WEBVTT 00:00:00.649 --> 00:00:03.232 (bright music) 00:00:12.689 --> 00:00:15.989 - We ended without talking about money's four functions. 00:00:15.990 --> 00:00:18.600 Money as a measure of value, as a means of circulation, 00:00:18.600 --> 00:00:21.540 as a store of value and as a means of payment. 00:00:21.539 --> 00:00:26.539 There are other related functions like standard of price. 00:00:26.850 --> 00:00:30.213 Standard of price simply means what you're paying in, 00:00:32.520 --> 00:00:34.440 so and so many dollars. 00:00:34.439 --> 00:00:37.049 The price will be counted in dollars. 00:00:37.049 --> 00:00:38.909 The price will be counted in gold. 00:00:38.909 --> 00:00:40.919 That's a function of the money. 00:00:40.920 --> 00:00:42.810 It tells you that you're not gonna be paying 00:00:42.810 --> 00:00:44.343 in calorie shells or, 00:00:46.859 --> 00:00:47.912 locks of your hair. 00:00:50.429 --> 00:00:53.850 That's as a standard of price. 00:00:53.850 --> 00:00:55.890 As a measure of value 00:00:55.890 --> 00:00:59.253 it's more substantial. 00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:02.940 The measure of value is talking 00:01:02.939 --> 00:01:07.109 about not the particular content of the measure of value, 00:01:07.109 --> 00:01:08.280 that is the price. 00:01:08.280 --> 00:01:10.799 The price is the content of the measure of value. 00:01:10.799 --> 00:01:14.703 It just tells you that money functions to measure value. 00:01:16.530 --> 00:01:17.362 Okay? 00:01:17.362 --> 00:01:19.260 Marx is not gonna talk about how you arrive 00:01:19.260 --> 00:01:21.240 at specific prices 00:01:21.239 --> 00:01:25.319 and it turns out the factors involved in this specific price 00:01:25.319 --> 00:01:27.299 are too much for even him to calculate 00:01:27.299 --> 00:01:29.343 or anyone to calculate in advance. 00:01:30.180 --> 00:01:32.430 There are many factors, it's highly contingent. 00:01:32.430 --> 00:01:33.720 They go up and down, 00:01:33.719 --> 00:01:36.719 but value is still the main determinant. 00:01:36.719 --> 00:01:38.879 Makes up the body of the price 00:01:38.879 --> 00:01:42.839 and the the clothing of the price changes minute by minute, 00:01:42.840 --> 00:01:43.673 day by day. 00:01:45.420 --> 00:01:47.760 You can get to where he works that out in volume three. 00:01:47.760 --> 00:01:50.460 So, if you stick with me for the next couple of years. 00:01:51.870 --> 00:01:53.670 Money as a measure of value 00:01:53.670 --> 00:01:55.799 is related to money as a standard of price. 00:01:55.799 --> 00:01:57.359 It's because that money 00:01:57.359 --> 00:02:01.439 has stepped out of the commodity world, become independent 00:02:01.439 --> 00:02:05.099 and serves only now its main function 00:02:05.099 --> 00:02:09.210 as being the value of those commodities, 00:02:09.210 --> 00:02:10.980 as being able to hold the value, 00:02:10.979 --> 00:02:13.049 as being able to transport the value 00:02:13.050 --> 00:02:16.473 and also being able to measure the value in its units. 00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:19.633 (clears throat) 00:02:19.633 --> 00:02:21.539 So, first he talks about a measure of value 00:02:21.539 --> 00:02:25.112 as values, form of appearance. 00:02:26.219 --> 00:02:28.080 The determining reflection, 00:02:28.080 --> 00:02:31.560 the value mirror for labor time. 00:02:31.560 --> 00:02:34.830 Money as the measure of value allows the value 00:02:34.830 --> 00:02:38.400 of any commodity to appear just like the equivalent formed. 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:39.360 It is an equivalent. 00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:41.100 It's the universal equivalent. 00:02:41.099 --> 00:02:42.269 It is the mirror. 00:02:42.270 --> 00:02:44.550 So, if you wanna know what the value of something is, 00:02:44.550 --> 00:02:47.730 you can't give me more of that thing. 00:02:47.729 --> 00:02:48.869 It would be ridiculous to say 00:02:48.870 --> 00:02:51.569 the value of a banana is a banana, 00:02:51.569 --> 00:02:56.280 or the value of a ton of iron is a ton of iron. 00:02:56.280 --> 00:02:58.770 You have to give it either in something else 00:02:58.770 --> 00:03:01.650 or when the system becomes complex enough, 00:03:01.650 --> 00:03:03.120 you give it in money 00:03:03.120 --> 00:03:05.159 and the money will tell you what the value is, 00:03:05.159 --> 00:03:09.152 tell you that there is value and will represent that value. 00:03:10.770 --> 00:03:15.770 So, money as a measure of value becomes the denominator 00:03:16.050 --> 00:03:17.820 for all commodities. 00:03:17.819 --> 00:03:20.282 Iron over gold, wheat over gold, 00:03:21.150 --> 00:03:22.659 locks of hair over gold 00:03:23.580 --> 00:03:25.173 and education over gold. 00:03:27.330 --> 00:03:30.060 It's what he calls the value expression for a commodity. 00:03:30.060 --> 00:03:31.710 So, you need to know these different terms. 00:03:31.710 --> 00:03:34.260 Again, he's not really laying out 00:03:34.259 --> 00:03:36.060 a scientifically finished system. 00:03:36.060 --> 00:03:38.680 He's trying to figure out how it works 00:03:39.810 --> 00:03:42.150 in the third or fourth iteration here, 00:03:42.150 --> 00:03:43.890 and figure out how to express it to you 00:03:43.889 --> 00:03:45.329 in ways you will understand. 00:03:45.330 --> 00:03:49.770 So, if you think it's one analogy too many 00:03:49.770 --> 00:03:53.189 or one opposite phrase too many, 00:03:53.189 --> 00:03:55.020 you can just leave them aside. 00:03:55.020 --> 00:03:59.189 But money is the value expression for a commodity. 00:03:59.189 --> 00:04:02.460 It is the money form of that commodity 00:04:02.460 --> 00:04:05.490 and that's what measure of value means. 00:04:05.490 --> 00:04:07.140 It both represents the value 00:04:07.139 --> 00:04:09.719 and it represents the amount of value, 00:04:09.719 --> 00:04:10.859 which is the most important 00:04:10.860 --> 00:04:14.103 and only quality of value is that it has an amount. 00:04:21.269 --> 00:04:22.829 One thing that happens here, however, 00:04:22.829 --> 00:04:26.219 is commodity gets a money name 00:04:26.220 --> 00:04:28.320 or money gets a money name like pounds 00:04:28.319 --> 00:04:30.959 and you say, what is the value of this commodity? 00:04:30.959 --> 00:04:33.089 Well, it's worth so and so many pounds 00:04:33.089 --> 00:04:35.699 or it's worth so and so many dollars. 00:04:35.699 --> 00:04:37.592 This money name, 00:04:38.519 --> 00:04:40.949 things have a name, they have a form 00:04:40.949 --> 00:04:41.969 and they have a content. 00:04:41.970 --> 00:04:45.660 For Marx, this is the way his philosophical vocabulary 00:04:45.660 --> 00:04:47.370 is being developed. 00:04:47.370 --> 00:04:48.203 A name, 00:04:49.779 --> 00:04:50.909 a form, and a content. 00:04:50.910 --> 00:04:52.620 The money name, 00:04:52.620 --> 00:04:54.870 and he's a little bit suspicious of names, 00:04:54.870 --> 00:04:56.579 they can do both things. 00:04:56.579 --> 00:04:58.589 They can express something, 00:04:58.589 --> 00:05:00.179 but they can also conceal something 00:05:00.180 --> 00:05:03.420 and the money name conceals this entire process. 00:05:03.420 --> 00:05:06.330 We say 10 bucks, 10 bucks. 00:05:06.329 --> 00:05:08.579 I'll give you this thing for 10 bucks. 00:05:08.579 --> 00:05:09.472 Gimme that thing for 10 bucks 00:05:09.473 --> 00:05:11.879 and the 10 bucks comes to stand in 00:05:11.879 --> 00:05:14.939 for the whole ontological machination 00:05:14.939 --> 00:05:17.252 that makes something into a value. 00:05:19.709 --> 00:05:21.359 Money is a real concealer 00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:26.360 and you should remember that what expresses also conceals 00:05:27.060 --> 00:05:29.250 because it only expresses something. 00:05:29.250 --> 00:05:32.012 It's very particular capitalistic, 00:05:32.939 --> 00:05:35.639 semiotics or capitalistic aesthetics 00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:38.579 is always made to express something in particular 00:05:38.579 --> 00:05:39.962 and hide the rest. 00:05:42.648 --> 00:05:44.010 (clears throat) 00:05:44.009 --> 00:05:45.659 Money as a means of circulation. 00:05:45.660 --> 00:05:47.610 We're just about to overcome all of these. 00:05:47.610 --> 00:05:51.060 These are, by the way, not things that Marx invented, 00:05:51.060 --> 00:05:53.339 they're things that he found in political economy 00:05:53.339 --> 00:05:55.049 and he's about to do a critique of it, 00:05:55.050 --> 00:05:57.990 but calling them insufficient for understanding capital. 