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Question 223: Describe the joint work of all commodities which is necessary to appropriately express the value of one commodity.

[280] Ryan: To explain the joint work of all commodities, I will begin by explaining the deficiency of the simple form of value, as explained by Marx. When linen is exchanged for coats, this is a single arbitrary exchange relation. When this is combined with the idea that commodities are only exchangeable because they possess the common substance of abstract human labor, it grants a very limited view of what the value of linen actually is. The expanded form improves this by showing the relationship of the abstract human labor in linen compared to the same quality in innumerable other commodities. But still this does so only in a system of 1 to 1 exchanges. In the general form this is remedied by expressing all commodities, and thus the amount of abstract human labor in all commodities in terms of a single commodity. This gives us a measuring stick by which we can more accurately and appropriately express the value of a single commodity. In part because we are thus aware of how much labor is in the inputs of a given commodity. Also the value, in terms of labor, is made socially applicable through this process, because it can be easily compared with the value of all other commodities in an economy. So it is the joint work of all commodities that allow us to express the value of a single commodity.

Hans: You are explaining well the Simple, Expanded, and General forms of value. I especially like your observation that the General form of value is desirable because it allows to measure the inputs into the commodity in the same equivalend at the commodity itself. But you do not explain what the joint work of all commodities is.

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