A short post. I have been dabbling around in political economy and it is really interesting. I sometimes wished I lived forever because there is just so much to study.
As far as I have understood, there are two kinds of value. Individual value, sometimes simply called value, which chiefly determined by the labour to produce something, and use value, or utility, which is determined by how much society needs it. At the extremes, a mudpie would have a certain non-zero individual value, though its use value would most likely be none. On the other hand, bread would also have a reasonable individual value, though it's utility is a lot higher. The moment the object is being traded on the market, it gains an exchange value and a price. Exchange value and use value aren't necessarily linked, with diamonds (no use, high exchange) and water (high use, low exchange) as extremes. Some things have no individual value though are useful, like air.
Some of these values are regulated by the "Law of Value", which is an extremely vague concept I can't find a good explanation of. Figures.
Maybe I should read "Das Kapital".
As far as I have understood, there are two kinds of value. Individual value, sometimes simply called value, which chiefly determined by the labour to produce something, and use value, or utility, which is determined by how much society needs it. At the extremes, a mudpie would have a certain non-zero individual value, though its use value would most likely be none. On the other hand, bread would also have a reasonable individual value, though it's utility is a lot higher. The moment the object is being traded on the market, it gains an exchange value and a price. Exchange value and use value aren't necessarily linked, with diamonds (no use, high exchange) and water (high use, low exchange) as extremes. Some things have no individual value though are useful, like air.
Some of these values are regulated by the "Law of Value", which is an extremely vague concept I can't find a good explanation of. Figures.
Maybe I should read "Das Kapital".
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