| This question <14|14> overall <9|11> PDubya: <728|118>. graded A |
| Question 41: Joseph, who lives in a capitalist society, regularly swaps his wife with the wife of his friend. Does this mean Joseph's wife has exchange-value in capitalism? |
| [10] PDubya: Swap Meet. It all depends on how you look at it. For my examples let's say that Joseph and his friend are two real people who live down the street from you as of right now. |
| First of all let's examine, under a microscope, Joseph and his wife swapping friend as if they were the only ones left on earth. For their purposes the wives do have an exchange-value, one wife for another, something with use-value for another object with use-value. Maybe Joseph has eyes for his friend's wife because of her useful qualities, perhaps she can make a mean lasagna. For Joseph's purposes his friend's wife becomes a commodity that satisfies his human wants, stomach and fancy. |
| But for the real purposes of this question I would have to say that the wives do not have exchange-value. Joseph and his friend are not the only two people on earth, so you therefore must look at the bigger picture of the capitalist (american) society that they (we) live in. Because the question makes the point of saying that only Joseph and his friend are swapping wives with each other, then they are obviously just two individuals who have some sort of understanding. They happen to be two wife swapping buddies in a society where their actions are definitely not the norm. For a use-value (the wives) to have exchange-value it must be routinely exchanged in society. |
|
|
|||||