This question <116|112> overall <133|135> DarkKnight: <1721|398>. graded A

Question 100: Coat and linen are qualitatively different use-values. Are they exchanged because their use-values are different, or because the labors in them are different?

[134] DarkKnight: The coat and the linen are exchanged because their use-values are different, with the exception that one might wrap five yards of linen about oneself to keep warm instead of exchanging it for a coat. Typically, however, they would be used for different purposes. Though the labors used to produce each commodity might be qualitatively different (the production processes are different), at a basic level, the abstract human labor is the same. A laborer's time and effort were used in the production process, regardless of the commodity produced. Per Marx, the equality of the labor is expressed by the exchange. The value of the labor of five yards of linen and the coat are equal because that is what we find when they are exchanged on the market.

Hans: Your conclusion can be framed in the paradoxical formulation: commodities are exchanged because the labors in them are different (otherwise everyone would just produce their own, see [116]), and because the labors are equal (this provides the commonality on which the exchange is based). But we are no longer afraid of contradictions, are we?

	Students enrolled for Econ 5080 in 2009fa are invited to give feedback to the above message Pseudonym:      UofU ID:   Text: