All that these things now tell us is, that human labour-power has been expended in their production, that human labour is embodied in them. When looked at as crystals of this social substance, common to them all, they are— Values.
We have seen that when commodities are exchanged, their exchange-value manifests itself as something totally independent of their use-value. But if we abstract from their use-value, there remains their Value as defined above. Therefore, the common substance that manifests itself in the exchange-value of commodities, whenever they are exchanged, is their value.
Capital Vol 1, Karl Marx
Marx clearly had an agenda. He tried to peel back the onion on the theory of capitalism in order to prove his class struggle theory. He was looking for answers to the frictions of his time. Still- it feels like he missed a more wholistic conception by pegging his ephemeral sense of Value, which permiates and settles throughout the sytem, to the average hour of socially necessary labor time.
There’s something to dedicating one’s time to one’s passions. It’s an expression of interest to give to a cause through one’s labor. Yet- Values can be supported by other resources as well. They can also be neglected leading to negative Values.
What Marx does best here is throw some talcum dust on unseeable efforts so as to fingerprint what Values people are working towards when they make exchanges out in the market. Surging and ebbing through the system of market prices, groups of people express what they care about and what they neglect. Here’s to searching out Value, even if it is not tied to the Labor Theory of Value.
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