00:05:57.990 --> 00:06:00.903 Any of them can be working in other systems and were, 00:06:01.860 --> 00:06:03.600 the way they work together, 00:06:03.600 --> 00:06:06.033 plus one extra factor, the extra, 00:06:07.110 --> 00:06:09.150 the more the surplus, 00:06:09.149 --> 00:06:12.512 which is what the capital system is aiming for its purpose. 00:06:14.579 --> 00:06:16.649 Constitutes his critique of political economy. 00:06:16.649 --> 00:06:18.689 They forgot where the more comes from. 00:06:18.689 --> 00:06:21.959 All of this just explains value in an equivalent system 00:06:21.959 --> 00:06:25.052 that circulates around and doesn't make any more of itself. 00:06:26.040 --> 00:06:28.260 So, we're working between chapters three and four. 00:06:28.259 --> 00:06:30.300 Chapter four is one of my favorite chapters, 00:06:30.300 --> 00:06:31.199 really revelatory, 00:06:31.199 --> 00:06:33.300 especially in the last four or five pages. 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:38.430 But we need to understand how these work so we can see 00:06:38.430 --> 00:06:41.519 how central money is to the capitalist economy, 00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:43.560 capitalistic economy, 00:06:43.560 --> 00:06:45.843 and how it changes its nature. 00:06:47.430 --> 00:06:50.129 So, second, money has been traditionally 00:06:50.129 --> 00:06:51.509 a means of circulation. 00:06:51.509 --> 00:06:53.789 It facilitates the form change 00:06:53.790 --> 00:06:55.590 or metamorphosis of commodities 00:06:55.589 --> 00:06:58.289 that mediates the social metabolism. 00:06:58.290 --> 00:06:59.673 This is page 79. 00:07:00.600 --> 00:07:01.802 Marx says this. 00:07:02.646 --> 00:07:06.000 "Money is a means or a medium or a mediator, 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:07.769 a facilitator. 00:07:07.769 --> 00:07:09.930 Without it, things couldn't circulate" 00:07:09.930 --> 00:07:11.519 and so you need a certain amount of money 00:07:11.519 --> 00:07:12.779 in circulation all the time, 00:07:12.779 --> 00:07:14.219 so the deals can be happening, 00:07:14.220 --> 00:07:16.350 the trades can be happening all over. 00:07:16.350 --> 00:07:18.720 If there's insufficient money, people can't trade 00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:21.573 because they're not gonna suddenly become barterers. 00:07:23.009 --> 00:07:28.009 This is related but different function of money. 00:07:28.439 --> 00:07:32.939 Under capital, things take on different functions, 00:07:32.939 --> 00:07:35.219 and in economics things take on different functions. 00:07:35.220 --> 00:07:36.243 In economies, 00:07:38.189 --> 00:07:40.173 money is a means of circulation. 00:07:43.199 --> 00:07:45.632 As a means of circulation, it, 00:07:49.709 --> 00:07:51.392 produces a contradiction. 00:07:57.600 --> 00:08:00.003 Here's what he says, let's take a look at this. 00:08:04.410 --> 00:08:08.493 I'm looking at page 79 as means of circulation, 78. 00:08:10.889 --> 00:08:14.169 He gives the form of circulation 00:08:15.329 --> 00:08:16.682 as an ellipse, 00:08:19.439 --> 00:08:22.170 which is the geometric corollary 00:08:22.170 --> 00:08:24.663 of what he calls a real contradiction. 00:08:30.779 --> 00:08:32.879 Here's one contradiction. 00:08:32.879 --> 00:08:35.610 When a body is both falling toward another body 00:08:35.610 --> 00:08:37.289 and falling away from it, 00:08:37.289 --> 00:08:39.120 the ellipse is one of the forms of motion 00:08:39.120 --> 00:08:40.409 through which this contradiction 00:08:40.409 --> 00:08:43.319 is just as much realized as resolved. 00:08:43.320 --> 00:08:47.823 And this is what happens in the circulation form. 00:08:49.169 --> 00:08:53.222 Money is moving away and coming back at the same time. 00:08:55.139 --> 00:08:56.913 It takes the form of an ellipse. 00:08:59.895 --> 00:09:02.562 (clears throat) 00:09:05.159 --> 00:09:07.850 Value is moving away and coming back at the same time. 00:09:07.850 --> 00:09:10.590 In so far as I trade one thing for another, 00:09:10.590 --> 00:09:12.149 the value moves along with that thing, 00:09:12.149 --> 00:09:14.600 but it also comes back to me in a different form. 00:09:16.080 --> 00:09:18.990 You could call this a contradiction unfolded in time. 00:09:18.990 --> 00:09:22.533 Here we're talking about the philosophical ideas in play. 00:09:23.669 --> 00:09:28.289 But nonetheless, if at the very instant of a trade 00:09:28.289 --> 00:09:31.469 you said this value is both in the money 00:09:31.470 --> 00:09:35.129 and in the commodity, it would be it's an oddity. 00:09:35.129 --> 00:09:37.590 There has to be a moment in which it's in both of them 00:09:37.590 --> 00:09:39.240 and then switches. 00:09:39.240 --> 00:09:44.070 There is a ontological contradiction there, 00:09:44.070 --> 00:09:46.653 and he wants to play that out. 00:09:53.279 --> 00:09:56.220 Circulation he calls a moving contradiction. 00:09:56.220 --> 00:09:59.009 What you have, I want what I have you want, 00:09:59.009 --> 00:10:00.840 the value that I have transfers to you, 00:10:00.840 --> 00:10:03.030 the value that you have transfers to me, 00:10:03.029 --> 00:10:07.112 value moves in these eccentric ellipses. 00:10:08.039 --> 00:10:08.872 Sandra. 00:10:08.873 --> 00:10:10.206 - Where's the contradiction? 00:10:10.206 --> 00:10:13.559 - The contradiction is that for a moment at least 00:10:13.559 --> 00:10:15.572 the value is going in both directions. 00:10:17.279 --> 00:10:19.230 - How does that non fiction? 00:10:19.230 --> 00:10:20.100 - Well, it can't, 00:10:20.100 --> 00:10:25.067 value doesn't double itself just out of nowhere. 00:10:25.067 --> 00:10:26.534 - But there there are two commodities, right? 00:10:26.534 --> 00:10:27.634 There's the double of value. 00:10:27.634 --> 00:10:28.529 - Mm-hmm. - Half of it is going, 00:10:28.529 --> 00:10:30.329 yeah, who is gonna other place. 00:10:30.330 --> 00:10:33.120 - No, it's not half of it going, it's the whole. 00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:34.830 - Yeah, the whole of one and the whole of the other. 00:10:34.830 --> 00:10:36.780 - That's right, but at a moment they switch. 00:10:36.779 --> 00:10:38.490 So, he thinks of this as a contradiction, 00:10:38.490 --> 00:10:39.842 is a real contradiction. 00:10:40.860 --> 00:10:42.810 That's one way to think of the transformation 00:10:42.809 --> 00:10:45.479 or the transfer of value as a real contradiction. 00:10:45.480 --> 00:10:47.700 I have the value now you have the value, 00:10:47.700 --> 00:10:49.700 you have the value now I have the value. 00:10:51.120 --> 00:10:52.740 How did it become naturalized 00:10:52.740 --> 00:10:56.039 to think that that makes sense? 00:10:56.039 --> 00:10:58.409 Where is the thing that's moving between the two? 00:10:58.409 --> 00:11:00.752 There is no actual transfer that takes place. 00:11:03.090 --> 00:11:04.503 That the physical transfer. 00:11:05.580 --> 00:11:07.480 - While you're exchanging commodities. 00:11:09.779 --> 00:11:10.612 - Let's keep going 00:11:10.613 --> 00:11:12.800 and see if we can get a better handle on this. 00:11:13.710 --> 00:11:17.040 He calls it also social metabolism. 00:11:17.039 --> 00:11:20.819 That is taking something that's locked inside something else 00:11:20.820 --> 00:11:23.100 and making it available 00:11:23.100 --> 00:11:25.470 to be used in a different part of society. 00:11:25.470 --> 00:11:27.779 This is what happens with the value in one thing, 00:11:27.779 --> 00:11:31.529 which is not useful to me as I give it to someone else 00:11:31.529 --> 00:11:33.692 for whom it is a value. 00:11:36.210 --> 00:11:37.860 He calls it social metabolism 00:11:37.860 --> 00:11:40.379 where these things are getting processed. 00:11:40.379 --> 00:11:43.379 Another analogy he uses is digestion. 00:11:43.379 --> 00:11:45.243 These are things becoming digested. 00:11:48.052 --> 00:11:48.885 (clears throat) 00:11:48.885 --> 00:11:52.629 And if you think about circulation as a kind of metabolism 00:11:53.639 --> 00:11:55.529 on the analogy of a body, 00:11:55.529 --> 00:11:58.319 you can also think about the rate of metabolism. 00:11:58.320 --> 00:12:02.010 That is that things not only have to get transferred, 00:12:02.009 --> 00:12:04.679 but if they get transferred at a certain speed, 00:12:04.679 --> 00:12:06.239 you need more of them. 00:12:06.240 --> 00:12:09.633 Like my nemesis, skinny people who can eat a lot. 00:12:11.399 --> 00:12:14.579 You need more of it and it has almost no consequence. 00:12:14.580 --> 00:12:16.032 Da. 00:12:16.032 --> 00:12:17.070 (clears throat) 00:12:17.070 --> 00:12:17.903 All right. 