Upholding and Developing the Labor Theory of Value

The labor theory of value is a fundamental theory of Marxist political economy. This theory has been continuously developed as the times change. With the rapid development of digital-intelligent technology, the extension of the scope of productive labor, the emergence of new forms of labor, and the participation of non-labor factors such as data in distribution, how to uphold and develop the labor theory of value, and how to use the labor theory of value to observe and judge new phenomena, analyze and solve new problems, is a major issue that requires further in-depth exploration and scientific answers.

劳动价值论是马克思主义政治经济学的基本理论。这一理论是随着时代的变化而不断发展的。随着数字—智能技术的快速发展，生产性劳动外延的扩展、新的劳动形态的出现、数据等非劳动要素参与分配，如何坚持和发展劳动价值论，如何运用劳动价值论来观察、判断新现象，分析、解决新问题，是需要进一步深入探讨并作出科学解答的一个重大课题。

I. Basic Views of Marx’s Labor Theory of Value

一、马克思劳动价值论的基本观点

Marx’s labor theory of value was founded on the basis of critically inheriting the reasonable content of the labor theory of value of bourgeois classical political economy. It is a complete and rigorous scientific theoretical system, and its basic views mainly include the following aspects.

马克思劳动价值论是在批判地继承资产阶级古典政治经济学关于劳动价值论的合理内容的基础上创立起来的，是一个完整严谨的科学理论体系，其基本观点主要包括以下方面。

The dual character of commodities, namely use value and value. The attribute of a commodity that can satisfy some human need is its use value, i.e., “the utility of a thing makes it a use value.” Use value constitutes the material content of any social wealth and reflects the relationship between humans and nature. The undifferentiated general human labor congealed in a commodity is its value, which, under commodity economy conditions, is the social attribute acquired by the product of labor and embodies the social relations of commodity producers exchanging their labor with each other.

商品二因素，即使用价值和价值。商品能够满足人们某种需要的属性，是商品的使用价值，即“物的有用性使物成为使用价值”，使用价值构成任何社会财富的物质内容，反映的是人与自然之间的关系；凝结在商品中无差别的一般人类劳动，是商品的价值，是在商品经济条件下，劳动产品取得的社会属性，体现了商品生产者相互交换劳动的社会关系。

The dual character of labor embodied in commodities, namely concrete labor and abstract labor. Compared with bourgeois classical political economists, Marx’s achievement lies in being the first to propose the dual character of labor. Among them, concrete labor refers to labor performed in a specific concrete form; abstract labor refers to general human labor stripped of the concrete form of labor, and it is a historical category unique to commodity production. Concrete labor and abstract labor are not two separate labors or two types of labor, but rather two aspects of the same labor that produces a commodity.

生产商品的劳动二重性，即具体劳动和抽象劳动。与资产阶级古典政治经济学家相比，马克思的功绩在于第一次提出了劳动二重性。其中，具体劳动是指在一定的具体形式下进行的劳动；抽象劳动是指抛开劳动具体形式的一般人类劳动，它是商品生产所特有的历史范畴。具体劳动和抽象劳动不是两次劳动或两种劳动，而是生产商品同一劳动的两个方面。

The magnitude of value of a commodity. The magnitude of value of a commodity is determined by the socially necessary labor time expended in producing a certain commodity, while socially necessary labor time refers to the labor time required to produce a use value under the average level of skill and intensity of labor prevalent in society.

商品的价值量。商品价值量是由生产某种商品时所耗费的社会必要劳动时间决定的，而社会必要劳动时间则是指在社会平均的劳动熟练程度和劳动强度下制造某种使用价值所需要的劳动时间。

The form of value. With the further expansion of the social division of labor and commodity exchange, it was required that the universal equivalent be relatively fixed on a certain commodity, i.e., fixed on the natural form of precious metals. When the function of serving as this universal equivalent is fixed on a particular special commodity, that commodity becomes money.

