| This question <91|91> overall <89|91> Scouter: <602|165>. graded B+ |
| Question 199: Why doesn't Marx go from the Simple form of value directly to the General form of value by letting everyone express their values in the same commodity? |
| [90] Scouter: Expanded form of value. There are two reasons why Marx chooses to use the expanded form of value as an intermediate step in the progression from the Simple form of value to the General form of value. |
| First, Marx wanted to expose the labor needed to make the commodity, and therefore its value in relation to other commodities. Marx said “For the labor which creates it is now explicitly presented as labor which counts as the equal of every other sort of human labor, whatever natural state it may possess.” It's here in the expanded form that 20 yards of linen equals one coat, but also 10 lb. of tea, 40 lb. of coffee and so on, typically based on the labor required to create the commodity. |
| Second, Marx is showing the natural progression of capitalism. Hurricane further elaborates on this in [2001fa:520] by stating that Marx is using the expanded form of value as a proof, and that expanded form is the intermediate step used to help the reader understand how we move from the Simple to the General form of value. |
| Hans: In most of your submission, you assume that the succession from Simple to Expanded to General form of value is a didactic ploy chosen by Marx to make something clearer to the reader. This is not entirely true. Marx tries to describe the inner logic behind the evolution of money. (You do say this in your sentence “Marx is showing the natural progression of capitalism.”) |
| Also, in the archive I broke your submission into three paragraphs, so that each of Marx's two reasons is a separate paragraph. And I added a “First” to correspond to your “second.” These are little things which make it much easier to follow your argument. |
|
|
|||||