00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:26.043 Money as a means of circulation works in this formula, 00:12:27.120 --> 00:12:30.090 which is the formula of exchange economies. 00:12:30.090 --> 00:12:31.019 This is famous. 00:12:31.019 --> 00:12:34.169 People have taught this formula for 150 years. 00:12:34.169 --> 00:12:37.589 It's kind of beautiful that Marx can boil everything down 00:12:37.590 --> 00:12:40.379 to a simple formula or a simple visual. 00:12:40.379 --> 00:12:42.120 But then it's not so simple 00:12:42.120 --> 00:12:47.120 because here's the contradiction right there. 00:12:47.190 --> 00:12:49.530 It's actually happening simultaneously. 00:12:49.529 --> 00:12:51.899 When I sell my commodity to you for money, 00:12:51.899 --> 00:12:54.659 you give your money to me for the commodity. 00:12:54.659 --> 00:12:57.360 This is a kind of heuristic 00:12:57.360 --> 00:13:01.649 or an artificial unfolding 00:13:01.649 --> 00:13:03.629 of what happens like this. 00:13:03.629 --> 00:13:06.783 So, the money doubles there for a minute. 00:13:15.120 --> 00:13:18.990 This is a simultaneous thing 00:13:18.990 --> 00:13:20.733 and you can see also that, 00:13:23.429 --> 00:13:24.262 let's see, 00:13:25.950 --> 00:13:26.973 it could go on, 00:13:29.429 --> 00:13:30.262 right? 00:13:31.379 --> 00:13:34.592 You have one transaction, 00:13:37.740 --> 00:13:39.243 a second transaction. 00:13:40.710 --> 00:13:44.733 This is how circulation works in simple circulation. 00:13:46.481 --> 00:13:48.269 (clears throat) 00:13:48.269 --> 00:13:51.750 When you get money for your commodity, as you know, 00:13:51.750 --> 00:13:54.812 the value that's in this commodity has changed forms. 00:13:56.159 --> 00:13:58.159 It comes in a different form altogether. 00:14:01.590 --> 00:14:04.470 This is a change that's absolutely crucial 00:14:04.470 --> 00:14:05.670 for the capital system 00:14:05.669 --> 00:14:09.870 just as it's crucial for other not fully capitalist systems 00:14:09.870 --> 00:14:12.182 that use a trade economy. 00:14:14.789 --> 00:14:17.459 One thing you start to get here in this section, 00:14:17.460 --> 00:14:20.129 you get even more in the next chapter, 00:14:20.129 --> 00:14:25.129 is the picture of an economy as an immense network of trades 00:14:25.830 --> 00:14:29.009 that are going on all at once in a fairly chaotic fashion. 00:14:29.009 --> 00:14:30.960 Except they all have to have this form 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:32.730 and to some degree this commodity 00:14:32.730 --> 00:14:34.800 has to be more or less the same. 00:14:34.799 --> 00:14:36.939 Say it is iron for money 00:14:38.700 --> 00:14:41.730 and money for, let's see what are we doing here? 00:14:41.730 --> 00:14:43.832 A money for iron, that's that one thing. 00:14:44.820 --> 00:14:48.243 So, then the iron goes to something else. 00:14:52.200 --> 00:14:53.400 Let me think about that. 00:14:54.643 --> 00:14:56.610 (clears throat) 00:14:56.610 --> 00:14:59.797 What he's showing you above all here is how the sale 00:15:02.100 --> 00:15:05.399 is different than the purchase in its perspective. 00:15:05.399 --> 00:15:09.360 A purchase is turning a money into a commodity 00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:11.610 and a sale is turning a commodity into money. 00:15:13.500 --> 00:15:17.850 In a purchase, prices he calls the bedroom eyes 00:15:17.850 --> 00:15:20.399 with which commodities wink at money. 00:15:20.399 --> 00:15:21.572 It's a beautiful line. 00:15:22.470 --> 00:15:26.700 And it implies the kind of power and seduction 00:15:26.700 --> 00:15:28.830 and attraction that's involved in this. 00:15:28.830 --> 00:15:30.840 You look at a price and you think, 00:15:30.840 --> 00:15:33.180 my money is attracted to that price. 00:15:33.179 --> 00:15:35.009 My money is very close to that price. 00:15:35.009 --> 00:15:37.679 I might even have something left over for lunch. 00:15:37.679 --> 00:15:38.512 I'll buy it. 00:15:40.830 --> 00:15:43.290 But you see also here a kind of schizophrenia 00:15:43.289 --> 00:15:48.289 where the seller is also a buyer. 00:15:48.360 --> 00:15:50.253 The seller is a buyer of money, 00:15:52.440 --> 00:15:55.290 and the buyer is also a seller. 00:15:55.289 --> 00:15:57.692 The buyer is a seller of money. 00:15:59.495 --> 00:16:01.988 Yeah, the buyer's a seller of money. 00:16:01.988 --> 00:16:02.821 (clears throat) 00:16:02.821 --> 00:16:04.740 And in this way we begin to see 00:16:04.740 --> 00:16:09.690 how every economic activity turns into a circuit 00:16:09.690 --> 00:16:11.673 that has to be closed. 00:16:14.159 --> 00:16:15.329 The seller takes their money 00:16:15.330 --> 00:16:17.910 and goes invest it in something they need. 00:16:17.909 --> 00:16:20.159 The buyer takes their banana 00:16:20.159 --> 00:16:22.773 and reproduces their labor-power. 00:16:25.440 --> 00:16:27.360 It's a kind of perpetual motion machine 00:16:27.360 --> 00:16:29.513 and this is one of the characteristics of the capital system 00:16:29.513 --> 00:16:32.700 that is not characteristic of feudalism or other things, 00:16:32.700 --> 00:16:37.080 although in all economic systems, you need to reproduce. 00:16:37.080 --> 00:16:39.870 You need to reproduce your own energies, 00:16:39.870 --> 00:16:42.210 you need to reproduce the society. 00:16:42.210 --> 00:16:47.210 It doesn't have to become restless endless notion. 00:16:50.399 --> 00:16:53.730 Circulation, in case you wanna know, is taken up, 00:16:53.730 --> 00:16:56.820 exploded and developed in volume two, 00:16:56.820 --> 00:16:58.320 which I recommend you reading. 00:16:59.549 --> 00:17:02.522 If you look at pages 86 to 87, 00:17:03.450 --> 00:17:07.957 you have here a really clear initial interpretation 00:17:09.720 --> 00:17:12.452 of how circulation changes space and time. 00:17:17.549 --> 00:17:18.722 First of all, 00:17:20.880 --> 00:17:24.030 if you look in the middle of the second full paragraph, 00:17:24.029 --> 00:17:26.099 starting with commodity circulation differs 00:17:26.099 --> 00:17:28.139 from the direct exchange of products, 00:17:28.140 --> 00:17:30.960 not only in terms of form, but also in its essence. 00:17:30.960 --> 00:17:35.100 He says in the middle, "We see here how the exchange 00:17:35.099 --> 00:17:37.169 of commodities bursts the individual 00:17:37.170 --> 00:17:38.430 and local limits that go 00:17:38.430 --> 00:17:40.529 with the direct exchange of products, 00:17:40.529 --> 00:17:44.069 thereby advancing the metabolization of human labor. 00:17:44.069 --> 00:17:44.903 On the other hand, 00:17:44.903 --> 00:17:47.430 a whole network of natural social connections develops 00:17:47.430 --> 00:17:49.259 through commodity circulation. 00:17:49.259 --> 00:17:53.069 One that human actors involved can't control. 00:17:53.069 --> 00:17:54.750 The weaver can sell his linen only 00:17:54.750 --> 00:17:57.630 because the farmer has already sold his wheat. 00:17:57.630 --> 00:17:59.270 The drunk can sell his bible. 00:17:59.269 --> 00:18:01.019 Ha ha ha. 00:18:01.019 --> 00:18:04.230 Only because the weaver has already sold his linen. 00:18:04.230 --> 00:18:07.289 The distiller can sell his Eau-de-vie only because the drunk 00:18:07.289 --> 00:18:10.769 has already sold the water of everlasting life and so on." 00:18:10.769 --> 00:18:11.910 Marx's never tires 00:18:11.910 --> 00:18:15.932 of ridiculing certain aspects of religion. 00:18:17.910 --> 00:18:22.170 Drunk priests who needed a buck to buy their schnapps, 00:18:22.170 --> 00:18:24.000 maybe not in the best taste, 00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:26.403 but he was not always in the best taste. 00:18:27.779 --> 00:18:29.700 What happens with circulation? 00:18:29.700 --> 00:18:33.240 With circulation space spreads out, 00:18:33.240 --> 00:18:35.849 the limits of a society spread 00:18:35.849 --> 00:18:40.849 to almost unlimited spatial size. 00:18:40.920 --> 00:18:42.180 Watch the expense. 00:18:42.180 --> 00:18:44.039 Look at the title of that TV show. 00:18:44.039 --> 00:18:46.109 Did you ever watch that show "Expense?" 00:18:46.109 --> 00:18:48.899 They do mining in the outer belts 00:18:48.900 --> 00:18:51.390 where they have a bunch of wage slaves 00:18:51.390 --> 00:18:54.603 who do all the mining, who then rebel. 00:18:56.303 --> 00:18:57.480 (clears throat) 00:18:57.480 --> 00:19:00.360 Time also changes because my time 00:19:00.359 --> 00:19:03.479 is totally dependent on when you can sell your product. 00:19:03.480 --> 00:19:04.740 'Cause I can't sell my product to you 00:19:04.740 --> 00:19:08.043 until you sell your product to Austin, for example. 