| This question <24|24> overall <23|25> Utegirl: <1198|131>. |
| Exam Question 85: What is value (according to Marx)? |
| [24] Utegirl: According to Marx, “value” is what society is willing to give up, or exchange, for something else. An artifical dollar amount cannot determine the true worth of a thing as our society believes today. Marx discusses two different sorts of “value”, exchange-value and use-value. Exchange-value is the form of value, that is a ratio of exchange with other commodities. This is Marx's definition of value as opposed to use-value. Use-value is the capacity to satisfy human wants. Marx also discusses value as labor or “abstract labor”. The concept is that labor is a common denominator in the calculation of value. |
| Hans: Your first sentence should say: the “exchange-value” of a good is what society is willing to give up, or exchange, for this good. Then the question arises: how is this willingness of exchange determined? Why do some things fetch a high price, and others a low price? Whatever it is, the thing that determines a thing's exchangeability is called by Marx its “value”. And the labor theory of value says that this value comes from the labor in the commodity. |
| It is also important to note that in this scheme of things, use-value is not a kind of value. Use-value and exchange-value are not two different kinds of the same thing "value," but they are alien and hostile to each other. |
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