I promise I’m not a wrecker, I just have trouble finding Marxist sources for these things that aren’t big books on top of what I’m already reading. I think I understand that it says the exchange value of a product is proportionate to the labor time used to create it. Am I getting that correct? More labor-intensive commodities, or products requiring more specialized tools to make would cost more. And I know I’ve heard the criticism before. Heard it pretty much all my life. “Is a cookie still worth its labor if it’s burnt? Is a pie worth the labor if it’s a shit pie?” I have heard people say that Marx addresses such criticisms in Capital, but I haven’t gotten around to those tomes yet. Could someone explain to me how they are addressed and maybe straighten out other things I may have gotten wrong?

  • deathtoreddit@lemmygrad.ml
    0·
    1 day ago

    “Is a cookie still worth its labor if it’s burnt? Is a pie worth the labor if it’s a shit pie?”

    Then the capitalist and their managers will scold the laborer to get it right and stop wasting resources to make actual use value (a commodity with actual use) to realize its exchange value through sale, and the laborer, on average, will either comply or join the reserve army of labor; the jobless corps/unemployment for slop shoddy work.

    Remember, commodities, under capitalism, need to produced en masse for mass profit; this is why industrial society was made. And use value, especially through perfection of commodities, ensures those products are sold; this is why production is standardized by machinery.

    Unless ofc, burnt stuff is what ppl want, like others say

    spoiler

    Note: Just to be sure, let’s say 8 hours of commodities or even service are done by labor. The laborer gets a partial share, perhaps 4 hours of value, and the capitalist gets the other half.

    Labor share (wages) are variable capital (to sustain their lives) with 4 hours in this case

    Capitalist share are surplus value (profit, rent, interest, whatever you call it, that turns original money > value of commodities (expansion occurs when such is sold) > expanded money) with 4 hours on the other

    You even still can imagine this in monetary terms, but hours more or less standardize the concept a bit (though wage/hour only represents partial share of the full commodity value, to clarify)