| This question <106|106> overall <105|107> Yoda: <1239|478>. |
| Question 123: Define abstract labor and explain why Marx's theory can be summarized as: “Under capitalism, labor has social significance only as abstract labor.” |
| [106] Yoda: Marx describes abstract labor as being “indifferent towards the particular form of labor”, meaning that the useful aspects and qualities of different types of labor disappear and are reduced to one single commonality between them which is their abstract labor. The idea of abstract labor separates itself from the usefulness of the labor as mentioned above and says that all labors are an expenditure of labor power. It reduces the exchange relations which rest on the surface between commodities to this single common denominator. The abstract labor becomes “congealed”, or frozen in the commodity only to manifest itself again in the representation of money during the process of exchange. |
| Labor has social significance under capitalism as abstract labor in its relation to value. Value, according to Marx, is what makes commodities exchangeable in a market society. Value doesn't come into existence because of the worth of the commodity, but because of the abstract social labor. The abstract labor is directly related to the amount of socially necessary labor needed to produce a commodity. Under capitalism, labor has significance only as abstract labor because of the social division of labor which is created by it. That all labor is the same and as exchange values all commodities are reflections of the congealed labor time. Marx sees the division of labor as a pejorative aspect of capitalism but it doesn't have to be that way. Labor can be divided without being exploitative. |
| Hans: If labor is socially recognized only as abstract labor, we should not be surprised that many modern labor processes are indeed very “abstract,” i.e., boring, repetitive, and strenuous. |
| Yoda: Yes, this is very true, especially since we have covered a lot more of Marx's theory since I submitted this question originally. The capitalist nature of manufacture sets its crosshairs on the divided labor of the wage slaves into many different splinters of production. The manufacturing workers, and I think all workers in general, become so alienated from their work and constantly work in “boring, repetitive, and strenous” work that they become unable to produce anything independently by themselves. This situation only begets more problems such as losing the capacity to even think for themselves. |
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