ECON 319 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: For Marx, Fetishism, Barter
Document Summary
Marx claims that commodities have a mystical character". As soon as it steps forth as a commodity, it is changed into something transcendent (336). This distinguishes a tree from a table because a table was transformed from the wood with input from human labour/capital. In this case labour is exchanged to create this good which will then have value and can be called a commodity. His key claim is that whenever, by an exchange, we equate as values our different products, by that very act, we also equate, as human labor, the different kinds of labor expended upon them. We are not aware of this; nevertheless we do it (339). For marx all of this cannot happen if we only rely on nature, this all arises because of social relations. By having needs and wants we can satisfy them through the common ground of having an exchange value.
