A significant part of the value of money lies in the fact that it can be exchanged for labor. The value of money depends on a reliable supply of workers-for-hire. But if people aren't willing to work for money then that part of money's value is gone. Without a sufficient pool of laborers for hire having a lot of money doesn't mean much. But without police people may choose to work directly for subsistence or other reasons rather than for money. The more people that make this choice the fewer workers for hire are available, so the less value money has. The labor theory of value in some sense incorporates a police theory of value.

This idea is part of a long-term project of mine to understand the ramified role police play in creating the modern world. It's important to me b/c I think all mainstream economic theories omit the role of the police in maintaining capitalism. Just for instance they all treat labor supply as a natural resource rather than something painstakingly created and maintained through police violence. Here's a recent installment in this project:

https://chez-risk.in/2023/01/29/state-violence-the-diamond-water-paradox-and-an-invisible-axiom-of-classical-economics/

#Abolition #Anarchism #Economics #ACAB #Police #PoliceAbolition #LaborTheoryOfValue #DiamondWaterParadox #UseValue #Anarcy #Police #PolicePower

All value comes from human labor.

If a passing meteor is made of solid gold but there is no labor done to sent an excavation crew, mine it and bring it back, it has $0 worth of value.

#LaborTheoryOfValue #Marxism

I've seen this weird stream of shallow criticism coming out lately in regards to the labor theory of value some even going so far as to say we (ie Leftists) need to study Austrians like Heyek. I want to address some of this.

The LTV does not say labor by default is valuable.

This was one of the main flaws of Smith's (yes Adam Smith) LTV.

Riccardo once critiqued Smith in regards to this on aging wine. Marx made a contribution here and stated that the nature of the goods being worked is important when determining where value is being produced.

If one simply digs a hole the dirt that comes out of the hole is not valuable REGARDLESS of labor inputs. However if one digs a hole and finds a vain of gold the labor becomes valuable on the basis of the nature of gold.

As is the case with the winemaker.

This isn't some fucking brilliant gotcha. It doesn't really take a super lot of effort to understand that digging holes isn't somehow valuable just cuz labor. That was never the point. It's bad faith, ignorance, or both plain and simple.

Secondly the LTV is not about determining the exchange value of goods. This as far as I can tell is just a blatant misunderstanding of Marx.

What the LTV is about is how value is generated. In short, labor + nature of goods. SINCE this is the case all that value generated Should be returned to the worker NOT the Capitalist who simply owns shit because they are not creating the value. Simple.

What Marx had to say in regards to EXCHANGE VALUE is that the rate of profit would fall over time thus trending more towards a natural value.

This is because Marx was a progressive and believed society would evolve in that direction over time NOT that the LTV determines exchange value or price.

Lastly and most bluntly the collapse of Marxian states has absofuckinglutely nothing to do with the LTV.

The large majority of production in Marxian states was under the model of State Capitalism.

They did not involve the LTV for whatever reason they had good or bad.

If workers are not directly owning and operating the means of production surplus value will be exploited by wages or by capital accumulation.

In either case the STATE was taking the value of their labor.

This is a complete and utter doing away with and rejection of the LTV.

Frankly I'd argue that this is a vindication of the LTV due to the ultimate collapse of most Marxian states though there are other factors not related to economics people have written tomes on.

#Anarchism #LaborTheoryOfValue #LTV #Marx #AdamSmith