00:19:09.089 --> 00:19:10.439 This is called turnover times 00:19:10.440 --> 00:19:13.620 and time becomes the measure of turnovers, 00:19:13.619 --> 00:19:14.939 and this impinges on us. 00:19:14.940 --> 00:19:18.180 This is like the new seasons, the seasons of capital. 00:19:18.180 --> 00:19:20.523 It's no longer the harvest, it's the turnover. 00:19:22.109 --> 00:19:23.849 A new calendar, a new clock, 00:19:23.849 --> 00:19:27.240 the clock to begin with, Richard. 00:19:27.240 --> 00:19:32.240 - So, like is time contractors is (indistinct) 00:19:32.400 --> 00:19:33.480 - I don't know if it's as simple 00:19:33.480 --> 00:19:36.089 as to say time is contracted and space is expanded 00:19:36.089 --> 00:19:38.309 because space is also abrogated completely 00:19:38.309 --> 00:19:40.232 by virtual networks. 00:19:41.759 --> 00:19:46.740 Time becomes much more critical, 00:19:46.740 --> 00:19:50.039 much more in need of calculation, 00:19:50.039 --> 00:19:55.039 but not calculable in a simple clock format. 00:19:55.319 --> 00:19:58.200 Because there's so many sets of dependencies, 00:19:58.200 --> 00:19:59.940 you can't really fully calculate it. 00:19:59.940 --> 00:20:03.539 So, time is incalculable, let's say in a human life 00:20:03.539 --> 00:20:05.789 because you don't know when you're gonna die. 00:20:05.789 --> 00:20:08.879 So, you live in a species not of infinity 00:20:08.880 --> 00:20:11.400 as a certain romantic imaginary would have it. 00:20:11.400 --> 00:20:16.400 But confusion and in determination, right? 00:20:16.440 --> 00:20:18.360 Could be tomorrow, could be whenever. 00:20:18.359 --> 00:20:20.129 This is not the time of capital. 00:20:20.130 --> 00:20:23.910 The time of capital is not the time of existence. 00:20:23.910 --> 00:20:25.473 Sorry, Martin Heidegger. 00:20:26.730 --> 00:20:29.819 You can try to be a living existent under capital, 00:20:29.819 --> 00:20:32.572 but you're likely to have to go to work in the meantime. 00:20:34.470 --> 00:20:36.779 There's a lot to say about that. 00:20:36.779 --> 00:20:37.859 It is important to understand 00:20:37.859 --> 00:20:40.109 that money as a means of circulation, 00:20:40.109 --> 00:20:43.042 if you didn't have money, if it didn't serve this function, 00:20:44.039 --> 00:20:46.470 we would have a different universe, 00:20:46.470 --> 00:20:48.269 a different cosmology, different space 00:20:48.269 --> 00:20:51.573 and time pressures on ourselves. 00:20:56.863 --> 00:20:57.696 (clears throat) 00:20:57.695 --> 00:21:00.689 It also gets right into the center of beings. 00:21:00.690 --> 00:21:04.952 Sorry, again, Martin Heidegger, page 87. 00:21:06.299 --> 00:21:09.480 There is a kind of schizo tendency in capital 00:21:09.480 --> 00:21:11.130 to split things apart, 00:21:11.130 --> 00:21:15.030 like a thing becomes a purchase thing and a sold thing. 00:21:15.029 --> 00:21:16.829 Those are not the same thing at all. 00:21:18.450 --> 00:21:21.753 A sold thing could be used for its use value. 00:21:23.460 --> 00:21:24.660 It might be resold, 00:21:24.660 --> 00:21:25.980 but in simple circulation, 00:21:25.980 --> 00:21:28.170 we're not talking about capital yet. 00:21:28.170 --> 00:21:30.663 So, the person who buys it uses it. 00:21:31.536 --> 00:21:32.650 A thing that is sold 00:21:33.599 --> 00:21:36.119 is a couple of steps away from use value. 00:21:36.119 --> 00:21:37.412 It is still a value. 00:21:39.480 --> 00:21:42.900 The identity of things gets broken. 00:21:42.900 --> 00:21:46.023 Space and time get transformed. 00:21:49.619 --> 00:21:53.339 This is the recipe for a set of crises 00:21:53.339 --> 00:21:56.159 in which the things don't arrive on time. 00:21:56.160 --> 00:21:58.259 The money doesn't arrive on time. 00:21:58.259 --> 00:22:01.859 Space becomes an obstacle rather than a facilitator. 00:22:01.859 --> 00:22:04.079 You can see here on the bottom of page 87, 00:22:04.079 --> 00:22:05.669 he mentions for the first time 00:22:05.670 --> 00:22:07.320 a very important word for Marx. 00:22:07.319 --> 00:22:09.873 He spent his whole life tracking crises, 00:22:10.859 --> 00:22:14.972 real crises, monetary crises, overproduction crises, 00:22:16.769 --> 00:22:18.363 natural crises like weather, 00:22:19.799 --> 00:22:22.440 and was interested in finding out, as you know, 00:22:22.440 --> 00:22:25.950 where the internal tendencies towards crises were 00:22:25.950 --> 00:22:27.059 in the capital system. 00:22:27.059 --> 00:22:30.450 He was convinced that if there wasn't gonna be a revolution, 00:22:30.450 --> 00:22:34.830 there were certainly gonna be crises that wounded capital 00:22:34.829 --> 00:22:36.542 and maybe even brought it down. 00:22:37.559 --> 00:22:41.399 Although he never saw that in a fateful way, 00:22:41.400 --> 00:22:44.040 despite some Marxist readings of this book, 00:22:44.039 --> 00:22:45.149 there was no prediction 00:22:45.150 --> 00:22:47.910 that within a certain amount of generations 00:22:47.910 --> 00:22:52.143 a crisis would happen and capital would fall. 00:22:57.809 --> 00:22:59.639 This is the philosophical explanation 00:22:59.640 --> 00:23:01.590 of a crisis in the bottom of 87. 00:23:01.589 --> 00:23:03.869 I just wanna point it out to you. 00:23:03.869 --> 00:23:06.569 If things that complete each other internally 00:23:06.569 --> 00:23:08.159 and thus aren't independent, 00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:11.430 become externally, independent past a certain point, 00:23:11.430 --> 00:23:14.279 then their unity will make itself felt with great force 00:23:14.279 --> 00:23:17.009 by way of a crisis. 00:23:17.009 --> 00:23:18.779 So, money and commodities 00:23:18.779 --> 00:23:21.930 are absolutely internally dependent on one another. 00:23:21.930 --> 00:23:23.070 If you take all the money out 00:23:23.069 --> 00:23:24.869 of the system one way or the other, 00:23:24.869 --> 00:23:26.489 that's a crisis, 00:23:26.490 --> 00:23:29.190 that acts as though money is independent. 00:23:29.190 --> 00:23:33.090 This is already leading towards the definition of capital, 00:23:33.089 --> 00:23:35.579 which is not just money or value, 00:23:35.579 --> 00:23:37.919 but money in constant circulation 00:23:37.920 --> 00:23:41.763 and value in constant transformation for a certain purpose. 00:23:43.950 --> 00:23:44.783 Does that make sense? 00:23:44.782 --> 00:23:46.529 That's a very abstract view of a crisis. 00:23:46.529 --> 00:23:49.589 We can talk about how crises happen otherwise, yes. 00:23:49.589 --> 00:23:53.549 - Yeah, I heard actually his circuit, right? 00:23:53.549 --> 00:23:55.710 So, it looks like the C, it mixes 00:23:55.710 --> 00:24:00.480 that CMC will represent that there's some depend, 00:24:00.480 --> 00:24:01.829 but like circuits that added in it, 00:24:01.829 --> 00:24:04.559 because we get to there'll be C prime, 00:24:04.559 --> 00:24:07.079 C prime prime, C prime prime, right? 00:24:07.079 --> 00:24:10.106 There could be a sacrificial way the trinity of one. 00:24:10.106 --> 00:24:13.500 But I guess my question is to what extent 00:24:13.500 --> 00:24:15.569 or at what level do we start, right? 00:24:15.569 --> 00:24:19.289 What level the owners of commodities 00:24:19.289 --> 00:24:21.659 or the owners of money say, okay, 00:24:21.660 --> 00:24:23.997 there's a point where I no longer need a commodity 00:24:23.997 --> 00:24:25.920 and I want to like see if my body, right? 00:24:25.920 --> 00:24:26.753 That's my first question. 00:24:26.752 --> 00:24:28.097 And then the second question- 00:24:28.097 --> 00:24:29.639 - Death. - To do with- 00:24:29.640 --> 00:24:30.590 - That's my answer. 00:24:31.500 --> 00:24:32.369 - What's the difference? 00:24:32.369 --> 00:24:33.993 I don't know if Marx says this, 00:24:33.993 --> 00:24:35.009 but I don't know what's the difference 00:24:35.009 --> 00:24:38.400 between commodity circulation and barter? 00:24:38.400 --> 00:24:42.700 The barter system (indistinct) makes that distinction. 00:24:42.700 --> 00:24:45.000 - Yeah, no, no, he certainly makes that distinction. 00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.650 The first question is when does this commodity exchange 00:24:49.650 --> 00:24:51.180 or commodity circulation stop? 00:24:51.180 --> 00:24:54.509 And it only stops when the whole society is destroyed 00:24:54.509 --> 00:24:57.119 and it stops for an individual when they're dead. 00:24:57.119 --> 00:24:58.259 It has to keep going. 