Tag: labor theory of value

Quick Explanation Of The Labor Theory Of Value

The labor theory of value is the idea that the value of stuff comes from the average amount of work required to make/get it.

So like gold being scarce takes more labor time because you spend a lot of time looking for it, and then a lot of time refining it once you do find it which makes it more expensive and like modern agricultural techniques mean a bushel of wheat takes less labor time than ever and is thus cheap.

The labor of learning to do/make the thing is part of the labor time involved in the thing, so if it requires a lot of training to do, it’s more expensive.

Labor is defined as socially necessary labor: meaning that the average amount of time required to do/make the thing is what counts which is why dolls assembled by takes-way-too-long-assembling-dolls-Bob aren’t more expensive than those assembled by really-speedy-at-a-assembling-dolls-Pat.

Also socially necessary labor is determined by how much of a thing society actually wants which is why no matter how many hours you spend making a statue of Elvis out of cow manure you probably won’t get paid anything for it because society probably didn’t want that and never will.

Incidentally the socially necessary labor thing is also why Ralph Lauren t-shirts cost four times the price of a normal t-shirt, because society has decided that the labor of many highly trained professionals creating and maintaining the idea of Ralph Lauren is something they want and so that labor is socially necessary weirdly.

Also when society makes too much of something the price temporarily drops below its actual value and when society makes too little it rises above its actual value but that’ll correct itself.

So I’m reading Capital

and money form is frickin’ weird.

Like when it was gold the labor it contained was clear, but like the labor in the modern weird abstract money form is… IDK, because like it’s not the printing, or the metal and like a penny contains more than 1 cent’s worth of copper… what does this distortion mean?  Also paper money clearly contains less value in materials than it is worth.

Is the worth of paper money derived in part from the collective labor of convincing everyone to keep believing in its value?

WHAT IS GOING ON?

I Think The Labor Theory Of Value Just Explained Luxury Branding To Me

thepeoplesfriend:

thepeacockangel:

thepeacockangel:

So the labor theory of value actually just explained to me why a Ralph Lauren t-shirt costs twice as much as a plain one. The labor of branding is accepted as socially necessary labor, so although the cost of producing the material of the t-shirt remains the same, the cost of producing the image associated with the brand of the t-shirt is added into the cost, I think… maybe.

Cause the amount of labor power involved in creating the idea of Ralph Lauren is immense, yeah?

If it got cheaper and easier to create prestige value for goods, then the value of branded goods would fall… I think

No I’d argue that luxury branding functions via an imaginary outside of the function of the labor theory of value. That is adding Ralph Lauren to a t-shirt of similar quality doesn’t increase its use value or social value but rather its exchange value.

I meant exchange value.  It certainly doesn’t increase its use value, but like I do think it exists within the labor theory of value… there’s a bit about shoes (Mr Jones, in capital) and socially necessary labor.  Mr. Jones has his workers produce 100,000 pairs of shoes (far below the country’s demand for shoes) but he has no way of knowing whether those shoes will be purchased, and their being purchased is the only way of validating the labor required to produce them as socially necessary (within a capitalist context) and basically they have no exchange value until exchanged, if they aren’t bought no value has been produced.

Marx goes on to say if an artist creates a beautiful piece of China but finds no buyer, they have produced no value, even if they are later, after their death, celebrated as a genius and national treasure, they have within the context of the labor theory of value created no value.

Thus the labor involved in creating Ralph Lauren is deemed socially necessary, as the commodities are purchased, and did involve the additional labor of creating the Ralph Lauren brand, it’s not a judgement of merit, but it does work within the labor theory of value, I think.