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Essay on Human nature and Labor
Introduction:
The "transformation problem" is at the heart of the Marxian labor theory of value. The topic has always been the subject of sharp controversy. The controversy reflects not only the general ideological conflicts that surround all Marxist ideas, but also the disagreements among Marxists themselves about the nature of the labor theory of value. After defining some of Marx's terms, the paper describes two main schools of thought within the Marxian tradition, each having a very different point of view on the nature and significance of value theory and the transformation problem.( L. Bortkiewicz)
For Marx, a commodity is anything that is produced in order to be sold in the market. A commodity has both use value and value. A commodity's use value consists of its physical and chemical properties by virtue of which it can be put to certain human uses. These properties are independent of the historical peculiarities of the social context within which the commodity is produced (e.g., wheat has the same physical and chemical properties whether it is produced in a slave economy, a capitalist economy, or any other economy). A commodity's value, however, has no physical or chemical basis and is entirely the outcome of the specific historical and social circumstances in which it is produced.( L. Bortkiewicz)
In all societies, in all times, production is a social process of interdependent producers, organized socially to undertake the physical and mental exertions necessary to transform their natural environment in order to make that environment sustain human, social life. This interdependency and the resultant necessity for social coordination of labor means that in all societies laboring, or producing, is both a set of activities and a set of social relations. Value is an aspect of a produced object that reflects social relations that are specific to the capitalist, commodity producing society, within which the object is produced as a commodity.................
