Uploaded May 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This video is a defence of the Marxist labor theory of value. I explain the LTV again in the beginning and then go into the most common criticisms of the theory and explain my counter arguments in detail. For this purpose I borrow some clips from libertarians and conservatives who attempt to discredit the Labor theory of value.
Subreddit: reddit.com/r/viki1999
Patreon: patreon.com/viki1999
Twitter: twitter.com/Viki1999Yt
E-Mail Address: viki1999mail@gmail.com
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:32 LTV recap
4:03 "But in this example nobody is exploited"
6:39 "Non-physical labour exists!"
8:20 "But what about upkeep costs?"
9:40 "Not all labour is equally valuable"
13:57 "Future money"
21:05 "The employer invested"
25:38 "It's Voluntary"
30:55 "Value is subjective"
41:18 Outro
Links:
Ben Shapiro: youtube.com/watch?v=Y9O-NoccXQQ
Libertarian Rants: youtube.com/watch?v=CXdr2VVzYow
Warren Lehmkuhle II: youtube.com/watch?v=LQJc25YDFEs
Backalley Philosophy: youtube.com/watch?v=c3jm54bLegY
V for Coulantary Library: youtube.com/watch?v=uOzotWrHheU
Ayn Rand Institute: youtube.com/watch?v=qTlEsHuvJpw
Shane Killian: youtube.com/watch?v=Py_oysZGtxk
Mattys Modern Life: youtube.com/watch?v=iKj1bUUrVDE
Transcript:
Hello everybody, the labour theory of value is a core part of why Marxists believe that capitalism is inherently exploitative so naturally all the brave defenders of capitalism try their best to debunk it. Unfortunately they are never really good at it. So today I will attempt to, in good faith and with an open mind look at their arguments, think about them and explain why they are all wrong and I am right.
But before we begin let’s recap the labour theory of value for those in the back who weren’t listening. Skip this if you think you know everything already. Basically it’s a theory which tries to explain why things cost what they cost. In other words, what’s their value? And the labour theory of value puts forward the idea that everything get’s it’s value from the labour that was put into it.
The classical Marxist example is Linen but it’s 2020 so let’s use a phone. This is a bunch of parts a phone is made up of. It’s a screen, a camera, a battery, a case and so on. And if we assemble those the resulting product will always have a higher value than the individual parts put together. This is because it consists of the parts plus the labour of assembling them.
And the more labour it takes the more valuable it is. Assembling a phone might only take a few minutes and would thus not add that much value to the product. But assembling a hand crafted wooden table takes a lot more labour so the value of the table is way higher than the value of the raw materials.
And if we look close enough everything is just made up of labour. Those raw materials as well. The battery was assembled by someone and the lithium was mined by someone. And crucially from that it follows that natural resources don’t have an inherent value. Yes diamonds are very expensive and have a high value. But according to the labour theory of value you are not paying for the inherent value of a diamond, after all it’s just a rock.
What you are paying for is all of that labour that went into getting it to you. The labour of the person who located the diamond mines, the one who dug up the diamonds, the labour of the person who analysed it’s quality, the labour of the person who transported it to you, the value of the sales person who tries to convince you to buy this one instead of the less expensive one. All of that labour, which is quite a lot, is why a diamond is expensive and sand isn’t.
Sand is so common that all it takes to get a kilo is a shovel and 20 seconds. Diamonds are rarer so they need more labour to collect. And from this theory it also follows, that since all value ultimately comes from labour, if someone makes money without labour, where does that come from? And the answer is pretty simple, for every dollar someone earned without working, someone worked without earning a dollar. There are two ways to make money without doing work. Either be a landlord and demand people pay rent or be an employer.
And the way employers make money is simply by underpaying workers. Let’s have a look at this example. These are our raw material and upkeep costs. This is the value of the finished product. And using very basic maths we can see that our worker provided labour of this value. But now the employer can’t make a profit that way, so they pay the workers less. This arrangement in which an employer pays an employee a wage is called wage labour by the way. And this bit of labour which the employee worked for but which they weren’t paid for and which the employer took is called surplus labour or surplus value.