00:24:58.259 --> 00:25:03.259 That is one of the basic assumptions of Marxist system 00:25:04.230 --> 00:25:09.230 that individuals need to reproduce their life forces 00:25:09.569 --> 00:25:12.450 and societies need to reproduce their individuals 00:25:12.450 --> 00:25:15.660 and their life forces interdependently. 00:25:15.660 --> 00:25:17.580 'Cause my life forces depend on all of you 00:25:17.579 --> 00:25:19.772 and yours all depend on me and each other. 00:25:20.789 --> 00:25:22.769 Your individuality is not separable. 00:25:22.769 --> 00:25:25.889 That would be another thing that if you separated it out, 00:25:25.890 --> 00:25:27.120 it would be a big crisis. 00:25:27.119 --> 00:25:28.082 That is if, 00:25:32.490 --> 00:25:36.539 libertarianism were not such a ridiculous fantasy, 00:25:36.539 --> 00:25:38.250 if you could actually carry it out 00:25:38.250 --> 00:25:40.893 and everyone severed themselves from everyone else, 00:25:42.180 --> 00:25:43.130 everyone would die. 00:25:44.519 --> 00:25:47.549 So, it is libertarianism is not just a death wish, 00:25:47.549 --> 00:25:49.019 but a murderous wish. 00:25:50.696 --> 00:25:51.529 AJ. 00:25:51.529 --> 00:25:52.799 - So, capital has a tendency 00:25:52.799 --> 00:25:57.389 to split couple things into their kind of independent parts 00:25:57.390 --> 00:26:00.450 and crises arise when that split happened. 00:26:00.450 --> 00:26:02.819 - No, what one definition of a crisis 00:26:02.819 --> 00:26:05.879 is when the capital system can't keep going. 00:26:05.880 --> 00:26:07.540 So, it must keep going 00:26:08.490 --> 00:26:11.430 and keep these interdependencies alive. 00:26:11.430 --> 00:26:14.700 Your second question was about the difference 00:26:14.700 --> 00:26:17.343 between the circulation of commodities and barter. 00:26:18.180 --> 00:26:21.212 Barter is not according to Marx circulation, 00:26:22.710 --> 00:26:23.853 it's not circular. 00:26:26.670 --> 00:26:28.860 It doesn't send something out to get something back. 00:26:28.859 --> 00:26:30.719 Well, it does actually. 00:26:30.720 --> 00:26:32.430 But it doesn't circulate in society. 00:26:32.430 --> 00:26:35.549 It goes just usually between individuals. 00:26:35.549 --> 00:26:40.079 So, I would as a barterer, barter each one of my what? 00:26:41.940 --> 00:26:46.940 Pens to individuals who have individual wants for them. 00:26:47.130 --> 00:26:48.570 That is not circulation. 00:26:48.569 --> 00:26:52.289 Circulation is where someone trades something to me 00:26:52.289 --> 00:26:53.942 and I trade that to someone else. 00:26:55.859 --> 00:26:57.089 Yep. 00:26:57.089 --> 00:27:00.869 - So, does Marx explain 00:27:00.869 --> 00:27:04.709 the evolution from barter to circulation? 00:27:04.710 --> 00:27:06.930 - There is no evolution from barter to circulation, 00:27:06.930 --> 00:27:08.702 at least historically, 00:27:11.490 --> 00:27:13.039 they're just different systems. 00:27:15.240 --> 00:27:16.890 Yep, circulation comes into play 00:27:16.890 --> 00:27:21.890 when a society is so big that is big enough 00:27:23.549 --> 00:27:25.442 and the form simply takes hold. 00:27:26.279 --> 00:27:27.210 Both of those are true. 00:27:27.210 --> 00:27:28.200 So, it's contingent, 00:27:28.200 --> 00:27:30.539 but also there's some necessity in there, 00:27:30.539 --> 00:27:34.649 that one producer couldn't get all that they want 00:27:34.650 --> 00:27:36.200 from bartering their own thing. 00:27:39.140 --> 00:27:41.850 But that doesn't happen because barter develops. 00:27:41.849 --> 00:27:44.069 That happens for all sorts of other reasons. 00:27:44.069 --> 00:27:44.903 Does that make sense? 00:27:44.903 --> 00:27:47.700 Population growth, ideas, 00:27:47.700 --> 00:27:49.049 trial and error. 00:27:49.049 --> 00:27:51.359 The strange success of the idea of capital 00:27:51.359 --> 00:27:55.049 in the 15th century for trading across large distances, 00:27:55.049 --> 00:27:56.500 the historical forces 00:27:57.990 --> 00:27:59.579 and contingencies, 00:27:59.579 --> 00:28:02.759 accidents that make it possible 00:28:02.759 --> 00:28:05.369 that the rollercoaster, 00:28:05.369 --> 00:28:08.969 that the perpetual motion machine of capital gets started 00:28:08.970 --> 00:28:11.400 are not part of the perpetual motion machine. 00:28:11.400 --> 00:28:13.800 There is no necessity that capitalism 00:28:13.799 --> 00:28:17.759 would have inaugurated, none whatsoever. 00:28:17.759 --> 00:28:19.650 And you'll see that in later chapters. 00:28:19.650 --> 00:28:20.580 It did. 00:28:20.579 --> 00:28:22.919 Once it got going, it consumes everything 00:28:22.920 --> 00:28:24.750 and its necessity takes over. 00:28:24.750 --> 00:28:26.049 That's the problem really. 00:28:27.430 --> 00:28:29.063 Yeah. - Yeah, you just- 00:28:29.063 --> 00:28:30.509 - Another question out. 00:28:30.509 --> 00:28:32.190 So it looks to me like from Marx 00:28:32.190 --> 00:28:35.130 the difference between circulation and barter will be 00:28:35.130 --> 00:28:36.600 that whereas in the barter system 00:28:36.599 --> 00:28:38.629 there's a kind of restriction of place and time 00:28:38.630 --> 00:28:39.540 as you mentioned earlier 00:28:39.539 --> 00:28:41.849 in circulation there are restriction, 00:28:41.849 --> 00:28:44.699 circulation goes beyond presents. 00:28:44.700 --> 00:28:45.533 - Yeah. 00:28:45.532 --> 00:28:49.709 And the name for that lack of restriction is money. 00:28:49.710 --> 00:28:52.890 So, it's not just an ideal lack of restriction, 00:28:52.890 --> 00:28:54.450 it is a material lack of restriction. 00:28:54.450 --> 00:28:56.460 We have this technology called money 00:28:56.460 --> 00:28:58.950 that's used in this particular way 00:28:58.950 --> 00:29:02.730 and as he'll say in commodity circulation, 00:29:02.730 --> 00:29:06.000 the money is constantly moving in an eccentric path. 00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:11.000 It moves from this person to that person, 00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:15.063 and then from this person to that person, 00:29:17.160 --> 00:29:19.019 will have a very different circulatory 00:29:19.019 --> 00:29:20.403 movement under capital. 00:29:22.500 --> 00:29:25.009 - But this is not the capitalist. 00:29:26.190 --> 00:29:27.150 - We're not a capital yet. 00:29:27.150 --> 00:29:29.220 We're in a kind of threshold form, 00:29:29.220 --> 00:29:32.880 which is commodity circulation in an exchange market. 00:29:32.880 --> 00:29:36.660 But no one wants the capital difference yet, 00:29:36.660 --> 00:29:39.750 which is getting more from the same. 00:29:39.750 --> 00:29:43.772 A totally absurd requirement, which it turns out is a lie. 00:29:46.710 --> 00:29:47.543 Okay. 00:29:48.720 --> 00:29:50.160 He spends a while here talking 00:29:50.160 --> 00:29:51.300 about the circulation of money. 00:29:51.299 --> 00:29:54.240 It's very important that money circulate too, 00:29:54.240 --> 00:29:58.262 because insofar as commodities change places with money, 00:29:59.190 --> 00:30:00.870 money has to be there 00:30:00.869 --> 00:30:02.879 for these commodities to change places. 00:30:02.880 --> 00:30:07.050 And even though the reason commodities are sold 00:30:07.049 --> 00:30:09.990 is because of their use value, I need it. 00:30:09.990 --> 00:30:11.849 The reason they're sold 00:30:11.849 --> 00:30:13.949 is because money is there to make them go. 00:30:14.970 --> 00:30:16.680 So, which of these reasons wins out? 00:30:16.680 --> 00:30:18.509 Well, in an exchange economy, money does 00:30:18.509 --> 00:30:20.190 or it comes to look like it does. 00:30:20.190 --> 00:30:23.370 And so we have phrases like money is power. 00:30:23.369 --> 00:30:25.500 Money makes the world go round. 00:30:25.500 --> 00:30:27.059 It does make the world go round. 00:30:27.059 --> 00:30:28.740 Of course there would be no world to go round 00:30:28.740 --> 00:30:30.029 if we didn't make commodities 00:30:30.029 --> 00:30:32.430 that people could use to reproduce their powers, 00:30:34.049 --> 00:30:35.579 and to just enjoy them. 00:30:35.579 --> 00:30:36.932 I love a good commodity, 00:30:38.609 --> 00:30:39.812 sometimes too much. 00:30:41.099 --> 00:30:42.269 In the commodity system, 00:30:42.269 --> 00:30:44.343 commodities move towards consumption. 00:30:46.380 --> 00:30:48.450 Money moves away from its starting point 00:30:48.450 --> 00:30:51.063 and they move towards consumption. 00:30:53.220 --> 00:30:55.200 Marx wants you to be absolutely clear, 00:30:55.200 --> 00:30:58.470 however that commodities move money, 00:30:58.470 --> 00:31:00.029 not the other way around. 00:31:00.029 --> 00:31:01.619 Money in fact is a commodity. 00:31:01.619 --> 00:31:02.729 It has value. 