[OPE-L:4932] Re: ideal vs real value

Gerald Levy (glevy@pratt.edu)
Tue, 6 May 1997 05:19:15 -0700 (PDT)

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Paul C wrote in [OPE-L:4929]:

> Value may be conserved in exchange, but that does not imply that
> value of goods left on the shelves of warehouses etc must stay the
> same. The issue of stock depreciation is quite distinct from
> conservation in exchange.

OK, let's take those goods out of the warehouse and bring them to the
marketplace. Let's assume that they *initially* have a use-value and an
exchange-value and have been offered for sale. While they are _in the
marketplace_ with price tags on each item, they are not sold "within a
definite period" of time. If these "commodities" physically degrade, they
can "lose" their use-value and capacity to be bearers of exchange-value.
Thus, they *had* value, but no longer *have* value. All of this, in the
above scenario, took place _in the sphere of exchange_. Are those products
-- without use-value or exchange-value -- *now* "commodities"?

In solidarity, Jerry