This question <65|58> overall <52|54> JasonG: <1193|405>.  
  Question 92: Regarding the question how to measure the quantity of value, Marx first gives a wrong answer, which is based on an oversight, and then corrects it. Why doesn't he give the right answer right away?   
  [53] JasonG: Wrong Answer for Quantity of Value.   Marx provides the wrong answer of measuring the quantity of value by the actual labor-time to lead the reader to his suggestion of socially necessary labor. Marx is not attempting to say “this is what I think” but he intends to introduce his theories through a deductive thought process. Hans points out in [2003fa:54] that “Marx therefore did not just pick a mistake out of the blue, but he explains here how the general concern about labor-time, which all societies have, is handled in commodity producing societies.” Marx is aware that society subscribes to the belief that actual labor-time determines value and he needs to debate that theory and establish its faults before suggesting an alternative. In [2003fa:39], Catfish suggests that Marx is doing this to emphasize the point relating to socially necessary labor. My answer is along the same lines as Catfish, but I further this point by suggesting that Marx has to debate and refute the belief of actual labor-time to lend credibility to his theory.   
  Hans: Socially necessary labor-time is not a reform proposal by which Marx tries to create an alternative to today's society which believes that value is generated by actual labor-time. Marx's Capital is not a blueprint for a better society. It is an attempt to understand how capitalism itself works.   
 
 
 
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