00:31:02.730 --> 00:31:03.783 Somebody made it. 00:31:04.769 --> 00:31:08.403 If nobody made it, it would be valueless like air. 00:31:10.500 --> 00:31:13.200 Without the commodity there'd be no system. 00:31:13.200 --> 00:31:14.640 Marx says, despite the appearance 00:31:14.640 --> 00:31:16.710 that money makes the world go round, 00:31:16.710 --> 00:31:18.513 commodities are prime movers. 00:31:22.019 --> 00:31:23.400 He talks about the need 00:31:23.400 --> 00:31:25.920 to have a certain amount of money in circulation 00:31:25.920 --> 00:31:30.029 and to relate the amount of money in circulation 00:31:30.029 --> 00:31:31.920 to the speed by which it circulates. 00:31:31.920 --> 00:31:34.740 You can have less money in circulation if it goes faster, 00:31:34.740 --> 00:31:36.480 obviously 'cause it makes its way 00:31:36.480 --> 00:31:39.779 to the other transactions more quickly. 00:31:39.779 --> 00:31:41.789 Okay, quickly these other ones. 00:31:41.789 --> 00:31:45.930 Well, money has to store value because of the temporality 00:31:45.930 --> 00:31:47.432 in an exchange economy. 00:31:48.690 --> 00:31:50.400 When I'm waiting for something to come in, 00:31:50.400 --> 00:31:51.780 I have to have the money for it. 00:31:51.779 --> 00:31:55.292 So, it has to keep the value that it's representing. 00:31:56.730 --> 00:31:58.289 This is one of its functions. 00:31:58.289 --> 00:32:01.440 So, long as I have the money give or take, 00:32:01.440 --> 00:32:02.940 given inflation and other things, 00:32:02.940 --> 00:32:05.750 which is another reason it should be put into circulation. 00:32:05.750 --> 00:32:10.259 If it's put into circulation, it can absorb inflation. 00:32:10.259 --> 00:32:11.879 If it's taken out of circulation 00:32:11.880 --> 00:32:12.900 is just sitting in the bank, 00:32:12.900 --> 00:32:15.003 it will deplete along with inflation. 00:32:17.579 --> 00:32:19.710 It has to be a store of value as well. 00:32:19.710 --> 00:32:21.840 These are separate functions, though they're related, 00:32:21.839 --> 00:32:23.519 insofar as it's a measure of value, 00:32:23.519 --> 00:32:24.932 it can be a store of value. 00:32:26.579 --> 00:32:29.163 Insofar as it's a means of circulation, 00:32:31.349 --> 00:32:32.639 well, really everything derives 00:32:32.640 --> 00:32:34.860 from it's being a measure of value. 00:32:34.859 --> 00:32:36.089 I wanna mention this too 00:32:36.089 --> 00:32:39.179 because it relates to the other aspect 00:32:39.180 --> 00:32:41.330 that he brackets out here, which is credit. 00:32:43.079 --> 00:32:45.059 Money has to be the accepted means of payment 00:32:45.059 --> 00:32:46.109 when you take a loan. 00:32:47.970 --> 00:32:49.380 If they give you a loan of your car 00:32:49.380 --> 00:32:51.330 and you go to pay it back in bananas, 00:32:51.329 --> 00:32:54.182 well, you can imagine. 00:32:57.210 --> 00:33:01.350 This by the way, gives you in an important set of passages 00:33:01.349 --> 00:33:03.389 on page 105, 00:33:03.390 --> 00:33:07.713 the genesis of the specific type of capitalist wealth. 00:33:11.940 --> 00:33:13.890 There's no wealth in capitalism, 00:33:13.890 --> 00:33:15.210 even though people talk about it. 00:33:15.210 --> 00:33:16.502 There's only capital. 00:33:18.299 --> 00:33:20.549 We'll see that in the next chapter. 00:33:20.549 --> 00:33:23.069 In so far as it's wealth, it's been taken out of circulation 00:33:23.069 --> 00:33:25.532 and it's steadily becoming less wealthy. 00:33:26.519 --> 00:33:27.603 Ask Warren Buffet. 00:33:28.829 --> 00:33:31.649 You gotta have it all moving, all invested, 00:33:31.650 --> 00:33:33.483 otherwise it loses. 00:33:36.299 --> 00:33:37.500 Is this the page I want? 00:33:42.359 --> 00:33:45.990 In so far as money stores value 00:33:45.990 --> 00:33:47.640 and can be a means of payment, 00:33:47.640 --> 00:33:49.143 it's worth accumulating. 00:33:51.660 --> 00:33:55.740 Also in so far as it's a future means of circulation, 00:33:55.740 --> 00:33:59.250 so in fact, these three go together really well. 00:33:59.250 --> 00:34:01.170 As a future means of circulation, 00:34:01.170 --> 00:34:03.660 as a store of value and as a means of payment, 00:34:03.660 --> 00:34:05.700 I can accumulate, but my accumulation 00:34:05.700 --> 00:34:07.323 is called a reserve fund. 00:34:09.570 --> 00:34:11.820 There's no treasure store. 00:34:11.820 --> 00:34:14.250 There's no dragon there sitting on its treasure 00:34:14.250 --> 00:34:15.780 for eons and eons. 00:34:15.780 --> 00:34:17.460 As it steadily goes down in value, 00:34:17.460 --> 00:34:20.550 people look at it and be like, what are all these trinkets? 00:34:20.550 --> 00:34:23.610 Imagine if you kept like all the old Marx, 00:34:23.610 --> 00:34:25.809 well maybe they're worth something, I dunno. 00:34:27.840 --> 00:34:30.603 The idea that money can be stored, 00:34:34.590 --> 00:34:36.780 value can be stored in money, 00:34:36.780 --> 00:34:38.400 shows you the form of wealth 00:34:38.400 --> 00:34:40.380 and why it's important for certain people 00:34:40.380 --> 00:34:42.963 to hoard under the capital system. 00:34:43.889 --> 00:34:45.659 It's not for their enjoyment, 00:34:45.659 --> 00:34:49.019 it's not for their higher purchasing power. 00:34:49.019 --> 00:34:50.789 Even though these super wealthy people 00:34:50.789 --> 00:34:52.742 are constantly buying luxury things, 00:34:53.670 --> 00:34:55.980 it's so that they can put it back into circulation 00:34:55.980 --> 00:34:58.619 and it can act as a measure of value, just to say that. 00:34:58.619 --> 00:35:01.019 It becomes a market power, 00:35:01.019 --> 00:35:04.170 not purchasing power, not private power. 00:35:04.170 --> 00:35:06.393 It's a means of storing market power. 00:35:08.369 --> 00:35:09.630 That I wanted to mention to you 00:35:09.630 --> 00:35:14.492 because the transformation of wealth is really important. 00:35:16.469 --> 00:35:18.179 Capital is not wealth, 00:35:18.179 --> 00:35:22.652 it is value in circulation for a purpose, 00:35:23.639 --> 00:35:28.639 but that value needs to be sometimes put aside as a reserve, 00:35:29.250 --> 00:35:32.219 never as wealth for the individual person always 00:35:32.219 --> 00:35:37.079 as a bet on future investments. 00:35:37.079 --> 00:35:38.163 Yeah, Thomas. 00:35:39.360 --> 00:35:41.490 - So, you say that it must always, 00:35:41.489 --> 00:35:45.059 any accumulation must always go back 00:35:45.059 --> 00:35:47.579 or at least that's what the individual must intend to, 00:35:47.579 --> 00:35:50.159 but in practice must actually always go back 00:35:50.159 --> 00:35:53.762 into circulation or can it be just accumulated? 00:35:56.489 --> 00:35:57.719 - Well, it can be, 00:35:57.719 --> 00:36:00.029 but it runs the risk of becoming worthless 00:36:00.030 --> 00:36:01.713 in a crisis, for example. 00:36:02.849 --> 00:36:04.889 If you own capital in a crisis, 00:36:04.889 --> 00:36:06.329 let's say you own a factory, 00:36:06.329 --> 00:36:09.059 it's possible that after the crisis that becomes, 00:36:09.059 --> 00:36:11.250 goes back up to its value. 00:36:11.250 --> 00:36:13.833 But in a crisis, the money you can just burn it. 00:36:15.389 --> 00:36:16.679 Yeah. - Yeah. 00:36:16.679 --> 00:36:17.882 - Yes, please. 00:36:19.170 --> 00:36:23.650 - I'm a bit confused because this CMC circulation 00:36:24.916 --> 00:36:27.420 is also possible in a pre-capitalist society 00:36:27.420 --> 00:36:29.010 that uses money. 00:36:29.010 --> 00:36:29.843 - Yes. - It's not money 00:36:29.842 --> 00:36:32.250 that makes the capital, right? 00:36:32.250 --> 00:36:37.250 - No, but this circulation by means of money as a mediator 00:36:37.920 --> 00:36:39.210 is crucial for capital. 00:36:39.210 --> 00:36:40.470 Capital is like a parasite. 00:36:40.469 --> 00:36:43.742 It takes older things and it makes them do its bidding. 00:36:44.847 --> 00:36:45.702 - But the process 00:36:45.702 --> 00:36:48.870 we're talking about is not unique to capitalism. 00:36:48.869 --> 00:36:50.579 - It's unique to capitalism. 00:36:50.579 --> 00:36:53.039 The question is, is this process unique to capitalism? 00:36:53.039 --> 00:36:56.163 It's unique to capitalism in its totality and scope. 00:36:58.019 --> 00:36:58.853 For example, 00:36:58.853 --> 00:37:02.400 a feudal society did have some circulation of commodities. 00:37:02.400 --> 00:37:03.960 There were trades people 00:37:03.960 --> 00:37:06.360 and there were some exchange of money, 00:37:06.360 --> 00:37:07.650 but there were other ways 00:37:07.650 --> 00:37:10.800 to get your needs fulfilled as well. 00:37:10.800 --> 00:37:12.843 This takes over completely. 