shag carpet bomb wrote:
>
> what makes it special, to call it a commodity only if it is paid for with
> money? i mean, what's at stake?
I'm fuzzy on the following, but I'll toss it out for what it's worth.
We are attempting to demarcate the realm of capitalism from the huge world of human activity in which it is embedded. Value has to exist as money. A clean carpet (after being vacuumed by someone in the house) has more use value than a dirty carpet, but no surplus value has been created. The (capitalist) economy is the realm of the creation of surplus value. Our plumbing work is done by an idependent pluiimber (not even a secretary: his mother takes the calls). Our exchange with him merely shifts variable capital from the pocket of one consumer to another. IIt links with capitalism (the parts he puts in were commodities before he bought them) but is no more part of capitalism than is my filling the dishwasher at night.
This is what confused me about your early posts on this thread. I couldn't figure out where you were talking about petty producers and where you were talking about capitalists and workers. The "Fuck you, pay me," simply doesn't seem to have much relationship to capitalism.
Carrol