Key Arguments

• Value is measured by the duration of labor (time)
• Labor counts as a homogeneous mass of social power
• Socially necessary time is defined by normal conditions of production, average skill, and intensity
• If technology improves (e.g., power-looms), the social value of the product drops even if the individual worker takes the same time

Source Quotes

In order to do this, the English hand-loom weaver in fact needed the same amount of labour-time as before; but the product of his individual hour of labour now only represented half an hour of social labour, and consequently fell to one half its former value. What exclusively determines the magnitude of the value of any article is therefore the amount of labour socially necessary, or the labour-time socially necessary for its production. The individual commodity counts here only as an average sample of its kind.

Each of these units is the same as any other, to the extent that it has the character of a socially average unit of labour-power and acts as such, i.e. only needs, in order to produce a commodity, the labour time which is necessary on an average, or in other words is socially necessary. Socially necessary labour-time is the labour-time required to produce any use-value under the conditions of production normal for a given society and with the average degree of skill and intensity of labour prevalent in that society. The introduction of power-looms into England, for example, probably reduced by one half the labour required to convert a given quantity of yarn into woven fabric.

What exclusively determines the magnitude of the value of any article is therefore the amount of labour socially necessary, or the labour-time socially necessary for its production. The individual commodity counts here only as an average sample of its kind. Commodities which contain equal quantities of labour, or which can be produced in the same time, have therefore the same value.

Key Concepts

• What exclusively determines the magnitude of the value of any article is therefore the amount of labour socially necessary
• labour-time required to produce any use-value under the conditions of production normal for a given society
• average degree of skill and intensity of labour prevalent in that society
• The individual commodity counts here only as an average sample of its kind.

Context

Explaining how value is quantified and addressing the potential objection that lazy workers would produce more value.