Capitalism commodified things for their exchange value, not their intrinsic worth

Evidence

Capitalism had begun as a relentless drive to put a price on things that once had no price: common lands, human labour, all the stuff that families once produced for their own consumption – from bread and home-brewed wine to woolly jumpers and various tools. If there was something that humans shared and enjoyed but which had no price and mattered to us only for its intrinsic or ‘experiential value’ – like granny’s handcrafted tablecloth, or a beautiful sunset, or a beguiling song – capitalism found a way to commodify it: to subjugate its experiential value to an exchange value. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 122

Categorization

• DEFINE: Contrast of experiential vs exchange value is foundational for the later platform-rent argument, setting up what platforms do differently.
• XREF: Connects to Polanyi’s ‘great transformation’ idea of commodifying land, labor, and money beyond the rubric use. — connects to: Exchange itself, not utility or scarcity, creates economic value. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 261; Capitalism’s defining move is abstracting exchange value from ordinary life processes — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 146; Cultural goods derive exchange-value from production, not from any special appearance of immediacy — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 444 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Capitalism’s defining move is abstracting exchange value from ordinary life processes #corroborates (0.95) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 146
• Capitalism moved from commodifying having to commodifying appearing. #expands (0.85) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 304
• Exchange itself, not utility or scarcity, creates economic value. #qualifies (0.80) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 261
• Cultural goods derive exchange-value from production, not from any special appearance of immediacy #qualifies (0.80) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 444
• Under capitalism consumption targets abstract value rather than bodily need #expands (0.75) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 753
• Finance manages rather than creates value under capitalism. #corroborates (0.75) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 98