| This question <82|85> overall <82|84> Hans: <78|84>. |
| Question 198: Which characteristics of value are expressed better in the Expanded form of value than in the Simple form, and what are the defects of the Expanded form? |
| [83] Hans: Nonuniformity of the expanded form of value. In response to Mitchel's [79] I'd like to explain here why the nonuniformity of the expanded form of value is a serious defect. |
| Say you are a baker and you produce bread and rolls. The bread takes five times the labor input of the rolls. (You are making everything yourself, including the flower etc., and we are talking about total labor input.) Then you are selling your products on the market. Since it is the expanded form of value, you make the following exchanges: |
| 1 loaf of bread for 30 pencils |
| 1 loaf of bread for 1 flowerpot |
| 1 loaf of bread for 3 lightbulbs. |
| 5 rolls for one book |
| 2 rolls for one pair of socks |
| 3 rolls for a toothbrush |
| Would you know whether to produce more bread or more rolls next time? Hardly. But say in a different society tomato juice is the general equivalent. Therefore you will be making the following trades: |
| 1 loaf of bread for 1 quart of tomato juice |
| 1 loaf of bread for 1.1 quart of tomato juice |
| 2 loafs of bread for 1.9 quarts of tomato juice |
| 5 rolls for 1.5 quarts of tomato juice |
| 2 rolls for 0.7 quart of tomato juice |
| 3 rolls for 0.8 quarts of tomato juice. |
| You quickly calculate that on the average you get 1 quart of tomato juice for one loaf of bread, but you get 0.3 quarts of tomato juice per roll. Instead of making one bread you could be making 5 rolls in the same time and get 1.5 quarts of tomato juice instead of 1 quart. The tomato juice is boring, but you will not drink it, you will use it to buy things with it. Therefore next time you plan to offer more rolls and fewer loaves of bread. This shows the advantages if the surface interactions on the market give an accurate representation of the underlying value relations. |
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