| This question <576|103> overall <100|103> Danny: <1342|237>. |
| Question 129: The exchange of commodities poses a dilemma: what are the grounds for treating tangibly different commodities as equals? This dilemma is then also echoed on the level of the labors producing these commodities, and on the level of labor-powers. On each of these three levels the dilemma has a different resolution. Describe these three different resolutions. |
| [102] Danny: Dilemmas with exchanging commodities are narrowed by Marx into three areas 1) Physical differences between commodities, 2) Differences in types of labor, and 3) Differences in the specialization of labor. All three dilemma are addressed by Marx. |
| If a diamond and and lump of coal require the same amount of labor to be mined, should one be of more value? According to Marx, though on a concrete level the two commodities are different, they are equal in the quantitative labor needed to produce them. Hence both are products of society's labor [2001fa:47]. |
| Similarly, the differences in the type of labor, i.e. the difference between working as a garbage man, or working as a plumber, can also be simplified to the fact that the product or commodity will in the end only be a product of society's labor. |
| As for the differences in the qualitative nature of labor, Marx states that additional training or specialization of a type of labor can be simplified to labor hours. This way a person who is twice as equipped for a job, would receive twice the number of labor hours. In all three dilemma the approach seems to be to simplify everything to labor hours. This way there is an overarching commonality among commodities, types of labor, and skilled labor. |
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