Socially necessary labor time makes disparate commodities commensurable

Evidence

‘[E]xchange takes place’, Adorno claims, ‘through money as the equivalent form’. At the same time, ‘the true unit which stands behind money as the equivalent form is the average necessary amount of social labour time, which is modified, of course, in keeping with the specific social relationships governing the exchange’. Adorno thus concludes ‘that two commodities become commensurable with each other precisely on the basis of the average social labour-time invested in them – that is, without regard to their specific determinants’. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1443

Categorization

• DEFINE: Adorno’s restatement of the labor theory of value — the abstract unit behind money is average social labor time, socially modified.
• XREF: connects to: Commodity equivalence remains nonthinkable even after labor-theory explanation — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 516; The demand for equality originates in wage labor’s commodity equivalences; Market relations are real yet structurally unable to express the underlying social labor (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Commodity equivalence remains nonthinkable even after labor-theory explanation #contradicts (0.85) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 516
• Capitalism’s socialized labor is experienced by individuals as alien market relations #expands (0.80) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 889
• Market relations are real yet structurally unable to express the underlying social labor #complicates (0.75)
• The demand for equality originates in wage labor’s commodity equivalences #expands (0.72)