| This question <622|145> overall <137|143> DCotardo: <48|227>. |
| Question 215: Which characteristics of value are expressed better in the Expanded form of value than in the Simple form, and what are the defects of the Expanded form? |
| [138] DCotardo: Expanded form of value. I believe the first part of the question can be answered by reading the class submission in 2002fa. I agree with CommEOne in [2002fa:73] that the expanded form of value expresses a social aspect of a particular commodity better than the simple form. The expanded form shows the value through quantity of a given commodity with relationship to all other commodities that a given producer is willing to accept. The expanded form gives insight to the social tendencies of a particular era. An exaggerated example of one pound of coffee equals 25 cows shows that coffee is a valued commodity in that time. |
| Hans: According to Marx, the expanded form of value makes it clearer than the Simple form of value that value is a social relation. Value being social does not mean that value depends on social fads. In your example with the cows and the coffee, there are great incentives to produce more coffee, and soon this imbalance in value will no longer be there. |
| [138] DCotardo: The defects of the expanded form are: the expanded form is not unique, the expanded form is not simple, and the expanded form is not uniform. |
| The expanded form is not unique as I understand means 1 pound of coffee = 25 cows = 15 pounds of wheat = 3 tons of iron = ... = ... and goes on forever as long as the producer of the coffee is willing to accept another commodity. The expanded form is not simple meaning there is no common part, but rather many different processes that come together to form a certain commodity. The non-uniformity of the expanded form strictly implies that all the commodities equalized in the expanded form of value are qualitatively unequal. |
| Hans: Value is simple and uniform. Simple means: it is measured in labor hours of abstract human labor, something one-dimensional. Uniform means: whether it is the value of wheat or linen, there is no qualitative difference between the values. |
| The expanded form of value is not simple, because it consists not just of one commodity but of many different commodities. It is not uniform because the expanded form of value of wheat has linen as one of the equivalents but cannot have wheat, while the expanded form of linen has wheat as one of its equivalents but cannot have linen. |
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