Message from @Katelyn
Discord ID: 760907717123637259
It depends on if we mean Use-value or Exchange value.
How do you value an item?
I already answered with my best theory of value
I'm comfortable with the definition of whatever someone is willing to pay for it for now.
that's exchange value
I see. How would you like to define use value for the purposes of this conversation?
I fail to see why it wouldn’t Pply to normal value
a man eating spaghetti would pay more for the only fork in existence, than a man with a burrito.
Am I allowed to charge as much as I want? Or ought there be some maximum?
Nah charge as much as you want
If I made a biollion off of that sale, but only paid 10 bucks for it. Is that moral?
billion
Eventually it’ll be too much and the guy will just eat with his hands
And you’ll get nothing
so your max is defined by the market
And then a competition will come in and undercut you price wise
And so on
"only fork in existence"
There’s still metal
I think I see - you're saying that there's some kind of "usefulness" or practicality, consideration, i.e. a fancy painting might have an insane exchange value, but it's "use value" is likely to be quite low.
Trying to find flaw in a real system using impossible scenarios is cool it’s just not helpful
does the labor have the right to renegotiate their wages as mor spaghetti folks come along?
Rephrase if u don’t mind
I'd also like clarification
Neo liberalism is enthralled with exchange value. Marxism sees use value.
Marxism has always failed, and usually ends in starvation
Sure, but in your folk example above, if it truly was the ony fork in existence, someone clever would come up with some alternative to meet the same need. That's something I think capitalism actually does pretty well.
Is there a departure of labor from profit that in your mind would be immoral?
Specify the example you gave earlier I’m curious
And wym
you're saying making x amount of profit relative to paying workers y? CEOs who make 10000x what the lower workers make?
I actually gotta jump off again. Zoom meeting. Maybe we can pick it back up later?
I should get back to work to haha
Sure
Later all
In a functioning labor market these two lines are suppose to be inseparable.
First off that doesn’t really account with how much more efficient we’ve gotten overall. People working at new machines are more productive than workers of old, but there jobs might be easier therefor making their labor work less
But regardless, that can be fixed if workers grow a spine. Or consumers for that matter
Consumers can boycott and workers can strike to incentivize change They just don’t. That is a collective action problem. It’s not like their being kept down. They just won’t rise