Use-value
*An item’s USE-VALUE is how it is used. The use-value of bread is that it provides nourishment. The use-value of a chair is that it can be sat upon. And so on
Regardless of whether that item is sold on a market, it still has a use-value if it is useful to someone
The changing and often subjective “utility” of commodities is one of the reasons why it cannot be the determinant of how much something is worth on the market
Even accounting for average needs, or in cases where the hierarchy of utility is more fixed, it makes no sense as a measure of exchange-value. If it were, bread would be more expensive than cars, and certainly more so than diamonds
While you or I are primarily concerned with the use-value of items, whether we can sit on a chair or on a loaf of bread, a capitalist does not care what an item’s use is, so long as it will make him money
1. Elsewhere
1.1. In my garden
Notes that link to this note (AKA backlinks).