Labor theory of value in the context of "David Ricardo"

Capital: A Critique of Political Economy (German: Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Ökonomie), also known as Das Kapital (German: [das kapiˈtaːl]), is a foundational theoretical text in Marxist philosophy, economics, and politics by Karl Marx. His magnum opus, the work is a critical analysis of political economy, meant to reveal the economic patterns underpinning the capitalist mode of production. Das Kapital is in three volumes, of which only the first was published in Marx's lifetime (1867); the others were completed from his notes and published by his collaborator Friedrich Engels in 1885 and 1894.

The central argument of Das Kapital is that the motivating force of capitalism is in the exploitation of labour, whose unpaid work is the ultimate source of surplus value and profit. Beginning with an analysis of the commodity, Marx argues that the capitalist mode of production is a historically specific system where social relations are mediated by commodity exchange. He posits a labour theory of value, contending that the economic value of a commodity is determined by the socially necessary labour time required for its production. Under this system, the worker's capacity to labour (their labour power) is sold as a commodity, but its use-value—the ability to create new value—is greater than its exchange-value (the wage), allowing the capitalist to extract surplus value. This process drives capital accumulation, which in turn fosters technological change, the creation of a reserve army of labour, and a long-term tendency of the rate of profit to fall, leading to economic crises and intensifying class conflict.

In the United States, libertarianism is a political philosophy promoting individual liberty. Libertarianism has been described as laissez-faire on economic issues while supporting civil liberties and personal freedom. The movement is often associated with a foreign policy of non-interventionism. Broadly, there are four principal traditions within libertarianism, namely the libertarianism that developed in the mid-20th century out of the revival tradition of classical liberalism in the United States after liberalism associated with the New Deal; the libertarianism developed in the 1950s by anarcho-capitalist author Murray Rothbard, who based it on the anti-New Deal Old Right and 19th-century libertarianism and American individualist anarchists such as Benjamin Tucker and Lysander Spooner while rejecting the labor theory of value in favor of Austrian School economics and the subjective theory of value; the libertarianism developed in the 1970s by Robert Nozick and founded in American and European classical liberal traditions; and the libertarianism associated with the Libertarian Party, which was founded in 1971, including politicians such as David Nolan and Ron Paul.

The right-libertarianism associated with people such as Murray Rothbard and Robert Nozick, whose book Anarchy, State, and Utopia received significant attention in academia according to David Lewis Schaefer, is the dominant form of libertarianism in the United States, compared to that of left-libertarianism. The latter is associated with the left-wing of the modern libertarian movement and more recently to the political positions associated with academic philosophers Hillel Steiner, Philippe Van Parijs and Peter Vallentyne that combine self-ownership with an egalitarian approach to natural resources; it is also related to anti-capitalist, free-market anarchist strands such as left-wing market anarchism, referred to as market-oriented left-libertarianism to distinguish itself from other forms of libertarianism.

The law of the value of commodities (German: Wertgesetz der Waren), known simply as the law of value, is a central concept in Karl Marx's critique of political economy first expounded in his polemic The Poverty of Philosophy (1847) against Pierre-Joseph Proudhon with reference to David Ricardo's economics. Most generally, it refers to a regulative principle of the economic exchange of the products of human work, namely that the relative exchange-values of those products in trade, usually expressed by money-prices, are proportional to the average amounts of human labor-time which are currently socially necessary to produce them (see Socially necessary labour time) within the capitalist mode of production.

Thus, the fluctuating exchange value of commodities (exchangeable products) is regulated by their value, where the magnitude of their value is determined by the average quantity of human labour which is currently socially necessary to produce them (see labor theory of value and value-form). Theorizing this concept and its implications preoccupied Marx for more than two decades.

Islamic economics (Arabic: الاقتصاد الإسلامي) refers to the knowledge of economics or economic activities and processes in terms of Islamic principles and teachings. Islam has a set of specific moral norms and values about individual and social economic behavior. Therefore, it has its own economic system, which is based on its philosophical views and is compatible with the Islamic organization of other aspects of human behavior: social and political systems.

