LTV

[Lisa Rogers <eqwq.lrogers@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

One wrote:
> It turns out that LTV means Labor Theory of Value. This is a
concept  > central to Marx that labor creates all value.
Another wrote:
When and where did Marx ever say that he accepted the "labor theory
of  value"?

Lisa sez:  According to E.K.Hunt, in _The History of Economic
Thought_, the basic idea that labor creates all value was held by
several classical economists, over 130 years before Marx.  This is in
contrast to the idea that the land and soil itself produces exchange
value, or that tools/ machinery actually creates value.

Wasn't it Ricardo who pointed out that all tools and facilities are
themselves embodiements of labor?  [I better look that up some time,
'cause it's probably going to be on the exam.]

Of course, things get rather sticky as the analysis continues.  For
instance, one peculiar thing about 'dead labor' embodied in machinery
is that it multiplies the productivity of the living labor that uses
it.  And to come up with a theory of prices is a bit of another
kettle of fish.  But that's not really the conversation I want to
follow right now.

My limited point for this post is that the "Labor Theory of Value"
can mean a lot of different things in detail, and that phrase is used
in a lot of different ways.  The basic idea that no exchange value
can exist without some living labor involved in the production of a
commodity is consistent with Marx and much of classical economics.

Lisa





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