| This question <87|77> overall <87|89> Hans: <79|89>. |
| Question 114: What is the difference between the statement: “a commodity is a use-value and a product of labor” and the statement: “a commodity is a use-value and the congelation of abstract labor”? |
| [88] Hans: Sublation versus congelation. Bresid made a good attempt in [87], but he should have paid more attention to the word “congelation.” “Congelation” means that the abstract labor is somehow still inside the commodity. This is not true in a physical sense; not even the useful labor is in the commodity any more. The labor is gone (sublated), all that is left is the use-value of the commodity. |
| However in a commodity producing society, the abstract labor lingers on in the commodity. It gives the commodity its price. The price is society's memory of how much labor is necessary to produce this commodity. One can say that the abstract labor is still in the commodity because society still remembers this labor in the commodity's price. |
| One might therefore answer question 114 as follows: the first statement is true not only for commodities but for all useful products of labor in all societies. The second statement is only true in a commodity-producing society. Although, as Bresid writes, abstract labor was involved in producing the commodity, only in a commodity society is it true that this abstract labor is still “inside” the commodity, manifesting itself in the price of this commodity. |
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