Islamic economics is a broad field, related to the more specific subset of Islamic commercial jurisprudence (Arabic: فقه المعاملات, fiqh al-mu'āmalāt). It is also an ideology of economics similar to the labour theory of value, which is "labour-based exchange and exchange-based labour". While there are differences between the two, Islamic economics still tends to be closer to labor theory rather than subjective theory.

Anarcho-capitalism (colloquially: ancap or an-cap) is a political philosophy and economic theory that advocates for the abolition of centralized states in favor of stateless societies where systems of private property are enforced by private agencies. Anarcho-capitalists argue that a society can function without a state through voluntary exchange and private institutions that provide law and security. This would result in a voluntary society based on concepts such as the non-aggression principle, free markets, and self-ownership. In the absence of statute, private defence agencies and/or insurance companies would operate competitively in a market and fulfill the roles of courts and the police, similar to a state apparatus.

According to its proponents, various historical theorists have espoused philosophies similar to anarcho-capitalism. While the earliest existing attestation of "anarchocapitalism" [sic] is in Karl Hess's essay "The Death of Politics" published by Playboy in March 1969, American economist Murray Rothbard was credited with coining the terms anarcho-capitalist and anarcho-capitalism in 1971. A leading figure in the 20th-century American libertarian movement, Rothbard synthesized elements from the Austrian School, classical liberalism and 19th-century American individualist anarchists and mutualists Lysander Spooner and Benjamin Tucker, while rejecting the labour theory of value. Rothbard's anarcho-capitalist society would operate under a mutually agreed-upon "legal code which would be generally accepted, and which the courts would pledge themselves to follow". This legal code would recognize contracts between individuals, private property, self-ownership and tort law in keeping with the non-aggression principle. Unlike a state, enforcement measures in Rothbard’s version of an anarcho-capitalist society would only apply to those who initiated force or fraud. Rothbard views the power of the state as unjustified, arguing that it violates individual rights, reduces prosperity, and creates social and economic problems.

Individualist anarchism in the United States was strongly influenced by Benjamin Tucker, Josiah Warren, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Lysander Spooner, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Max Stirner, Herbert Spencer and Henry David Thoreau. Other important individualist anarchists in the United States were Stephen Pearl Andrews, William Batchelder Greene, Ezra Heywood, M. E. Lazarus, John Beverley Robinson, James L. Walker, Joseph Labadie, Steven Byington and Laurance Labadie.

The first American anarchist publication was The Peaceful Revolutionist, edited by Warren, whose earliest experiments and writings predate Proudhon. According to historian James J. Martin, the individualist anarchists were socialists, whose support for the labor theory of value made their libertarian socialist form of mutualism a free-market socialist alternative to both capitalism and Marxism.

Benjamin Ricketson Tucker (/ˈtʌkər/; April 17, 1854 – June 22, 1939) was an American individualist anarchist and self-identified socialist. Tucker was the editor and publisher of the American individualist anarchist periodical Liberty (1881–1908). Tucker described his form of anarchism as "consistent Manchesterism" and "unterrified Jeffersonianism".

Tucker looked upon anarchism as a part of the broader socialist movement. Tucker harshly opposed state socialism and was a supporter of free-market socialism and libertarian socialism which he termed anarchist or anarchistic socialism. He connected the classical economics of Adam Smith and the Ricardian socialists as well as that of Josiah Warren, Karl Marx and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon to socialism. Some modern commentators have described Tucker as an anarcho-capitalist, although this has been disputed by others. During his lifetime, Tucker opposed capitalism and considered himself a socialist due to his belief in the labor theory of value and disputed many of the dictionary definitions of the term which he believed were inaccurate.

The subjective theory of value (STV) is an economic theory for explaining how the value of goods and services are not only established but also how they can fluctuate over time. The contrasting system is typically known as the labor theory of value.

STV's development helped to better understand human action and decision making in economics. The theory claims that the value of a good is not determined by any inherent property of the good, nor by the cumulative value of components or labor needed to produce it, but instead is determined by the individuals or entities who are buying (and/or selling) that good.