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[102] Communistcow: There is no such thing as a production process that
does not require human effort. I thought about this
question long and hard. At first I looked to nature as
an example of production without human effort. A man
who goes for a leisurely walk through the forest might
stumble across a product of nature such as a mushroom
or even something more abstract such as shade provided
by a tree. These things surely required no human
effort to produce; however the act of eating the
mushroom or physically moving himself into the shade
is in itself human effort and definitely qualifies as
a production process. Some may argue that these goods
are still produced without human effort whether or not
the goods are utilized. This is false! Marx argues
this point in Capital 164:1 “For in the first place,
however varied the useful kinds of labour, or
productive activities, it is a physiological fact that
they are functions of the human organism, and that
each such function, whatever may be its nature or its
form, is essentially the expenditure of human brain,
nerves, muscles, and sense organs.” If man did not
utilize these natural things, they have no use-value
and are not a commodity. It is man that gives them
use-value and thus there can be no production process
without human effort. |
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