-- on 7 Jun 2006, at 21:25, Gil Skillman wrote:
... according to Marx, labor embodied in a commodity is not of itself sufficient for that commodity to have value. It must also be demanded. Thus, just as in the neoclassical approach to scarcity, Marx's is not *strictly* a production-side theory of value.
As a followup query: if we posit that a product of labour can lose commodity status through loss of demand, would a clothes manufacturer whose fashions became defunct no longer produce commodities? (Assuming zero demand, even for a short period). Surely, irrespective of demand, a coat is still a coat, and therefore embodies a certain utility? Now imagine: fashions change and demand returns. Do these garments suddenly re-acquire use-value, or is our focus misplaced? ___________________________________________________________ All new Yahoo! Mail "The new Interface is stunning in its simplicity and ease of use." - PC Magazine http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html
