What in the world? I just woke up from a nap. Am I in the 19th century or something?
This was a debate among the classical economists including Marx. This was solved long ago by Jevons, Marshall etal. Particularly Marshall with his discussion of which blade of a scissor does the cutting analogy showed us that value depends on costs and demand.
"This was a debate among the classical economists including Marx. This was solved long ago by Jevons, Marshall etal. Particularly Marshall with his discussion of which blade of a scissor does the cutting analogy showed us that value depends on costs and demand."
While the labor theory of value has long ago been refuted in many different and interesting ways by a variety of schools of economic thought (including the Austrians, the Marshallians (neoclassicals), and other exponents of the marginal revolution), the fact remains that said erroneous theory is the principal theoretical foundation of contemporary socialism-- a view very much alive today and a view that we need the proper intellectual ammunition to combat. Many well-intentioned people without economic training still hold some version of the labor theory and the corresponding view that every good has a "just price" corresponding to costs of production. The purpose of this article is to communicate not only with economists but also with the public at large-- to persuade individuals that the utility theory is a better view and to enable them to argue against the labor theory more effectively.
I am
G. Stolyarov II
http://rationalargumentator.com
Solved long ago, sure, but a few days ago while homeschooling, I was innocently reading from a history book...a passage on the Industrial Revolution, that referred to its consequences with an offhanded mention of how the cotton gin caused unemployment. Nothing else, mind you, just that a lot of folks were thrown out of the only jobs they knew how to do.
To some people, labor-saving inventions aren't valuable. They're anti-valuable.
Economics isn't always taught in college. Sometimes it just splashes on you as you seek education, and spreads by unhygienic contact with others.
Which is not to say there aren't a lot of Marxists teaching it deliberately, as well.