价值形式。随着社会分工和商品交换的进一步扩大，要求一般等价物相对地固定在某一种商品上，即固定在贵金属的自然形式上。当这种充当一般等价物的职能被固定在某一种特殊商品时，这种商品就成了货币。

The law of value. The law of value is the basic law of the commodity economy. Under commodity economy conditions, commodity prices fluctuate around value as a center through free competition and changes in the relationship between commodity supply and demand. Supply and demand in the market are often in a state of imbalance. If certain commodities are in short supply, their prices will rise above their value; conversely, if commodities are in oversupply, prices will fall below their value. Commodity prices fluctuate around value as supply and demand relations change. The law of value regulates social supply and demand relations and achieves a rational allocation of resources.

价值规律。价值规律是商品经济的基本规律。在商品经济条件下，商品价格是通过自由竞争和商品供求关系的变化，从而以价值为中心上下波动的。市场上商品的供给与需求之间经常处于不平衡状态。如果某些商品供不应求，其价格就会上涨而高于它的价值，反之，商品供过于求，价格就会下降而低于它的价值。商品的价格随供求关系的变化而围绕着价值上下波动。价值规律调节着社会供求关系，实现资源合理配置。

The above are the basic views of Marx’s labor theory of value. Among them, living labor is the sole source of value creation, which is the core view of Marx’s labor theory of value. The “labor” that Marx refers to as creating value is living labor. So-called living labor refers to the physical and mental labor expended by laborers in the process of material production, i.e., “the labor-power that is functioning, that creates value,” “when, through its purposeful form, labor transfers the value of the means of production to the product and preserves it, every moment of its movement forms additional value, forms new value.” Living labor creates value in the original sense, belonging to the newly added value in social wealth. Compared with the living labor expended in the production process, materialized labor refers to the means of production consumed in the production process. It is the product of past labor, accumulated labor, labor without creative power, which does not generate new value; its origin is still living labor.

以上是马克思劳动价值论的基本观点。其中，活劳动是创造价值的唯一源泉，是马克思劳动价值论的核心观点。马克思所讲的劳动创造价值，这个“劳动”是活劳动。所谓活劳动，是指劳动者在物质资料生产过程中耗费的体力与脑力，即“发挥作用的、创造价值的劳动力”，“当劳动通过它的有目的的形式把生产资料的价值转移到产品上并保存下来的时候，它的运动的每时每刻都形成追加的价值，形成新价值”。活劳动创造价值是在本源意义上而言的，属于社会财富中的新增价值量。相对于生产过程中耗费的活劳动而言，物化劳动则是指生产过程中所耗费的生产资料，它是过去劳动的产物，是积累起来的劳动，是没有创造力的劳动，不会产生新增价值，其本源还是活劳动。

Marx’s labor theory of value for the first time determined what kind of labor forms value, why it forms value, and how it forms value, clarified the different roles of different labors in the formation of commodity value, and on this basis founded the theory of surplus value, scientifically analyzed the laws of motion of the capitalist economy, and thereby laid the theoretical foundation for all of Marx’s economic doctrines. Marx’s labor theory of value reveals the essence and laws of the commodity economy and has an important guiding role for our correct understanding of the socialist market economy.

马克思的劳动价值论第一次确定了什么样的劳动形成价值，为什么形成价值以及怎样形成价值，阐明了不同劳动在商品价值形成中的不同作用，并在此基础上创立了剩余价值理论，科学分析了资本主义经济运动规律，进而为马克思全部经济学说奠定了理论基础。马克思的劳动价值论揭示了商品经济的本质和规律，对我们正确认识社会主义市场经济有重要指导作用。

II. Continuously Deepening the Understanding of Marx’s Labor Theory of Value

二、不断深化对马克思劳动价值论的认识

Marx’s labor theory of value is a scientific theory that still shines with the light of truth to this day. With the development of productive forces and relations of production, especially the development of science and technology and the advent of the digital economy era, new changes and new phenomena in productive forces, labor forms, distribution methods, etc., are constantly emerging. Scientifically understanding these new situations and new problems requires us, on the basis of adhering to the basic theories of Marxist political economy, to continuously deepen our understanding of Marx’s labor theory of value.

