Re: [Marxism] meaning of labor time in Capital

[David Picón Álvarez <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

When Marx refers to homogeneous labour time, he is, so to speak, 
incorporating the idea that in the end the commodity is made up of the 
various labour components. Basically a skilled worker is someone who has 
invested a certain amount of his (and possibly other people's) labour in 
order to produce faster or better. In this respect the skill of a worker can 
be treated in a manner similar as a tool which requires labour for its 
creation, and yields value with its use insofar as it is not depreciated or 
worn away.

As to how to compute the total labour embodied in a commodity, an obvious 
way, although imperfect, is an undistorted market. A less obvious way is 
labour accounting across the board and the solving of the resulting linear 
equations of how much labour each commodity requires and how much it yields 
into other commodities, and so on.

--David.


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