Marx: Fetishism of Commodities

Focus on use value, exchange value & how commodities are viewed as a fetish.

Commodities

• Things that can be exchanged/ sold on the market

  • Abstract from needs

  • Increases market shares

• Satisfy human needs and wants

• Fundamental units of capitalism

Fetish

• An idol

  • Things that are worshiped

• Commodity remains simple as long as it is tied to its use-value.

How are Commodities viewed as a Fetish?

• Becomes abstract from all the work that it took to create it

• That commodity finds an existence in and of itself

Market Share

• Money is thrown into circulation without any equivalent in values

  • without any commodity production or genuine productive activity

Use Value

• The tangible features of a commodity (a tradeable object) which can satisfy some human requirement, want or need, or which serves a useful purpose

Exchange Value

• The exchange equivalent by which the commodity is compared to other objects on the market.

Social Relations of Production

• Relations between products

  • What it took to create objects that we buy

  • The work and effort of the labourer put into that object