What Is the Labor Theory of Value?

Labor theory of value is the theory that value is a kind of indiscriminate human labor condensed in commodities, that is, abstract labor. The theory that the value of a commodity depends on the socially necessary labor embodied and materialized in the commodity is gradually recognized by people in a long history. The idea that labor determines value was originally proposed by British economist Petty. Adam Smith and David Ricardo also contributed greatly to the theory of labor value. Value is a commodity economy category. The premise of a product becoming a commodity is exchange. There is a question of ratio in exchange. Value takes this ratio, that is, exchange value as its specific expression. Therefore, the relationship between value and labor, and thus the essence of value, is often blurred. The truth of the fact is: if you do not start with the historical beings, then Ricardo's "social existence" can only be abstract knowledge and concepts. [1] The way Marx demonstrated and studied the theory of labor value was: "I have browsed Hegel's" Logic "again, which has helped me a lot in the method of material processing." But it is also exactly here, Marx ridiculed bourgeois workers: "in all modern economists, Ba Xia division of" economic harmony "vulgar set the culmination of a toad can only come up with such a harmony of mud soup." [2]

Theory of labor value

Labor Theory of Value
Representative of the bourgeois classical school
Chinese Communists have always paid attention to
Value and use value
Value is a concept that Marx got after analyzing exchange value. He talked about exchange value first: "Exchange value first manifests as a
The old theory of political economy has proven bankrupt in the failure of the socialist revolution in the 20th century. It has a fatal flaw, that is, it is not a theory that can achieve economic equality, but a theory that maintains economic inequality. Communism, In itself, it is the pursuit of economic equality, and even distribution on demand-thorough economic equality. But the foundation of the old Marxist political economy-the old
The coordinated labor of complex labor and simple labor is the basic fact of the times. This basic fact can be attributed to the axiomatic hypothesis of Marxist labor value theory, and it can be attributed to the complex value creation of complex labor and simple labor. [10] Therefore, instead of "falsifying" labor value theory, the development of science and technology has confirmed the correctness of the Marxist theory of labor value theory.
The exchange and integration of Marx economics and modern economics are mediated by the scientific value theory. The connotation of the scientific labor theory of value lies in scientificization, systematization, and modernization. It has two types of general assumptions (empirical assumptions and conceptual assumptions) as the basis. Starting from these scientific premises, using the basic abstract labor category as the core tool for theoretical analysis, along the path of division of labor and transactions, through model construction, all possible logical forms of complex labor and simple labor to create value can be deduced. Judging from the inherent meaning of Marx's existing methodology, scientific labor value theory should be used as the theoretical foundation of modern economics. [11]
First, the Marxist theory of labor value subverts the viewpoint of British classical economics and lays the foundation for the establishment of the theory of surplus value.
Second, the Marxist theory of labor value reveals the general laws of the commodity economy and provides theoretical guidance for the development of a socialist market economy.
Third, deepen the understanding of labor that creates value and make a new definition of productive labor.
Fourth, deepen the understanding of the role of scientific and technological personnel and management personnel in social production and value creation.
Fifth, deepen the understanding of the role of new production factors such as science and technology, knowledge, and information in wealth and value creation.
Sixth, deepen the understanding of the relationship between value creation and value distribution. [12]
The cooperative factory is a labor cooperation movement established by the laborers themselves, especially a few brave hands, to resist non-cooperative behavior of labor. [13] At the same time, "No matter how superior the cooperative labor is in principle and how beneficial it is in practice, as long as it is still limited to the narrow scope of the accidental efforts of individual workers, it will never prevent monopoly power from growing in geometric progression, but also The masses cannot be emancipated, or even the burden of their poverty can be significantly reduced ... To emancipate the working masses, cooperative labor must be developed nationwide, and therefore the nation's financial resources must also be relied upon ... so seizing power has become the great mission of the working class . " [14]
This shows: "The past union was never arbitrary, as depicted in the Social Contract, but only an inevitable union of such conditions ... Under these conditions, it is possible for individuals to take advantage of contingency." "This It is precisely because they are scattered as individuals, and because of the division of labor that they have a necessary union, and because of their dispersion, this union has formed a relationship that is alien to them. " [15]
What about unions under capitalist rule? "The union of workers, as it manifests in the factory, is not caused by workers but by capital. Their union is not their existence, but the existence of capital." Exchange can dominate the manifestation of its power. The two sides are opposite to each other as personalities. In the form, the relationship between them is an equal and free relationship between ordinary exchangers. As for this form, it is a superficial phenomenon, and it is a deceiving one. This phenomenon appears to be something outside this relationship when examining the legal relationship. On the contrary, we can only say that the contract is in any case merely an external manifestation of the entity relationship. The contract size varies with the scale of capitalist production and The level expands together. "In the final analysis, the existence of the social distribution rate confirms the objective reality of the abstract power of society without the emperor. [16]
However, Marx also said: "The union of their labor is manifested as a special behavior, and at the same time, the independent and decentralized labor of them still exists ... capital not only manifests as the collective power of workers, their social power, but also Appears as a unity that connects workers and thus creates this power. " [17]
Research materials on labor value theory (35 photos)

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