Re: is value labour?

From: Paul Cockshott (wpc@DCS.GLA.AC.UK)
Date: Thu May 08 2003 - 05:12:43 EDT


Asfilho@AOL.COM wrote:

>
>
> The trouble with such Ricardian views as "value is labour" is that they take
> for granted the existence of exchange, prices and commodities. That
> commodities are worth more because they embody more labour begs the questions
> of *why there are commodities at all*, and *why it is a relevant abstraction
> to assume, at certain stages in the analysis, that commodities exchange at
> their labour time of production*.
>

I dont think the statement ' value is labour' is Ricardian. The Ricardian
proposition is that exchange value is determined by labour, with no
distinction being made between value and exchange value.

I am saying that value is (socially necessary) labour, and that
it is indirectly represented in commodity producing societies in the exchange
rates between commodities.


--
Paul Cockshott
Dept Computing Science
University of Glasgow

0141 330 3125


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