| This question <11|291> overall <11|14> Hans: <7|14>. |
| Exam Question 66: Why does Marx write in 127:1 “the valid exchange-values,” instead of simply “the exchange-values”? |
| [13] Hans: Why are commodity-values based on labor? Marx was not the only proponent of the labor theory of value; it was the mainstream economic theory during Marx's time. According to this theory, exchange proportions are determined by the labor content of the commodities. Deni's answer [11] explains why: unequal exchanges would have “impact on productivity and revenue of a producer.” If a producer who works all day and depends on selling his or her products does not get commodities in return with roughly the same labor content as the things he sells, he is not able to survive and will therefore not be able to continue producing these goods. |
| Deni also correctly remarks that in the Middle Ages, the exchange values of the main goods were often fixed by law. There were tight regulations about who was allowed to produce what. The social system in the Middle Ages did not subordinate itself to the market but regulated the market in order to maintain social stability. |
| But Deni misunderstands the readings if she thinks that Marx is talking about petty commodity production as it existed in the Middle Ages and Antiquity. It is easy to make this mistake, since Marx's examples abound with peasants growing wheat, shoemakers, weavers, and tailors. But Marx is really talking about capitalism. Capitalism is a commodity society, and in order to understand commodities, Marx abstracts from the modern relations of wage-labor etc. and goes back to the earlier and simpler relations of petty commodity production. He considers the modern relations to be developments of the simpler relations, and in order to understand a development, one cannot begin with step 2 or 3, but you has to go back to step 1. |
| In other words, Marx holds that even today, exchange values are determined by labor content. The workers are not only responsible for the part of the value of the product reimbursing the labor costs, but they are responsible for all of the value of the product. This is quite a difference to modern mainstream economics which says that the capitalists themselves produce the part of the value of the product which represents their profit. In Marx's theory, capitalist profits are a transfer of wealth of those who really do all production, the workers, to the owners of the means of production. |
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