马克思劳动价值论是科学的理论，至今仍闪耀着真理的光芒。随着生产力和生产关系的发展，尤其是科学技术的发展和数字经济时代的到来，生产力、劳动形态、分配方式等方面的新变化新现象不断出现，科学认识这些新情况新问题，要求我们在坚持马克思主义政治经济学基本理论的基础上，不断深化对马克思劳动价值论的认识。

Deepening the understanding of use value. In Marx’s era, the consumption structure of the entire society was dominated by material products meeting people’s needs for clothing, food, housing, and transportation, while the proportion of non-material products such as spiritual products and service products was relatively low. When mentioning use value, people also thought of some tangible, touchable material product. With the continuous improvement of the level of social productive forces, especially the advent of the digital economy era, people’s consumption needs have increasingly shifted from material needs to spiritual needs, from survival needs to enjoyment needs and development needs; people’s consumption structure has expanded from daily necessities to higher-level spiritual products and service products, and the proportion of the latter two is growing. These spiritual products and service products are all non-material products. Although they do not provide people with visible, tangible use values, people can personally experience them. Therefore, with the development of productive forces, it is necessary to further expand the scope of use value and the concept of social products.

深化对使用价值的认识。在马克思所处的时代，整个社会的消费结构以满足人们衣食住行所需的物质产品为主，而精神产品与服务产品等非物质产品所占比例较低。在提到使用价值时，人们想到的也是某种有形的、可以触摸的物质产品。随着社会生产力水平的不断提高，尤其是数字经济时代的到来，人们的消费需求更多从物质需求向精神需求转变，从生存需求向享受需求和发展需求转变；人们的消费结构从生活必需品扩展到更高层次的精神产品和服务产品，且后两者所占比重越来越大。这些精神产品和服务产品都是非物质产品，提供给人们的虽不是看得见、摸得着的使用价值，但人们能切身感受到。因此，随着生产力的发展，需要对使用价值范围和社会产品的概念进一步扩展。

Deepening the understanding of productive labor. The labor that Marx refers to as creating value is mainly directed at the material production sector, at material products. This is not unrelated to the era in which Marx lived, just as Marx said when discussing the capitalist manifestations in the non-material production sphere: “All these manifestations of capitalist production in this sphere are so insignificant compared with the totality of production that they can be completely disregarded.” [1]1 Karl Marx, *Theories of Surplus Value*, Part 1, Chapter 4. Marx’s remark here refers to the limited scale of capitalist production in non-material spheres (e.g., services, arts) in the mid-19th century, which he considered negligible for the overall analysis of capitalism. However, with the development of productive forces, especially the new technological system composed of artificial intelligence, big data, the Internet of Things, blockchain, etc., the current productive forces are characterized by intelligence and digitalization, achieving a qualitative leap in productive forces and forming new quality productive forces. Compared with the quantitative expansion of traditional productive forces relying on large-scale input, new quality productive forces emphasize promoting industrial innovation through technological innovation, especially using disruptive technologies and cutting-edge technologies to spawn new industries, new models, and new drivers, freeing economic growth from the expansion model driven by traditional factors. The scope of productive labor has gradually expanded from the material production sector to the non-material production sector, and the proportion of labor in the non-material production field is growing. This requires further investigation into which types of labor are expanded and also value-creating productive labor.

深化对生产劳动的认识。马克思所讲的劳动创造价值主要是针对物质生产部门而言的，是针对物质产品而言的。这与马克思所处的时代不无关系，就如马克思在谈到非物质生产领域的资本主义表现时所说：“资本主义生产在这个领域中的所有这些表现，同整个生产比起来是微不足道的，因此可以完全置之不理。”但是，随着生产力的发展，尤其是以人工智能、大数据、物联网、区块链等构成的新技术体系，推动当前生产力呈现出智能化和数字化特征，实现了生产力质的跃迁，形成了新质生产力。相较于传统生产力依靠大量投入的数量型扩张，新质生产力强调以科技创新推动产业创新，特别是以颠覆性技术和前沿技术催生新产业、新模式、新动能，使经济增长摆脱传统要素驱动的扩张模式。生产劳动的范围从物质生产部门逐渐向非物质生产部门扩展，非物质生产领域的劳动比重越来越大，这就需要进一步考察哪些是扩大了的、并且也是创造价值的生产劳动。

