Classical Economics: Labor Theory of Value, Say's Law, Primitive Accumulation of Capital, Criticisms of the Labour Theory of Value, Use Val

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 29. Chapters: Labor theory of value, Say's law, Primitive accumulation of capital, Criticisms of the labour theory of value, Use value, Underconsumption, Exchange value, Treasury view, Wage-fund doctrine, Circulating capital, British Currency School, Neo-Ricardianism. Excerpt: The labor theories of value (LTV) are economic theories of value which argue that the value of a commodity is related to the labor needed to produce or obtain that commodity. The concept is most often associated with Marxian economics. Marginal utility modified labor theories of value in mainstream economics by adding the concepts of marginality (the tendency of the consumer to substitute one product for another in the marketplace and for producers to substitute one commodity for another in the production of goods and services) and diminishing utility to the original labor theory. Thus, under marginal utility, the first unit of production of a good or service yields more than the second or subsequent units. This may cause a reduction of the price of the subsequent units, but the units continue to reflect the total value of the labor that was used to produce the subequent units. When speaking in terms of a labor theory of value, value, without any qualifying adjective should theoretically refer to the amount of labor necessary to the production of a marketable commodity, including the labor necessary to the development of any real capital employed in the production. Both David Ricardo and Karl Marx attempted to quantify and embody all of the labor components in order to set the real price, or natural price of a commodity. The labor theory of value, as presented by Adam Smith, however, did not require the quantification of all past labor, nor did it deal with the labor needed to create the tools (capital) that might be employed in the production of a commodit...