This video is a defence of the Marxist labor theory of value. I explain the LTV again in the beginning and then go into the most common criticisms of the theory and explain my counter arguments in detail. For this purpose I borrow some clips from libertarians and conservatives who attempt to discredit the Labor theory of value.
Subreddit: reddit.com/r/viki1999
Patreon: patreon.com/viki1999
Twitter: twitter.com/Viki1999Yt
E-Mail Address: viki1999mail@gmail.com
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:32 LTV recap
4:03 "But in this example nobody is exploited"
6:39 "Non-physical labour exists!"
8:20 "But what about upkeep costs?"
9:40 "Not all labour is equally valuable"
13:57 "Future money"
21:05 "The employer invested"
25:38 "It's Voluntary"
30:55 "Value is subjective"
41:18 Outro
Links:
Ben Shapiro: youtube.com/watch?v=Y9O-NoccXQQ
Libertarian Rants: youtube.com/watch?v=CXdr2VVzYow
Warren Lehmkuhle II: youtube.com/watch?v=LQJc25YDFEs
Backalley Philosophy: youtube.com/watch?v=c3jm54bLegY
V for Coulantary Library: youtube.com/watch?v=uOzotWrHheU
Ayn Rand Institute: youtube.com/watch?v=qTlEsHuvJpw
Shane Killian: youtube.com/watch?v=Py_oysZGtxk
Mattys Modern Life: youtube.com/watch?v=iKj1bUUrVDE
Transcript:
Hello everybody, the labour theory of value is a core part of why Marxists believe that capitalism is inherently exploitative so naturally all the brave defenders of capitalism try their best to debunk it. Unfortunately they are never really good at it. So today I will attempt to, in good faith and with an open mind look at their arguments, think about them and explain why they are all wrong and I am right.
But before we begin let’s recap the labour theory of value for those in the back who weren’t listening. Skip this if you think you know everything already. Basically it’s a theory which tries to explain why things cost what they cost. In other words, what’s their value? And the labour theory of value puts forward the idea that everything get’s it’s value from the labour that was put into it.
The classical Marxist example is Linen but it’s 2020 so let’s use a phone. This is a bunch of parts a phone is made up of. It’s a screen, a camera, a battery, a case and so on. And if we assemble those the resulting product will always have a higher value than the individual parts put together. This is because it consists of the parts plus the labour of assembling them.
And the more labour it takes the more valuable it is. Assembling a phone might only take a few minutes and would thus not add that much value to the product. But assembling a hand crafted wooden table takes a lot more labour so the value of the table is way higher than the value of the raw materials.
And if we look close enough everything is just made up of labour. Those raw materials as well. The battery was assembled by someone and the lithium was mined by someone. And crucially from that it follows that natural resources don’t have an inherent value. Yes diamonds are very expensive and have a high value. But according to the labour theory of value you are not paying for the inherent value of a diamond, after all it’s just a rock.
What you are paying for is all of that labour that went into getting it to you. The labour of the person who located the diamond mines, the one who dug up the diamonds, the labour of the person who analysed it’s quality, the labour of the person who transported it to you, the value of the sales person who tries to convince you to buy this one instead of the less expensive one. All of that labour, which is quite a lot, is why a diamond is expensive and sand isn’t.
Sand is so common that all it takes to get a kilo is a shovel and 20 seconds. Diamonds are rarer so they need more labour to collect. And from this theory it also follows, that since all value ultimately comes from labour, if someone makes money without labour, where does that come from? And the answer is pretty simple, for every dollar someone earned without working, someone worked without earning a dollar. There are two ways to make money without doing work. Either be a landlord and demand people pay rent or be an employer.
And the way employers make money is simply by underpaying workers. Let’s have a look at this example. These are our raw material and upkeep costs. This is the value of the finished product. And using very basic maths we can see that our worker provided labour of this value. But now the employer can’t make a profit that way, so they pay the workers less. This arrangement in which an employer pays an employee a wage is called wage labour by the way. And this bit of labour which the employee worked for but which they weren’t paid for and which the employer took is called surplus labour or surplus value.
