| This question <24|24> overall <24|26> Hans: <22|28>. |
| Question 84: Why is value determined by the labor-time needed under the socially average conditions of production, rather than by the best conditions of production attained in society? |
| [25] Hans: Implications of the labor theory of value. Diesel [24] gives the following Marx quote: |
| “the greater the productivity of labour, the less the labour-time required to produce an article, the less the mass of labour crystallized in that article, and the less its value.” |
| It is quite interesting that higher productivity, which means greater wealth, means less value. But this quote does not help us answer question 84, because it makes the tacit assumption that all articles are produced with the same higher productivity, and does not tell us what happens if only some but not all articles are produced with higher productivity. |
| Diesel also says something about the link between scarcity and value: |
| Marx writes that the labour time (the average, or socially necessary) of trying to find diamonds, because they are rare, takes time |
| The labour time takes time? This should have been reformulated, especially since this course is a writing requirement course. But the meaning is clear: according to the labor theory of value as expounded by Marx, scarce goods have high values not because they are scarce, but because it takes a lot of labor to find them. To repeat it, their value is high not because of supply and demand, but because the goods contain much labor. |
| These are important implications of the labor theory of value. They do not help answer question 84, but they are nevertheless worth knowing. |
| But in his next sentence Diesel misunderstands the labor theory of value. He writes |
| The amount of labour or effort that goes into finding the diamonds costs the producer money to pay the workers to look. |
| The thing which gives the products their value is not the wage cost but the labor itself. Look at the Ricardo quote which I forwarded to the class in [22]. If the laborer gets lower wages, then the value of the product does not decrease because of this, but the capitalist makes higher profits. This is why some people say that the labor theory of value is class struggle economics. |
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