Deepen the understanding of the forms of labor. With the rapid development of digital-intelligent technologies, people rely on new digital production tools to process and transform objects, creating digital products and services, which has brought about new changes in the forms of labor. The profound evolution of new technologies such as the Internet, big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and blockchain, along with the accelerating transformation of industries toward digitalization, intelligence, and green development, and the flourishing of intelligent industries and the digital economy, have greatly reshaped the global allocation of factor resources, industrial development models, and people’s lifestyles. Unlike the previous processing and transformation of natural objects, digital labor involves the collection, transmission, coding, analysis, storage, and valuation of raw materials such as data and information, creating materialized digital products and services. The combination of labor with data technology gives rise to new forms of labor, breaking through the field and spatiotemporal boundaries of labor, transcending the scope of traditional labor, and constituting intellectual labor characterized by “human-computer interaction.” These new forms of labor manifest in various ways in real life, such as labor on social media, e-commerce platform development, live-streaming by influencers, and game companionship, which necessitates further investigation into the characteristics of value creation or value transfer involved.

深化对劳动形态的认识。随着数字—智能技术的快速发展，人们依托新的数字化生产工具加工和改造对象物，创造数字化产品和服务，使劳动形态发生了新变化。互联网、大数据、云计算、人工智能、区块链等新技术深刻演变，产业数字化、智能化、绿色化转型不断加速，智能产业、数字经济蓬勃发展，极大改变全球要素资源配置方式、产业发展模式和人民生活方式。与以往加工和改造自然物不同，数字劳动对数据、信息等原材料进行采集、传输、编码、分析、存储和赋值，创造出现实化的数字产品和服务。劳动与数据技术相结合形成新的劳动形态，突破了劳动的发生场域和时空场所，超越了传统劳动的范畴，是以“人机交互”为特征的智力型劳动。这种新的劳动形态在现实生活中呈现出多种形式，如社交媒体上的劳动、电商平台开发、网红直播、游戏陪玩等，这就需要进一步探究其中的价值创造或价值转移的特点。

Deepen the understanding of the participation of factors of production in distribution. Since the New Era, our Party, proceeding from the realities of productive forces and relations of production, has continuously explored distribution systems suited to China’s national conditions in practice, persistently deepened reform of the income distribution system, and striven to build an income distribution system that embodies efficiency and promotes fairness. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, “We must adhere to the principle of distribution according to work as the mainstay, increase the share of labor remuneration in primary distribution, and improve the policy of distribution according to factors.” [2]2 Xi The “Overall Layout Plan for the Construction of Digital China” explicitly proposes to “release the value potential of commercial data, accelerate the establishment of a data property rights system, conduct research on data asset valuation, and establish a mechanism for data factors to participate in distribution according to value contribution.” With the development of China’s social productive forces and the deepening of the reform of the socialist market economy system, the participation of various factors of production in distribution according to their contribution is both a prerequisite for the development of the market economy and an inevitable outcome of its development. Therefore, it is necessary to further explain theoretically the rationality of the participation of various factors of production in income distribution.

深化生产要素参与分配的认识。新时代以来，我们党从生产力和生产关系的实际出发，在实践中不断探索适合我国国情的分配制度，持续深化收入分配制度改革，努力建设体现效率、促进公平的收入分配体系。习近平总书记指出,“要坚持按劳分配为主体，提高劳动报酬在初次分配中的比重，完善按要素分配政策”。《数字中国建设整体布局规划》明确提出要“释放商业数据价值潜能，加快建立数据产权制度，开展数据资产计价研究，建立数据要素按价值贡献参与分配机制”。随着我国社会生产力的发展和社会主义市场经济体制改革的深入，各生产要素按贡献参与分配，既是市场经济发展的前提条件，也是市场经济发展的必然结果。因此，需要从理论上进一步解释各种生产要素参与收入分配的合理性。

To continuously deepen the understanding of Marx’s labor theory of value in the New Era, it is essential to grasp the true source of value, and to clarify core and key issues such as whether new forms of labor like scientific labor and digital labor can create value, how they create value, and how they participate in value distribution. However, no matter how understanding is deepened, the substantive core of Marx’s labor theory of value must not change; we should unwaveringly uphold Marx’s scientific thesis that living labor is the sole source of value creation.

