Re: [OPE] intermission: value of knowledge

Paul C gave us this quote from Capital:
> <<The coat is value only to the extent that it is the expression, in the
> form of a thing, of the human labour-power expended in its production and
> thus insofar as it is a jelly of abstract human labour – abstract labour,
> because abstraction is made from the definite useful concrete character of
> the labour contained in it, human labour, because the labour counts here
> only as expenditure of human labour-power as such.>>

Notice here that, in order for the coat to be value, expenditure of energy
is not sufficient. Marx also says that the coat is the expression of
abstract labor in 'the form of a thing' - 'jelly', etc. This 'congealed'
form is missing in most of what is now known as 'knowledge labor'.

But even this extra condition is still insufficient, because not all
material things produced are commodities. We need at least one further
condition - the things have to be produced for market exchange, ie, they
have to be commodities. While Marx does not expressly mention this condition
in the above paragraph, it is implied, since the discussion assumes the coat
is a commodity.

Paula

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Received on Mon Dec 21 15:03:23 2009