00:37:17.130 --> 00:37:19.530 Alright, we understand a little bit about money, 00:37:19.530 --> 00:37:22.980 now we have to understand money and simple circulation. 00:37:22.980 --> 00:37:23.909 We have to understand 00:37:23.909 --> 00:37:27.272 how money gets transformed into capital. 00:37:28.949 --> 00:37:30.509 The main thrust of this chapter, 00:37:30.510 --> 00:37:32.490 because this is a critique of political economy, 00:37:32.489 --> 00:37:36.029 is to show all the wrong opinions 00:37:36.030 --> 00:37:37.743 about where capital comes from. 00:37:38.849 --> 00:37:41.099 It does not come from circulation. 00:37:41.099 --> 00:37:43.710 He's gonna demonstrate this to you by showing 00:37:43.710 --> 00:37:46.309 that it's impossible that it comes from circulation. 00:37:48.869 --> 00:37:52.726 I just wanna read because I love his polemical voice. 00:37:58.139 --> 00:38:01.502 This is the last two pages of the chapter 148 to 149, 00:38:02.400 --> 00:38:05.070 in which he makes fun. 00:38:05.070 --> 00:38:07.230 Ridicules the people who think 00:38:07.230 --> 00:38:10.983 that profit comes from circulation. 00:38:12.427 --> 00:38:14.940 "The sphere of circulation or commodity exchange 00:38:14.940 --> 00:38:15.869 within whose limits 00:38:15.869 --> 00:38:18.630 the movement of buying and selling labor-power occurs, 00:38:18.630 --> 00:38:22.559 is in fact a veritable Eden of innate human rights. 00:38:22.559 --> 00:38:25.650 You can tell already since he's got religion in there 00:38:25.650 --> 00:38:27.300 that he's making fun of somebody. 00:38:28.349 --> 00:38:31.259 What reigns is exclusively freedom, equality, 00:38:31.260 --> 00:38:32.553 property and Bentham. 00:38:33.510 --> 00:38:36.000 Freedom because only the free wills of the buyer 00:38:36.000 --> 00:38:37.500 and seller of a commodity, 00:38:37.500 --> 00:38:40.980 for example, labor-power determine how these figures act. 00:38:40.980 --> 00:38:42.449 They enter into business dealings 00:38:42.449 --> 00:38:45.663 as free persons equal before the law, ha. 00:38:47.130 --> 00:38:48.570 The end result is the contract 00:38:48.570 --> 00:38:51.300 that represents a joint legal expression of their wills. 00:38:51.300 --> 00:38:54.360 Equality, because they interact only as commodity owners 00:38:54.360 --> 00:38:57.633 and exchange an equivalent for an equivalent, ha. 00:38:58.559 --> 00:39:01.320 Property, because each owner does whatever he wants 00:39:01.320 --> 00:39:02.643 with only what is his. 00:39:03.869 --> 00:39:05.190 Ha. 00:39:05.190 --> 00:39:06.240 Bentham. 00:39:06.239 --> 00:39:07.919 Bentham, poor Jeremy Bentham, 00:39:07.920 --> 00:39:10.409 because each cares only about himself. 00:39:10.409 --> 00:39:12.719 The only force that brings the two parties together 00:39:12.719 --> 00:39:15.419 and into a relation with each other as self concern, 00:39:15.420 --> 00:39:18.599 private interests, personal gain. 00:39:18.599 --> 00:39:22.472 This is the view of the market that he wants to knock down. 00:39:24.030 --> 00:39:26.160 That profit comes from the market 00:39:26.159 --> 00:39:30.842 that it is selfishly motivated that everyone is equal in it. 00:39:32.400 --> 00:39:33.570 Not that they're unequal 00:39:33.570 --> 00:39:35.670 because if they had equal access to the market, 00:39:35.670 --> 00:39:36.503 they would be equal. 00:39:36.503 --> 00:39:38.850 But the market is inherently unequal, 00:39:38.849 --> 00:39:41.009 not because of the market, 00:39:41.010 --> 00:39:42.963 because of the way production works. 00:39:44.699 --> 00:39:46.919 This is where he tells us 00:39:46.920 --> 00:39:49.079 that we will leave together with the money owner 00:39:49.079 --> 00:39:53.819 and the labor-powers owner will leave the surface area 00:39:53.820 --> 00:39:56.880 and follow them into the hidden place of production. 00:39:56.880 --> 00:40:00.960 The rest of the book will be about the way surplus value 00:40:00.960 --> 00:40:02.250 is made in production 00:40:02.250 --> 00:40:04.952 and then the origins of the capital system. 00:40:07.230 --> 00:40:10.230 So, before we move on, we need to understand 00:40:10.230 --> 00:40:12.360 why this is not true, 00:40:12.360 --> 00:40:14.460 why he feels so free at the end of this chapter 00:40:14.460 --> 00:40:15.813 to ridicule these people. 00:40:17.190 --> 00:40:19.740 One simple definition of capital 00:40:19.739 --> 00:40:23.432 is that it is the products of labor held through time. 00:40:25.829 --> 00:40:27.269 The products of labor held through time. 00:40:27.269 --> 00:40:29.250 So, if I make something and I hold it through time, 00:40:29.250 --> 00:40:30.603 it becomes worth more. 00:40:32.699 --> 00:40:36.902 This is a funny economist's idea of capital. 00:40:38.070 --> 00:40:39.870 I just hold onto it. 00:40:39.869 --> 00:40:41.250 Maybe that happens with some things 00:40:41.250 --> 00:40:43.769 if they disappear off the face of the earth, 00:40:43.769 --> 00:40:45.210 but insofar as they're still there, 00:40:45.210 --> 00:40:47.639 it shouldn't change at all just by holding it. 00:40:47.639 --> 00:40:50.909 Of course it has to hold its value, we know that. 00:40:50.909 --> 00:40:52.589 But it's more than this. 00:40:52.590 --> 00:40:54.690 It's more than value. 00:40:54.690 --> 00:40:56.880 It's more than the super sensible 00:40:56.880 --> 00:40:59.640 quasi metaphysical substance 00:40:59.639 --> 00:41:01.559 that we've been talking about. 00:41:01.559 --> 00:41:04.710 In fact, he's gonna ask you to go beyond. 00:41:04.710 --> 00:41:07.050 First he asks you to go beyond the commodity 00:41:07.050 --> 00:41:09.000 and see it as double. 00:41:09.000 --> 00:41:11.670 Then he asks you to go beyond physical and useful things 00:41:11.670 --> 00:41:12.869 to see them as the bearers 00:41:12.869 --> 00:41:15.750 of quasi metaphysical objects called value. 00:41:15.750 --> 00:41:19.112 Then he asks you to think that labor is double, 00:41:19.980 --> 00:41:21.512 which he is gonna now exploit. 00:41:22.530 --> 00:41:23.850 Then he wants you to understand 00:41:23.849 --> 00:41:26.969 how commodity exchange makes money happen and this blows up 00:41:26.969 --> 00:41:28.799 and changes space and time 00:41:28.800 --> 00:41:31.593 and changes the identity of a simple object, 00:41:33.150 --> 00:41:36.003 and it has to keep going or else everyone starves. 00:41:36.869 --> 00:41:41.279 Now he's gonna ask you to put all that aside to overcome it 00:41:41.280 --> 00:41:46.019 and see where the more comes from. 00:41:46.019 --> 00:41:49.230 Because under capital we need constantly more 00:41:49.230 --> 00:41:51.393 to keep the minimum of life going. 00:41:54.210 --> 00:41:56.670 All of social life in the capital system 00:41:56.670 --> 00:41:58.983 is dedicated to making this more. 00:42:00.539 --> 00:42:04.500 In youth societies more comes generally from nature. 00:42:04.500 --> 00:42:06.269 The idea is that nature is abundant 00:42:06.269 --> 00:42:07.829 and we can just take some more, 00:42:07.829 --> 00:42:12.032 which is also perhaps now clearly a pernicious idea, 00:42:13.019 --> 00:42:14.550 but it's nature's repetitions 00:42:14.550 --> 00:42:16.230 that give more in a youth society. 00:42:16.230 --> 00:42:19.949 It gives more humans, it gives more crops, 00:42:19.949 --> 00:42:22.649 it gives more air and water, 00:42:22.650 --> 00:42:23.730 and there's also a sense 00:42:23.730 --> 00:42:26.880 that there's a cycle there where we're giving back our water 00:42:26.880 --> 00:42:30.300 and food in a certain form and our bodies in the end. 00:42:30.300 --> 00:42:31.133 This is an idea. 00:42:31.132 --> 00:42:32.069 This is not the only way, 00:42:32.070 --> 00:42:34.230 you have to think about the exchange 00:42:34.230 --> 00:42:35.610 between humans and nature, 00:42:35.610 --> 00:42:38.789 but it has a kind of virtuous cycle. 00:42:38.789 --> 00:42:40.949 And Marx makes this as an assumption 00:42:40.949 --> 00:42:42.689 that there is a virtuous cycle 00:42:42.690 --> 00:42:44.389 and then there is a vicious cycle. 00:42:48.235 --> 00:42:51.090 (clears throat) 00:42:51.090 --> 00:42:53.430 How do we explain this different kind of more 00:42:53.429 --> 00:42:55.319 that is capital. 00:42:55.320 --> 00:42:57.843 Boswell, economists explain it from circulation. 00:43:00.869 --> 00:43:03.719 We look at the capital system and we see circulation. 