| This question <33|37> overall <35|37> Merlin: <402-1|141-3>. |
| Question 88: Does skilled labor (i.e., labor for which schooling and training is necessary, for instance the labor of an engineer) produce more value per hour than unskilled labor (like the labor of a janitor)? Explain! |
| [36] Merlin: Skilled labor does create more value per hour than unskilled labor. Marx states that human labor “is the expenditure of simple labor power, i.e. of the labor-power possessed in his bodily organism by every ordinary man.” [135:1/o] In this sense, all labor is equal, and reduced to simple average labor. In addition, Marx states that “more complex labor counts only as...multiplied simple labor, so that a smaller quantity of complex labor is considered equal to a larger quantity of simple labor.” [135:1/o] The multiple that is used to determine the additional value of complex, or skilled labor is the training received by the skilled worker. The key is the “well-defined piece of time” of one hour. For one hour of work, not only must you consider the labor of the skilled worker, but also the labor that went into training the worker. |
| I would also like to discuss the idea expressed in Kids' response to question 88. I disagree with Kids' conclusion that “If the value of a commodity is determined by the quantity of labor spent on it, the more unskilled the labor, the more valuable would their commodity be, because more time would be required in the production.” This goes back to the discussion of the lazy worker effect. Marx himself states that “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.” [129:2] The distinction must be made between “concrete labor” and “abstract labor.” Concrete labor, or the actual labor “expended to produce a product,” (Ehrbar, blue cover, pg. 20) is not equal, and therefore “cannot be added up.” It is subject to individual differences between workers. In quantifying labor, Marx uses absract labor, one expression of human labor power, which is equal, and is the method he uses to reduce complex labor to simple labor power in his discussion of skilled vs. unskilled workers. |
| Hans -Although I have read your notes, I find the differences between abstract labor, labor power, human labor power, and socially necessary labor confusing. Can you clarify the differences? |
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