新时代要不断深化对马克思劳动价值论的认识，就必须弄懂价值的真正源泉，讲明科学劳动、数字劳动等劳动新形态能否创造价值、如何创造价值以及怎样参与价值分配等核心关键问题。但是不管如何深化认识，马克思劳动价值论的实质核心不能变，我们应毫不动摇地坚持马克思关于活劳动是创造价值的唯一源泉的科学论断。

III. Focal Points for Upholding and Developing Marx’s Labor Theory of Value

三、坚持和发展马克思劳动价值论的着力点

To uphold and develop Marx’s labor theory of value in the New Era, research needs to be deepened from the following four aspects.

新时代坚持和发展马克思劳动价值论，需要从以下四个方面深化研究。

Correctly distinguish between value creation and use-value production. In *Capital*, Marx analyzed the dual character of the commodity and the dual nature of labor in producing commodities, and clearly pointed out that only living labor creates value. However, living labor alone cannot realize production; it must combine with the means of production to create various use-values. That is to say, living labor creates value, while various factors of production, including labor, jointly create use-values. As new factors of production such as knowledge, technology, management, and data are continuously incorporated into the labor process, their relative importance in the production and operation process also changes, but as long as they manifest as materialized labor, they do not create value. Under new historical conditions, facing the continuous expansion of the extension of factors of production, it is necessary to apply Marx’s labor theory of value to analyze their different roles in use-value production and value creation, and thereby correctly understand the principle of distribution according to the contribution of factors of production.

正确区分价值创造与使用价值生产。马克思在《资本论》中分析了商品的二因素和生产商品的劳动二重性，并明确指出，只有活劳动才创造价值。但是，只有活劳动，也无法实现生产，它必须与生产资料相结合，才能创造出各种各样的使用价值。也就是说，活劳动创造价值，而包括劳动在内的各种生产要素共同创造使用价值。随着知识、技术、管理、数据等新生产要素不断加入劳动过程，其在生产经营过程中的相对重要性也发生变化，但只要它们表现为物化劳动，就都不创造价值。在新的历史条件下，面对生产要素外延的不断发展，需要运用马克思劳动价值论，分析它们在使用价值生产和价值创造方面的不同作用，进而正确认识生产要素按贡献参与分配的原则。

Correctly distinguish between simple labor and complex labor. Marx believed that living labor is the sole source of value creation, and that both physical labor and mental labor create value. Objectively speaking, various types of labor differ in their technical complexity. Simple labor refers to “that labor which, without any special training or learning, can be performed by any ordinary person,” while “more complex labor counts only as multiplied, or rather, multiplied simple labor, so that a small amount of complex labor equals a larger amount of simple labor.” [3] Once knowledge, technology, management, etc., are mastered by laborers, the complexity of labor increases accordingly, causing laborers to expend “multiplied” simple labor per unit of time, thereby creating more value. In modern society based on automated production, as the proportion of complex laborers gradually increases, the share of value they create in the total social value also gradually rises.

