Marx has a lot of interesting things to say in Capital which have nothing to do with revolutions and red flags. In the first three chapters of Vol 1 he sets out a structure for commercial intereaction before, during and after a transaction. He is particulary interested in the concept of value- who creates it, how it moves through the system and thus who should reap rewards from it.
Marx ran aground focusing on labor value as the defining characteristic of economic production. All else should fall under the measure of a man’s labor turned out not to be. But in his efforts to justify this theory he sketched out a structure which is interesting and useful. Value is an internal component to a product. Price represents some reflection of the value it contains. If a commodity has no use in the parketplace than it has no value.
Spending labor time on something that is not useful, then bcan be described as simply engaging in a hobby. It’s a leisure time activity. If you dig out in the yard and grew somebeautiful dahlias, but not to sell, than you are engaging in a avocation. It’s important to have a way of distinguishing between unpaid work activities. Caring for a child is useful and hence has value. In this way Marx lays the groundwork for a scientific approach to appreciating those activities not represented by prices.
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