Exploitation of Labor or Exploitation of Commodities?

Abstract

Attempts to use commodities to construct theories of value and use such value theory to claim that, in capitalism, commodities can be exploited, just like labor is, rest on two conceptual flaws: (a) failure to distinguish between labor and labor power and (b) failure to distinguish labor power and other commodities. One way to avoid these conceptual mistakes is to use the labor theory of value. JEL Classification: B51