The Time of Labor Engraves the Value - 19th Century

The Time of Labor Engraves the Value - 19th Century

Marx's thought is rooted in "labor" as the force that produces everything. He held that the value of a commodity is measured not by chance market prices or the intensity of desire, but by the labor time required on average in society to produce it. This is the theory of labor value, and it was the key to unlocking the underlying structure of capitalism. Although human labor is the source of all value, most of its results leave the hands of workers and accumulate as profits for capitalists. Wages are paid only the bare minimum for survival, and the extra value created is exploited. Herein lies the contradiction of capitalism. The more workers work, the further they are from their own output, and labor becomes a means of domination rather than creation. Marx exposed this structure and showed that the proliferation of capital is a process that alienates human life. To measure the value of labor is also to measure the dignity of man himself. His theory exposed to the light of his
tory the human time and suffering that lurks behind the economic figures.