| This question <40|44> overall <40|42> Hans: <36|45>. |
| Question 93: 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! |
| [41] Hans: Misled by the Word “Value” Cookieman [40] seems to think that the value of a commodity, which, in Marx's terminology, is that which underlies its market price, is determined by how much merit the labor has socially: |
| We can agree that 1 heart surgeon produces more value per hour than the 15 people working a shift at a fast food restaurant. |
| Why? Because a heart surgeon saves lives while the fast food restaurant produces greasy hamburgers? Cookieman's choice of example, and his subject line, which refers to the value which the labor “has”, not the value it creates, indicate that Cookieman thinks along these lines. But this is not how the market works. The market does not reward those activities that are especially meritorious, or especially skilled, or especially anything. Competitive forces lead to the outcome that all labors are considered equal. Even the most frivolous use value, produced under sweatshop conditions, will be rewarded on the market as long as there is demand for it. |
| The labor of a surgeon creates more value per hour only because he had to spend so much time studying medicine and being trained as a doctor. Let's assume that in a lifetime average, each hour of work with or for a specific patient requires 2 hours in training. These two hours must be added to the hour spent for that patient. Therefore his labor crates 3 times as much value as a simple laborer who does not require training. It is not 15 times. The high salaries of doctors come from the monopoly position which the AMA has worked out for them. I.e., the doctors have organized in order to defeat the market forces that would bring their salaries in line with those of other professionals. |
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