The Labor Theory of Value: Maury Camarena - Essay Example

Responses Response Maury Camarena’s consciousness is shallow and brief. She should have explained in details reasons as to why class consciousness exists and the difference between the privileged and non-privileged classes. In Marx’s view, the relationship between people was determined by basically through who controlled the factors of economic production and who did not. For instance, land, factories and resources were in control of the wealthy population. Therefore, the working class did not have a choice but work by the Terms set and dictated by the upper, controlling class.

Marx saw the importance of instilling class consciousness to the working class. It is the subjective awareness of common vested interests and needs for collective political action to cause political change. On the other hand, false consciousness refers to the attitude held by the members of a class position. The working class population would always view themselves as, “I am being exploited by my boss” and not we are being exploited by our boss” classes (Appelrouth & Edles, 2012). Maria Juarez’s explanation on the Labor Theory of Value is comprehensive since she has shown how the politicians influence the process of economic production.

Her distinction between surplus value and its effect on the economy is well outlined. However, she did not explain how capitalism relates the different economic concepts such as wealth, commodities, and labor. Maria does not show how Marx reconciled the labor theory of value with the averaging profits from the surplus value. In addition, she does not describe the value of a commodity, determined by the quantity of socially necessary labor time spent in its production from start to finish. The economists often consider increasing the proportion of surplus labor to necessary labor classes (Appelrouth & Edles, 2012).

References Appelrouth, S. A. & Edles, L. D. (2012). Classical and Contemporary Sociological Theory: Text and Readings (2nd ed.). Los Angeles: Sage Appelrouth, S., & Edles, L. D. (2012). Classical and contemporary sociological theory (2nd Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.