This question <84|70> overall <57|59> TheDude: <652|211-28>. graded A

Question 142: Why doesn't Marx say that the simplest value relation is that between commodity and money?

[58] TheDude: Simplest value relation.   In saying “simplest,” Marx is not asking for the easiest value relation. We use money in order to make the processes of commerce easier, but the simplest way to perform a trade is to remove any and all intermediaries, money being an intermediary, and simply trade one commodity for a different commodity of equal “value.”

I put value in quotation marks because the value placed on these commodities is a mental construct, a product of our society and a representation of what is useful or important to us. For example, a Michael Jordan rookie trading card has a value of about $2000 in our society, but if one were to give this trading card to a native tribe in Africa it might have no value what-so-ever or it could have a value even greater than what we value it at for some reason only known to them, and anthropologists. The value of a commodity and the value of money are merely mental constructs of the society in which they reside.

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