Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Labor theory of value" in English language version.
...even though the quantity of socially-necessary labor required for the production of one pair of shoes did not change, because of the excessive supply the shoes are sold according to a market price which is below the market-value determined by the socially-necessary labor. The interpreters of Marx ...establish... an 'economic' concept of necessary labor i.e., recognizing that socially-necessary labor changes not only in relation to changes in the productive power of labor but also in relation to changes in the balance between social supply and demand.
Thus, the classical solution of expressing the value of goods and services in terms of man hours, which was developed by the orthodox (political) economists of the time, was adopted by both Proudhon and Marx.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Josiah Warren: The First American Anarchist – A Sociological Study, Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., 1906, p. 20Everything people have used historically to create wealth – whether a Neolithic stone axe or a modern computer – once had to be made by human labour. Even if the axe was shaped with tools, the tools in turn were the product of previous labour. That is why Karl Marx used to refer to the means of production as 'dead labour'. When businessmen boast of the capital they possess, in reality they are boasting that they have gained control of a vast pool of the labour of previous generations – and that does not mean the labour of their ancestors, who laboured no more than they do now.
The real price of every thing, what every thing really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it. What every thing is really worth to the man who has acquired it, and who wants to dispose of it or exchange it for something else, is the toil and trouble which it can save to himself, and which it can impose upon other people.
You would be altogether mistaken in fancying that the value of labour or any other commodity whatever is ultimately fixed by supply and demand. Supply and demand regulate nothing but the temporary fluctuations of market prices. They will explain to you why the market price of a commodity rises above or sinks below its value, but they can never account for the value itself. Suppose supply and demand to equilibrate, or, as the economists call it, to cover each other. Why, the very moment these opposite forces become equal they paralyze each other, and cease to work in the one or other direction. At the moment when supply and demand equilibrate each other, and therefore cease to act, the market price of a commodity coincides with its real value, with the standard price round which its market prices oscillate. In inquiring into the nature of that VALUE, we have therefore nothing at all to do with the temporary effects on market prices of supply and demand. The same holds true of wages and of the prices of all other commodities.
The labor theory of value implies that, in terms of value, the total mass of surplus value to be distributed every year is a given quantity. It depends on the value of variable capital and on the rate of surplus value. Price competition cannot change that given quantity (except when it influences the division of the newly created income between workers and capitalists, i.e. depresses or increases real wages, and thereby increases or depresses the rate of surplus value)...It means that the distribution of the given quantity of surplus value is changed, in favor of the monopolists and at the expense of the non-monopolized sectors....Under monopoly capitalism as under "competitive capitalism" the two basic forces explaining capital accumulation remain competition between capitalists (for appropriating bigger shares of surplus value) and competition between capitalists and workers (for increasing the rate of surplus value)."
Value lies at the core of the economic adjustment process. If the actual price of something were above the value, the extra profits to be made would attract more firms into that industry leading to a greater supply and – eventually – lower prices; conversely, if the actual price of something were below the value, the losses – or sub-normal profits – would drive firms out of that industry leading to a smaller supply and – eventually – higher prices.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link){{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Josiah Warren: The First American Anarchist – A Sociological Study, Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., 1906, p. 20