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[75] Maxed: labor for labor in a Marxist economy. Marx doesn't believe in assigning a monetary value to commodities or to
anything for that matter so far. He seems to want to keep the “value” of
something a somewhat abstract figure that can only be determined by the amount
of labor (and the skill required) to producing a commodity. “If we say that,
as values, commodities are simply congealed quantities of human labour, our
analysis reduces them ... to the level of abstract value, but does not give them
a form of value distinct from their natural forms.” (141:3) This seems to be a
recurring theme in the writing so far as if in a Marxist economy there would
not be a currency or a common medium of exchange such as the dollar in our
society, there would just be labor for labor. This makes sense because a
dollar is just an arbitrary system for exchanging labor. For example: we spend
our dollars on the items some one else produced and, in turn, they spend their
dollars on the items we produced. However, if the system were properly
functioning both parties would be equally compensated without dollars because
of their equal contribution to the economy through their labor. This is what
Marx is suggesting but, it is improbable that such a system could work with
all the factors that push and pull at an economy such as personal preferences,
fashion trends, inconsistent growing seasons (nature) and so forth. |
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