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[87] Dabears: (un)Useful Labor. I thought about this question for a long time, and I thought of a lot of
unuseful labor that goes into selling a product, like Marketing, sales,
management oversight, etc. The only parts of the labor process that I could
think of that don't “(produce) a product that has any use-value of whatever
kind,” and “its product (is not) useful” (pg. 56) are packaging and
color. The packaging itself has a use-value, but its use value (in most
cases) is unrelated to the product. Consider, for example, light bulbs.
All the labor going in to producing light bulbs is useful labor, in that it
helps the bulb produce the specified light. The packaging does not assist,
in any way, in the transformation of energy/electricity into light. It has
its own use value of helping one bring the product home and storing the
product safely, but it has no use value in relation to the use-value of
light. Color seems to be the same way. It may make the product more
appealing on the shelf, but it generally does not add to the use value of a
product. For example, a CD put into one's computer would work just as well
and play the same program/music if it were white, red, black, multi-colored,
etc. If anyone can think of any other unuseful labor, I would love to hear
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