| This question <64|54> overall <43|45> Weston: <1354|514>. |
| Question 104: How is the value of raw materials determined in Marx's theory? How does the scarcity of these materials influence their value? Is Marx's argument still valid in the case of an exhaustible resource, which is present only in finite supply? |
| [44] Weston: Marx's theory determines value, of raw materials or otherwise, in terms of abstract labor content termed socially necessary labor. Socially necessary labor is not simply the specific labor required to produce a particular use value, but a use-value specific and equal share of the collective labor-time required for production (under normal social conditions, with average skill and intensity). In so much that the condition of being scarce causes an increase in the socially necessary labor-time of production, scarcity can be said to influence value. While the market-price of an exhaustible resource may be influenced directly or indirectly (depending on the necessity and/or demand for the commodity) as supplies diminish, it seems to me that the value of an exhaustible resources would not increase unless the quantity of socially necessary labor increased in production as the finite supply evanesced. |
| Hans: To say it more plainly, if one wants to predict economic outcomes, one should not try to apply the labor theory of value to exhaustible resources. |
| Yoda: Humankind can only alter the form of the material provided by nature through labor, thus giving them value. Raw materials are only a recording of matter. Only when people decide to bring them into reproduction of other commodities do they then have value. It is simply the recreation and restructring of the matter in accordance to human wants, needs and desires do they then factor in as values. However, also take into condideration that some resources do have intrinsic utility towards people such as the air we breathe, forests, oceans, mountains etc. |
| It appears that the idea of resources being scarce and the allocation of those scarce resources is a false notion that belongs to capitalism. It is about the distribution of resources, not the scarcity of them. Does Marx even see resources as being scarce? Marx's theory would seem to have more to do with the distribution of these so called scarce resources, not the notion of them being scarce. |
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