| This question <177|181> overall <178|180> Charles: <85|180>. |
| Question 89: Why is labor measured here by labor-time, and not by counting how many movements were made, or by the drops of sweat of the laborer, or by the discomfort of the laborer? |
| [179] Charles: Marx looks at the commodity exchange and says: commodities are exchangeable in our society because they all contain the same abstract human labor. Based on Marx, since all the commodities in the society contain the human labor, it makes the commodities be exchangeable. |
| Even though time is relevant to labor, one can not insist that time plays the leading role in labor to determine the value of labor. If that's the case, then the laziness of a person would make the value of the product be more valuable. |
| The reason the labor is measured by labor-time and not by other factors is because labor-time is the activity associated with making the product. Marx says “labor creates value not because of sacrifices but because labor is man's normal life activity.” Because of that, the labor-time is the best way to measure labor. |
| Hans: There were some good elements in your in-class answer which you dropped in the resubmission. Your in-class answer reads: |
| The reason labor is measured by labor-time and not by counting how many movements were made or by the drops of sweat or the discomfort of the laborer is because the only thing that is constant with everyone is the time. Everybody works differently, but everyone is exposed to the time the same way. The number of movements, discomfort, or the drops of sweat are all related to the characterisics of an individual employee. One has no direct relationship with the commodity, which is produced by the labor. The onlu thing tht is associated and combines all of the aspects of labor is if labor is measured by labor-time. |
| This equality was left out in your resubmission. |
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