From: "Stephen D'Arcy" <darcy-AT-chass.utoronto.ca>
Subject: Re: wealth
Date: Sat, 1 Jun 1996 12:24:09 -0400 (EDT)


Use-value: a relation between persons and things.

Value: a relation between persons and persons.

Exchange-value: a relation between things and things (the "fetishized"
mode of "appearance" of value).

The contrast between use-value and value is a function of the contrast
between the instrumental dimension of labour ("concrete labour") and
its interpersonal dimension ("abstract labour" under capitalism).
Exchange-value (for example: 1 coat = 20 yards of linen) is how wealth
appears in a society in which interpersonal relations (between
producers) are reified, and appear in the form  of relations between
things.

The labour theory of value says (roughly) that the value of a
commodity is determined by the labour-time socially necessary for its
production, and that prices would tend (under perfect competition) to
gravitate toward values so understood. 

Having said that, I agree that we should begin to wind up the
non-Foucault-related discussion of capitalism and Marx etc., however
much I might personally enjoy such talk.

Steve