COMMODITY FETISHISM AND THE SECRET THERE OF
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From the readings, it is possible to see that Marx considers commodities to be the key distinguishing feature of the capitalist economy. To understand what a commodity is, we must consider the concept of human labour that is so central to Marx's teachings. He sees human labour as being the primary factor of production, whereby human labour produces objects, and is common in all societies where humans must always produce the means of subsistence. In its most basic form, human labour produces objects to satisfy certain needs, such as building a chair to satisfy the need to rest. In capitalist societies, though, production takes on the peculiar characteristic of the system of commodities. Marx would have that by further examining the system of commodities, we may begin to understand the capitalist milieu.
Commodities are objects that are produced specifically for exchange, thus are a unique capitalist mode of production. Marx defines a commodity as an object produced solely for market exchange rather than "for its own immediate consumption." He analyses commodities by seperating the use-value from the exchange-value. Use-value is the inherent utility of an object for which it was produced, for example an axe was made for chopping wood...