Tag: leftism

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.

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

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?

I Think A Lot Of Where SJ Shit Gets Toxic

Is when liberals get ahold of and try to use leftist analyses, and try and treat individuals like systems because they get the two confused, or sometimes when leftists show residual liberal thought and continue to treat the individual as the system, looking for the villain in the wrong place.

I think a lot of people don’t have the very Marxist context a lot of social justice theory stems from, and Marxist theory is very macro, a very broad and big picture view, and treating some little petite bourgeois store owner like the incarnation of capitalism is a huge mistake, they’re a product of the system, not the system itself… I mean I think the liberal conceit of treating individuals as the system is what lead to a lot of human rights abuses in “socialist” nations.

Dismantling systems is harder and more complicated than tearing people apart, but still.

The way to dismantle systems is spreading memes not sending anon hate.

People don’t tend to listen when they feel attacked, and like I feel like treating individuals as systems tends not to actually work, because it doesn’t actually address the system they exist within, and although the system changing requires people to change their behavior, the way a system is discussed should generally be different from how an individual is discussed.

Do you know what I mean?

Bourgeois Decadent Asceticism Will Probably Result In A Hedonistic Revolution.

Thinking about the French and Russian revolutions, the French rev you had the neo-classicism replacing rococo, because like yeah people were fucking pissed at aristocrats and their ultra fun carefree “everything is candy colored and covered in gold and I’m having a feast of candy while everyone else starves” and I mean if you’ve ever read Lost Splendor you know what that was like “Oh we have a train car full of birds on our train we go on vacation on in case you don’t like train noises, oh we have like 20 houses we’ve forgotten about and like a bunch of warehouses full of treasure we’ve forgotten about and another train with luxury dining and a car full of birds we never use, whatevs” (that’s literally true) and both of those lead to kind of… dour anti-hedonism stuff, where frivolity and luxurious ultra fancy stuff was frowned upon, but now?  Now the rich are all about eating kale and drinking water and minimalism.

Think about it, think about the post revolutionary reaction to shit like bougie “superfoods”.

This is going to be great.