The value-form or form of value (Wertform) is a concept in Karl Marx's critique of political economy. Marx's account of the value-form is differently adopted in later forms of Marxism, in the Frankfurt School and in post-Marxism. When social labor is split up into independent enterprises and organized capitalistically, its products take the form of an ensemble of commodities of diverse types, which face one another on the market.
Production and exchange are governed by ideas and facts expressible in the forms like:
20 yards of linen are worth one coat
20 yards of linen have an equivalent in one coat
20 yards of linen = one coat
20 yards of linen cost 100Thepriceof20yardsoflinenis100
20 yards linen = 100Theformulaeaboveare′expressionsofvalue′(Wertausdruck).Worth,price,andequivalentaresaidtobeofbourgeoislife.Itemsthatenterononesideortheother,herelinen,coatanddollar,aresaidtherebytohavedifferentspecificvalue−forms.Athingmayhaveavalue−formintheimagination–e.g.inthereasoningofaweaverwhoweaves20yardsoflinenwithaviewtogettingacoat,thinking"20yardsoflinenareworthonecoat"orinafirm′sattachingpricestoitsproducts(pricesthatmayormaynotbeaccepted).(Anitemwithapricetagattachedhastherebyenteredthepriceforminimagination.)Butthingscanalsobesaidtoentertheseformsobjectively,aswhenitissimplyafactthate.g.About20yardslinenareworthonecoatThepriceof20yardsoflinenisabout100
The value-forms are social forms of a product of labor as organized asocially, privately and capitalistically. If the breakfast menu of a capitalistic restaurant chain reads:
Toast (two slices) = $1
then toast has assumed a value form as a product of capitalistically associated labor. But in a household, e.g. when feeding the children, the work of making toast – the same 'useful labor' – is associated differently. No such thought will enter the mind of the toast-maker, who will think directly of the children's needs.
