What is value? (was: Re: [ox-en] There is no such thing like "peer money")
- From: Stefan Meretz <stefan meretz.de>
- Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:56:59 +0100
On 2008-11-24 11:09, Paul Cockshott wrote:
Stefan Meretz wrote:
The calculation is impossible. You can't break down "complex
labour" to "simple-labour" -- how could this be done? Again, it is
a misunderstanding, that "value" is something, which can be
calculated or even transformed in prices, because it is a societal
relationship and not a "thing". Yes, I know, that have been
thousands of economists who tried this, but nobody reach success
(sorry, Paul).
It can be done by adding up the time taken to train different trades
and professions and amortising this over either the working life, or
the period of obsolescence of the skill , whichever is the shorter.
What about development of productive forces? Using machines, computers,
levels of cooperation? What about tacit knowledge? Affective labour?
And so on...
Is it value or exchange value that you mean is a social relationship?
Both.
Exchange value certainly is presented by Marx as a relation in the
strict sense of Cobbs relational algebra, but is value also a
relation?
Yes, of course. Value is the expression of the fact, that production is
taken place isolated from each other (aka: privatly) which brings up
the necessity of an exchange and thus of a comparision of the goods.
But goods are not comparable in the sense of finding an answer to the
queston if they are equivalent. The only aspect, which is comparable in
the sense equivalence, is the abstract labour.
Abstract labour does not exist and does exist at the same time. Nobody
has ever seen or done »abstract labour«, it is nothing »real«. At the
same time it is »real«, because it is created by the simple fact, that
it is needed to be able to exchange equivalently. And the process
of »abstraction« is real in sense, that it happens really (the
word »real abstraction« is from Alfred Sohn-Rethel), it guides the
actions of the people (which is the base of fetishism). But this
reality is nothing natural, but exists only due to the fact, that
isolated production needs exchange and thus value. Value is a social
relationship. In other social circumstances, namely in a society, which
does not base on isolated production and exchange, there is no value at
all.
I am not sure if this answers your question.
Ciao,
Stefan
--
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