Re: [Marxism] meaning of labor time in Capital

[Phil Dunn <hyl0morphster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 2009-04-17 at 22:03 -0700, tom arnall wrote:
> ................................................ "How would he [Marx] 
> measure the amount of this kind of labor ['homogeneous human labour'] 
> in a particular product?"
> 

I cannot speak on Marx's behalf but here's how I would do it.

Measure the ratio of aggregate labour-time to aggregate sales revenue.
Call this number the value of money (hours per dollar, say).

Multiply the price of any produced commodity by the value of money to
get the value of the that commodity. The amount of homogeneous human
labour congealed in the commodity is equal to its value.

Number-crunching aside, I would say that basis for this homogeneity, or
specific unity as Aristotle would say, is the value-form, understood as
the species of capitalist surplus labour extraction. 



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