<HTML><BODY><DIV style='font-family: "Verdana"; font-size: 10pt;'><DIV>I've seen the word being tossed aorund in many<BR>> contexts, mainly because it<BR>> creates "good vibes" since value soundls like a good<BR>> thing, moral values,<BR>> familiy, values, economic value, social value and so<BR>> on. But what is it,<BR>> exactly? <BR>> <BR>> What does the term "production of value" mean? We<BR>> can produce things, like<BR>> sneakers or automobiles, or services like curing<BR>> diseases or telling other<BR>> people how to live their lives. But where is value<BR>> in those things, other<BR>> than their price?<BR>> <BR>> Sorry to be such a nominalistic and materialistic<BR>> bore, but debating<BR>> abstractions with poorly defined or no empirical<BR>> meaning always looked to me<BR>> like a wild goose chase.<BR>> <BR>> Wojtek<BR></DIV>
<DIV>Sorry for the late reply, but I'm only now going through the posts to this group.</DIV>
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<DIV>The trouble with discussions about value theory, in my experience, is that they try to take in too much too fast. Let's keep things simple and start with the very thing you name, namely price. What is it? An equation of a commodity with money.</DIV>
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<DIV>These days we're used to treating money as a conventional symbol, but Marx viewed it as another commodity which had, over the course of time, come to express the value of others. But the realtion contained in price is expressed in its most basic form when I say that a given quantity of commodity x "is worth" a given quantity of commodity y. I am, in other words, establishing a quantitative relation between two commodities. But of what are they quantities? When I say a pencil is longer that a pen I refer to quantities of length, a property they both share. There are no such things as quantities of utility. Utility pertains to quality. Different commodities satisfy different needs and are therefore incommensurable. So value can be said to be that of which different commodities, equated to one another through money or price, are quantities. Quantities of what? Thereby hangs the theory. But first we must understand the question the theory was designed to answer.<BR>__________________________________ <BR> o</DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>