausted is not socially necessary. |
| Therefore, the obvious units of measurement for the degree of value are in terms of units of homogeneous labor time. |
| Hans: Your subject line “Question 62 submission” is not very informative, especially since the Question number is automatically added to the beginning of the subject line. |
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