Chuanliu, Let Me Tell You What "Chuanliu's Will"-Type Things Actually Are! But Labor Is Not One!

If Chuanliu truly understood what labor is and what Marx's labor theory of value is, he would not have posted "What if we replace 'labor theory of value' with 'Tangfen's will theory' (Chuanliu: 2006-08-11 14:26:44)1558B (1/15/0)," because he treats labor as something equivalent to his own will!

In Marx, labor is a holistic, historical concept, not a single factor. On the contrary, it is precisely supply and demand in Western economics that are "Chuanliu's will"-type things! As for Western economics' economic man hypothesis and analysis of human desires -- these are all "Chuanliu's will"-type things! And then there's Stalin's productive forces, Proudhon's labor time, and so on -- all "Chuanliu's will"-type things!

In Marx, value comes from the totality of relations between people in the social structure. What can determine value can only be the totality of relations between people in the holistic social structure, and the essence of this structure comes from labor relations. This is because the basic constitution of modern society comes from labor relations -- for example, the most fundamental capital-labor relationship, class relations, and so on. Fundamentally speaking, the relations between people in modern society all ultimately trace back to labor relations. This is actually consistent with Marx's thesis that the economic base determines the superstructure. Without Marx's historical materialism, there is no Marxian labor theory of value!

Labor, value -- these are all historical, holistic categories that cannot be encompassed by any single factor. The different factors that the labor category manifests in different historical periods precisely reflect changes in social structure! Capitalist labor and pre-capitalist labor are different, because the social structure constituting labor has changed. The classical assumption that there exists some a priori, eternally unchanging labor is precisely a "Chuanliu's will"-type thing, and has nothing whatsoever to do with Marx!