| This question <66|66> overall <55|57> Navin: <469|138-14>. |
| Question 142: Describe a situation in which something which was not produced as a commodity is converted into a commodity through the exchange. |
| [56] Navin: What is the value of pooh? Consider the cattle rancher that uses his labor to produce beef and leather. Beef and leather are the commodities that have expanded forms of value and are able to be traded for other commodities. The value of the abstract labor used to produce this meat and leather is equal to the value of the labor used in producing another commodity that they are traded with. |
| In the process of raising these cattle they produce a significant amount of waste. This waste is a by-product of the production process of meat and leather. Manure is not a commodity until the hay farmer down the road desires to exchange hay for manure. This exchange of hay and manure does not make the value meat and leather more valuable or less valuable. It only creates a value for a previously unvaluable product. This value is created through the exchange of the hay farmer and the cattle rancher. Thus converting manure into a commodity. |
| Hans: Very good modern example (although this Question appeared in a portion of the text where Marx was talking about primitive societies). |
| In the case of joint production (steak, sausage, manure), the labor theory of value can only determine what the sum of the prices of steak, sausage, and manure is. How this price sum is distributed over the different commodities is up to supply and demand. |
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