正确区分简单劳动与复杂劳动。马克思认为，活劳动是创造价值的唯一源泉，无论体力劳动还是脑力劳动,都创造价值。客观来讲，各种劳动在技术的复杂程度上是各不相同的，简单劳动是指“那些事先不需要经过任何特殊的训练或学习，而为每一个普通的人都能够从事的劳动”，“比较复杂的劳动只是自乘的或不如说多倍的简单劳动，因此，少量的复杂劳动等于多量的简单劳动”。知识、技术、管理等一旦被劳动者掌握，劳动的复杂程度就会随之提高，使劳动者在单位时间里付出了“倍加”的简单劳动，也创造出更多的价值。在以自动化生产为基础的现代社会中，随着复杂劳动者占比的逐渐增大，其创造的价值在社会总价值中的占比也逐步提高。

Correctly distinguish between productive labor and unproductive labor. In Marx’s framework, labor is also divided into productive and unproductive categories; the latter does not create value but merely participates in the distribution of newly created social value. For example, in Volume II of *Capital*, the study of commercial labor argues that labor expended on buying and selling time, bookkeeping, money production, etc., constitutes pure circulation costs, defined as not creating value but merely as deductions from total revenue. Therefore, society’s labor power and labor time should be bound up as little as possible in these unproductive functions. Another example is the analysis of the financial sector in Volume III of *Capital*, which also points out that although money capital is the “prime mover and continuous driving force” of production, labor in this field does not create value. Marx’s labor theory of value provides an analytical framework and reference standard for studying these new phenomena. Regarding the various new forms of labor that have emerged, whether they constitute productive labor and whether they create value should be correctly distinguished and judged.

正确区分生产性劳动与非生产性劳动。在马克思那里，劳动亦有生产性与非生产性之分，后者不创造价值，仅仅参与社会新创造价值的分配。比如《资本论》第二卷对商业劳动的研究认为，那些耗费在买卖时间、簿记、货币生产等方面的劳动，属于纯粹流通费用，被界定为不创造价值，只是对总收益的扣除，因此社会的劳动力和劳动时间应该尽可能少地束缚在这种非生产职能上。再比如《资本论》第三卷对金融部门的分析也指出，尽管货币资本是生产的“第一推动力和持续的动力”，但是该领域的劳动也不创造价值。马克思劳动价值论为我们研究这些新现象提供了分析框架和参考标准。就当前出现的各种劳动新形态而言，是否属于生产性劳动、是否创造价值，我们应予以正确区分和判断。

Correctly distinguish between value creation and value distribution. According to Marx’s analysis, the new value created by laborers in the labor process is divided into wages and surplus value, with the latter further transformed in real life into specific forms such as profit, interest, and rent. The newly created value of labor constitutes national income, in which the returns obtained by factors of production such as capital, labor, and land—namely profit, wages, and rent—all originate from national income and are obtained through primary distribution from the value created by labor. Additionally, income from stocks, bonds, and deposits falls within the scope of redistribution of national income. Tracing their sources, they all come from the value created by labor. Currently, under conditions where multiple forms of ownership exist, distribution methods are also relatively complex, such as distribution according to work and distribution according to factors of production. However, regardless of the type of income, it originates from the value created by labor. When we commonly speak of factors of production participating in distribution according to their contribution, this contribution refers to the role they play in the production of use-values, thereby providing necessary conditions for value production, but only living labor is the sole source of value creation.

正确区分价值创造与价值分配。根据马克思的分析，劳动者在劳动过程中创造的新价值分为工资和剩余价值，后者在现实生活中又进一步转化为利润、利息、地租等具体形式。劳动新创造出来的价值构成了国民收入，其中资本、劳动、土地等生产要素所得的报酬即利润、工资、地租等都来源于国民收入，都是从劳动创造出来的价值中以初次分配的方式取得的。另外，股票、债券、存款这些所得属于国民收入再分配范围。究其来源，同样都来自劳动创造的价值。当前，在存在多种所有制经济的情况下，分配方式也较为复杂，如按劳分配、按生产要素分配等，但不管哪种收入，都源于劳动创造的价值。我们日常所说的生产要素按贡献参与分配，这里的贡献是指其在生产使用价值过程中发挥的作用，从而为价值生产提供必要条件，但只有活劳动才是创造价值的唯一源泉。

(Authors: Researcher at the Academy of Marxism, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Associate Researcher at the Academy of Marxism, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

（作者：中国社会科学院马克思主义研究院研究员；中国社会科学院马克思主义研究院副研究员）

Online Editor: Ma Jingren

网络编辑：马京仁