| This question <47|47> overall <41|43> George: <417|102>. |
| Question 92: The exchange of commodities poses a dilemma: what are the grounds for treating tangibly different commodities as equals? This dilemma is then also echoed on the level of the labors producing these commodities, and on the level of labor powers. On each of these three levels the dilemma has a different resolution. Describe these three different resolutions. |
| [42] George: Since two different goods cannot, on the concrete level, be considered homogeneous, two tangibly different goods find equality in the amount and quality of labor that was expended in their production. This equality is found on the concrete and abstract level of a commodity's production. The value of the skilled laborer's time is matched up against the unskilled laborer's time, and an equality in value is found on this level. However, both of the laborers in this case gave up their time to this commodity instead of to anything else they might do, and this is where the resolution lies. |
| The skill of the laborer is another area where the commodity can be raised or lowered in its value. Marx finds the work of a skilled laborer as “multiplied” simple labor. This would lead to the conclusion that the value of all labor is simply a measure of simple labor. Therefore, the value of a commodity produced by a skilled seamstress would have, for example, 3 times the measure of value of the labor created by an unskilled, untrained seamstress. Since the wage of the workers is still not being considered at this time, the wage is not yet a possibility of finding equality in the value of laborers, such as judging the values of the wages they make against one another. |
| The thought of the skill of the laborer relates well to the idea of labor power, especially through the thought of the seamstress. The labor power of a skilled seamstress who spend years as an apprentice of another skilled seamstress cannot be seen as equal to the labor of an unskilled seamstress who is still in the task of fully learning the complexities of her work. Marx's resolution for this portion of finding equality in tangibly different commodities is that the differences in the value in labor power are decided depending on how society is reacting at the time. This seems to create a correlation to the use value that labor power creates, and what society's need for the use value is at that particular time. |
| Marx finds a mutual resolution for these three levels, that the commodity of human labor is the point at which value is produced, and so it seems that it is not so much the value of the tangibly different commodities that need to find some equality, but it is the value of the human labor that was expended into a particular commodity that creates equality. This makes it possible for two tangibly different goods to have similar exchange values, and provides the possibility for two different goods to be exchanged for each other. |
| Hans: Great effort; I will write you a detailed response. |
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