Chapter 1 of volume 1 of Capital is called “The Commodity,” and presents Marx’s theory of the commodity and labour value.Chapter 1 is divided into four sections: (1) The Two Factors of the Commodity: Use Value and Value(2) Dual Character of the Labour embodied in Commodities(3) The Value-Form, or Exchange-Value(4) The Fetishism of the Commodity and its Secret. A summary of the first two sections is here. Below is a critical summary of the last two sections.(3) The Value-Form, or...
Read More »Why Marx’s Labour Theory of Value is Wrong in a Nutshell
The labour theory of value as presented in Part 1 of volume 1 of Capital is wrong for the following reasons: (1) the a priori argument for the labour theory of value in volume 1 of Marx’s Capital is a non sequitur and later contradicts itself, as detailed here and here.(2) Marx faces the problem of reducing all heterogeneous human labour to a homogeneous abstract socially necessary labour time unit, but does not properly explain how this happens;(3) even if Marx could overcome (1) and (2),...
Read More »Marx’s Capital, Volume 1, Chapter 1: A Critical Summary, Part 1 (Updated)
Updated: This post is a work in progress at the momentChapter 1 of volume 1 of Capital is called “The Commodity,” and presents Marx’s theory of the commodity and labour value.Chapter 1 is divided into four sections: (1) The Two Factors of the Commodity: Use Value and Value(2) Dual Character of the Labour embodied in Commodities(3) The Value-Form, or Exchange-Value(4) The Fetishism of the Commodity and its Secret. Interpreters of Marx admit that the first few chapters of Capital are made...
Read More »What is “Austerity”?
I mean in an economic context.People sometimes seem confused about what it means, but I don’t find it problematic. In an economic context, “austerity” has this sense: (1) a situation where the net effect of a government budget (in all its aspects whether spending or taxation, etc.) is contractionary fiscal policy in which aggregate demand is reduced or drained from the economy. E.g., the fiscal policy of Greece and Ireland after 2008 was an example of this type of austerity. However,...
Read More »