This question <36|36> overall <35|37> Diesel: <24|69>.

Question 119: Discuss the implications of the fact that an increase in material wealth in the form of commodities may be accompanied by a decrease in the total amount of their value. Do you know examples from modern capitalism where this perverse relationship has detrimental effects?

[36] Diesel: Material Wealth.   An increase in material wealth in the form of commodities can be accompanied by a decrease in the total amount of their value. I was recently talking with a friend of mine who is from the Phillippines. His wife had a big diamond ring and he told me how much it was. I was surprised when he said how much it cost.

It was a full carat that cost him the equivalent of two thousand dollars. He proceeded to tell me that the Phillippines is a country that is rich in finding diamonds and there are some companies that dominate the industry. Recently we had a reading and comments on diamonds. If for example, two men looked in two lots but one man found a diamond of 1 carat in 10 hours, and the second found a diamond of one carat in ten minutes, can the value of diamonds in general decrease? If diamonds were easy to find and in some countries they are, many diamonds could be produced each day and the value would decrease. Apparently, it is difficult to find work in the Phillippines because the labor time has been reduced and labor replaced by machines because of the mass production. After reading Marx's thoughts I drew the example that if all we could eat is a cheeseburger and that was our only food, I cant help but think that some people may end up going a few days without eating because the “value” of that hamburger is not very satisfying after time.

Hans: On a world scale, the capitalist system has the absurd property that wealth flows from the poor to the rich nations. This is the reason for the poverty of the people in the Phillippines and many other similar countries. And this is the reason for the resentment many of these people have against the U.S.A.

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