Tag: leftism

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.

Honestly building communism means being sociable.  People adopt the beliefs of their peer group.  So we can just absorb people like a big red amoeba if we just keep making more friends and inserting them into our social group.  Getting some cultural consensus and influencing the base consensus assumptions people have about reality (as neo-liberal ideas became cultural consensus for awhile) so go to that party, join that book club, go for drinks with your coworkers, make memes, and build communism.

You can get non commies to repeat commie ideas if they hear them often enough, and once you get those base assumptions (like the labor theory of value) in there it’s a hop skip and a jump to waving a red flag and singing the internationale.

Also humor is a great tool because it gets shared for its amusement value even by people who don’t necessarily agree with the politics, and is a great way of slipping ideas in under the radar. Also it challenges one of the biggest shitty assumptions about communists (which is that were dour and humorless and no fun)

Make an effort to be nice, welcoming and non-prickly. Invite people to board game nights (with a bunch of communists), invite them out for drinks (with a bunch of communists), to house parties (with a bunch of communists), and dinner parties (with a bunch of communists) and don’t waste time having insular minor theoretical arguments with weird Trot sects, just out organize them.

In the end, the prostitutes began to look after their own interests. A little time had elapsed before they began thinking of vindicating them­selves. One day they realised that they also could be in the revolution. Immediately they turned out the patrons to whom the houses belonged and occupied the working premises. They proclaimed their equality. After a number of stormy debates, they formed a trade-union and presented a petition for affiliation to the C.N.T. All profits were equally shared. Henceforth, instead of the usual former picture of the ‘Sacred Heart,’ a framed notice was hung up in every brothel announcing: ‘You are requested to treat the women as comrades. – The Committee. (By order.)

Mary Low, Red Spanish Notebook