Editing Use value (section)

== Transformation into a commodity ==
"As exchange-values, all commodities are merely definite quantities of congealed labour-time", wrote Karl Marx.<ref>Marx, Karl. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Vol. 1. Trans. Ben Fowkes. New York: Penguin, 1990.</ref> The discrepancy of the true purpose of value came to be one of the biggest sources of conflict between capital and labour.  The transformation of a use-value into a social use-value and into a [[Commodity (Marxism)|commodity]] (the process of [[commodification]]) is not automatic or spontaneous, but has technical, social and political preconditions. For example, it must be possible to trade it, and to transfer ownership or access rights to it from one person or organization to another in a secure way. There must also be a real market demand for it. And all that may depend greatly on the nature of the use-value itself, as well as the ability to package, store, preserve and transport it. In the case of [[information]] or [[communication]] as use-values, transforming them into commodities may be a complex and problem-fraught process.{{fact|date=January 2024}}

Thus, the objective characteristics of use-values are very important for understanding (1) the development and expansion of market trade, and (2) necessary technical relationships between different economic activities (e.g. [[supply chain]]s). To produce a car, for example, you objectively require steel, and this steel is required, regardless of what its price might be. Necessary relationships therefore exist between different use-values, because they are technically, materially and practically related. Some authors therefore write about an "industrial complex" or "technological complex", indicating thereby how different technological products are linked in a system. A good example would be all the different products involved in the production and use of motor cars.{{fact|date=January 2024}}

The category of use-value is also important in distinguishing different [[economic sectors]] according to their specific type of output. Following [[Quesnay]]'s analysis of economic [[reproduction (economics)|reproduction]], Marx distinguished between the economic sector producing means of production and the sectors producing consumer goods and luxuries.<ref>Capital II, Chapter 10.</ref> In modern [[national accounts]] more subtle distinctions are made, for example between primary, secondary and tertiary production, semi-durable and durable goods, and so on.{{fact|date=January 2024}}