[Marxists] How would you answer these objections to the LVT

  1. If the exchange value of a commodity is determined by the socially necessary labour to produce it, isn't the LTV itself implying that value is subjective? After all, what is socially necessary is determined by most of the individual preferences in society.

Individual preferences don't determine what is socially necessary. What is socially necessary determines individuals' preferences in society. Think about food. A desert community can't really have a preference for polar bear grease. Or people living in amazon can't really prefer to eat camel meat. It is our production conditions that determine what we can or cannot eat.

  1. How does the LTV explain the exchange value of things that have no labour at all, such as natural resources (acres of land, water in a river, etc?)

LTV is not meant to explain commodities without value any more than the theory of gravity is meant to explain evolution.

  1. Why does labour have to be the common element of two commodities for them to be compared instead of their utility? For example, if I have 6 eggs and I exchange those six eggs for 4 peaces of bacon, I did that because I valued the four pieces of bacon more than the 6 eggs I had, which means that the four pieces of bacon have more utility to me regarding on how well they can satisfy my apetite and the opposite is true for the person who exchanged their four pieces of bacon for the six eggs I had.

Because the utility of every commodity is different. The use value of bacon gives you a certain sense of taste while that of egg a different sense of taste. The taste of bacon and egg are qualitatively different. The abstract value expended on them are quantitatively different. So we can measure their labour on a common scale. We can't measure their tastes the same way.

/r/CapitalismVSocialism Thread