Tag Archives: Marx’s Labour Theory of Value

This is one of the many problems with Marx’s bizarre and incoherent labour theory of value.In essence, for Marx, factors of production that have no embodied labour value transfer no value into the output commodity: “It is thus strikingly clear, that means of production never transfer more value to the product than they themselves lose during the labour-process by the destruction of their own use-value. If such an instrument has no value to lose, if, in other words, it is not the product of...

I am surprised how few people understand them: (1) as I have carefully documented here, the final view of Engels, on the basis of his edited version of volume 3 of Capital and the remarks of Marx there, was that the law of value in volume 1 of Capital could only be applied as an empirical theory to the pre-modern world of commodity exchange before about the 15th century (Marx 1991: 1038).(2) this means that the law of value in volume 1 – that commodities tend to exchange at their pure labour...

Joan Robinson’s An Essay on Marxian Economics (1966) is her extended analysis and critique of Marxism, and this should be of great interest to Post Keynesians given Robinson’s role in developing Post Keynesian theory.Some quick points: (1) Although she finds some value in Marx, her condemnation of the labour theory of value is nevertheless fairly harsh: Robinson calls the labour theory of value a Marxist “incantation” and compares it to witchcraft (Robinson 1966: 22).(2) Robinson (1966: 10)...