00:43:03.719 --> 00:43:06.599 We say, you know, I can sell to Alan my computer, 00:43:06.599 --> 00:43:10.529 and I'm like $3,500, 00:43:10.530 --> 00:43:11.363 why not? 00:43:11.362 --> 00:43:14.072 And he's gullible and he'll say, sure. 00:43:14.909 --> 00:43:17.609 But then when Alan goes to buy lunch, 00:43:17.610 --> 00:43:21.780 he's gonna be about, I don't know, $2,000 in the hole. 00:43:21.780 --> 00:43:22.800 Where's it gonna come from? 00:43:22.800 --> 00:43:24.810 It has to come from someone else. 00:43:24.809 --> 00:43:26.190 This is Marx's argument. 00:43:26.190 --> 00:43:28.679 He's gonna then pay that much less for a car 00:43:28.679 --> 00:43:30.569 or that much less for his lunch, 00:43:30.570 --> 00:43:32.039 or his poor partner is gonna be like, 00:43:32.039 --> 00:43:34.139 where's or where's all the money gone Alan? 00:43:34.139 --> 00:43:35.519 We needed to redo the roof 00:43:35.519 --> 00:43:39.210 on our beautiful 18th century house. 00:43:39.210 --> 00:43:40.043 Yeah. 00:43:42.659 --> 00:43:44.250 All of the extra that you could get 00:43:44.250 --> 00:43:48.179 from circulation Marx argues, gets passed on. 00:43:48.179 --> 00:43:50.669 Someone will pay it and it comes out to the same, 00:43:50.670 --> 00:43:52.110 because the circulation system 00:43:52.110 --> 00:43:54.720 is an exchange of equivalence. 00:43:54.719 --> 00:43:56.669 You can't get more out of the same. 00:43:56.670 --> 00:43:59.019 But they're saying we get more out of the same. 00:44:01.469 --> 00:44:03.062 There is, he says, 00:44:04.769 --> 00:44:06.219 a formal difference 00:44:07.358 --> 00:44:09.025 between CMC and MCM. 00:44:16.260 --> 00:44:20.550 We still don't know how you get more out of the same, 00:44:20.550 --> 00:44:22.110 but he's gonna tell us 00:44:22.110 --> 00:44:25.090 that there's a certain kind of circulation 00:44:26.610 --> 00:44:28.320 that is necessary for it. 00:44:28.320 --> 00:44:29.613 Now if you look at this, 00:44:33.150 --> 00:44:34.710 they're embedded in one another. 00:44:34.710 --> 00:44:37.889 Obviously this is an infinite series, 00:44:37.889 --> 00:44:39.719 so what's the difference? 00:44:39.719 --> 00:44:42.122 It turns out if you cut this series here, 00:44:43.409 --> 00:44:48.059 it's totally different than if you cut this series here, 00:44:52.889 --> 00:44:54.719 which you're an initial starting point 00:44:54.719 --> 00:44:58.109 is determines whether you're in a capitalist system 00:44:58.110 --> 00:45:01.323 or a commodity exchange system. 00:45:02.670 --> 00:45:05.010 There is a difference in content lurking 00:45:05.010 --> 00:45:06.123 in the form, he says. 00:45:07.889 --> 00:45:10.139 Okay, let's just give you the outline 00:45:10.139 --> 00:45:12.000 and then we'll fill in the details next time. 00:45:12.000 --> 00:45:13.949 'Cause we have only a little time left. 00:45:15.539 --> 00:45:18.179 The commodity circulation system starts with production 00:45:18.179 --> 00:45:19.480 and ends with consumption. 00:45:21.869 --> 00:45:24.029 It is only about use values 00:45:24.030 --> 00:45:25.590 and in a system where use values 00:45:25.590 --> 00:45:28.590 are all that we're concerned with, you can't get any profit. 00:45:29.969 --> 00:45:33.572 The extra will be passed on one way or the other. 00:45:35.909 --> 00:45:39.480 In this system, the commodity exchange system, 00:45:39.480 --> 00:45:42.659 the same piece of money changes place twice. 00:45:42.659 --> 00:45:44.730 I give to Alan 10 bucks 00:45:44.730 --> 00:45:49.019 and Alan gives 10 bucks to Samuel. 00:45:49.019 --> 00:45:51.619 I won't use you in as an example forever, I promise, 00:45:53.670 --> 00:45:55.170 to get something else. 00:45:55.170 --> 00:45:57.782 The money changes hands twice. 00:46:00.150 --> 00:46:02.369 Money moves in this eccentric fashion 00:46:02.369 --> 00:46:06.059 because I have a need and Alan has a need 00:46:06.059 --> 00:46:07.619 and Samuel has a thing that he wants 00:46:07.619 --> 00:46:09.539 and I have a thing that Alan wants. 00:46:09.539 --> 00:46:11.670 You can see where the money goes just to exemplify it. 00:46:11.670 --> 00:46:13.559 Marx says this, it's pretty clear, 00:46:13.559 --> 00:46:15.692 the money goes from me to Alan to Samuel. 00:46:16.829 --> 00:46:18.389 That's not capitalism. 00:46:18.389 --> 00:46:20.252 The money has to be back to me. 00:46:22.704 --> 00:46:25.980 (clears throat) 00:46:25.980 --> 00:46:30.030 And this produces a certain kind of disposition 00:46:30.030 --> 00:46:31.650 in the buyer. 00:46:31.650 --> 00:46:34.260 The buyer says it's fine to give money away 00:46:34.260 --> 00:46:35.553 if I get what I want. 00:46:37.019 --> 00:46:39.630 I don't need to see that money back. 00:46:39.630 --> 00:46:42.840 Everyone is this kind of buyer fundamentally, 00:46:42.840 --> 00:46:43.742 Marx would say. 00:46:45.449 --> 00:46:48.210 Our capitalist economy, our high capitalist economy 00:46:48.210 --> 00:46:51.119 is still a commodity circulation system. 00:46:51.119 --> 00:46:52.529 We still need to get our needs 00:46:52.530 --> 00:46:54.153 and they're in some way primary, 00:46:55.590 --> 00:46:58.140 but not for the capitalists. 00:46:58.139 --> 00:46:59.762 There's two primaries here. 00:47:01.860 --> 00:47:04.200 And again, the ultimate purpose is consumption 00:47:04.199 --> 00:47:06.299 and Marx says this is an end outside 00:47:06.300 --> 00:47:08.519 of the circulation system. 00:47:08.519 --> 00:47:10.619 You take your thing outside, you devour it, 00:47:10.619 --> 00:47:13.529 you sleep with it, you watch it on TV, 00:47:13.530 --> 00:47:15.033 it doesn't get traded again. 00:47:18.300 --> 00:47:21.600 The MCM circuit starting with money, totally different. 00:47:21.599 --> 00:47:25.353 Obviously your disposition is, Hey, gimme that money back. 00:47:26.519 --> 00:47:28.199 What are you gonna get if you give your money away 00:47:28.199 --> 00:47:31.052 for a commodity that you don't need? 00:47:32.730 --> 00:47:34.230 You need to get money out of that. 00:47:34.230 --> 00:47:35.829 You need to get your money back. 00:47:37.739 --> 00:47:41.489 In this version, the same commodity changes place twice. 00:47:41.489 --> 00:47:45.929 I give money to Alan for his commodity 00:47:45.929 --> 00:47:48.002 and then what happens? 00:47:49.764 --> 00:47:50.702 - And you sell it? 00:47:50.702 --> 00:47:52.472 - Then I sell the commodity. 00:47:55.396 --> 00:47:56.230 - To get more money. 00:47:56.230 --> 00:47:58.050 - To get money, to get more money, exactly. 00:47:58.050 --> 00:47:59.640 That's right, okay, sorry. 00:47:59.639 --> 00:48:00.569 I'm not an economist, 00:48:00.570 --> 00:48:03.900 so all this stuff is like, why should I waste my time? 00:48:03.900 --> 00:48:05.340 Sorry. 00:48:05.340 --> 00:48:06.630 That's right, exactly. 00:48:06.630 --> 00:48:09.480 Then I get my money back by selling it on, by selling it on. 00:48:09.480 --> 00:48:12.090 So, the commodity has an eccentric movement, 00:48:12.090 --> 00:48:13.050 because I don't need it. 00:48:13.050 --> 00:48:14.789 What I need is money. 00:48:14.789 --> 00:48:17.670 This is a beautiful illustration of the switch of values, 00:48:17.670 --> 00:48:18.840 what nature would call 00:48:18.840 --> 00:48:21.753 the transvaluation of values under capital. 00:48:22.829 --> 00:48:25.829 You can see this is not just a technical or formal switch. 00:48:25.829 --> 00:48:28.949 This is a switch in psychology, in valuing, 00:48:28.949 --> 00:48:32.042 in everything that's gonna be important in the society. 00:48:33.119 --> 00:48:35.909 When money flows back to its starting point, 00:48:35.909 --> 00:48:39.000 it is a circuit that has to be completed. 00:48:39.000 --> 00:48:41.250 If I buy something from Alan, 00:48:41.250 --> 00:48:42.083 and he has the money, 00:48:42.083 --> 00:48:44.579 there's no reason he has to buy anything. 00:48:44.579 --> 00:48:46.259 If he's satisfied, he can just, I don't know, 00:48:46.260 --> 00:48:49.920 burn the money in his fireplace if he wants. 00:48:49.920 --> 00:48:54.663 That's not the case for a money circuit. 00:48:55.679 --> 00:48:57.269 The ultimate purpose for the money 00:48:57.269 --> 00:48:58.860 is that it returns to its starting point. 00:48:58.860 --> 00:49:00.210 So, money has a different purpose. 00:49:00.210 --> 00:49:02.010 It's not to satisfy wants and needs. 00:49:03.630 --> 00:49:05.579 Oddly though, the buyer ends up 00:49:05.579 --> 00:49:07.382 with exactly what they started with. 00:49:08.789 --> 00:49:10.949 It seems like nothing happened, 00:49:10.949 --> 00:49:15.152 and this is where this formula is not sufficient, 00:49:26.670 --> 00:49:28.990 and we need to discover 00:49:31.920 --> 00:49:36.920 where this mysterious change delta comes from, 00:49:37.019 --> 00:49:38.820 and we'll talk about that next time. 00:49:40.965 --> 00:49:43.465 (tense music)