Week 5 Blog -Averi
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For my major paper, I am exploring what makes labor value difficult to establish. My idea for the answer is that value is established by each person, especially by the person performing the task, and it is up to others to agree. I intend on working with Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations and Mary Collier’s The Woman’s Labour. Smith’s piece provides a range of support through explicit text and examples, while Collier’s poem is more her implicit account on the value of her work.
Mary Collier attacks Duck’s work by describing the range of a woman’s work. She refutes his complaints of the women resting, by saying this doesn’t take away from their work but instead makes it bearable. This supports my thesis because it looks at the relationship between men and women, and the expectation associated with each gender since the early days. Within her text, she also adds information about her paid job, such as how much she is paid and her feelings about if it good compensation for her toils. This is another important relationship to explore. This piece is a lot more implicit, so is there any ways it can be tied to my topic?
Adam Smith main idea is the progression of liking shiny things to trade to the division of labor. The interest in self-love which drives the economy is a good support for the foundation of personal value. Another idea that Smith presents is genius or the development of a personal trade. The point I would like to pull out of this is how each individual strives to portray the necessity and superiority of their work. He provides a good example of the rural farmer, who has no one to trade with. This is an example of the need for community to accept value, and supply and demand. This idea may stray too far away from my original topic. Lastly, in chapter five, Smith is adamant about placing a price on labour. The price is directly related to the man who wants to save himself of the toils which supports my thesis of a general acceptance of a price. I am trying to say away from the conflict of pricing the outcome of work versus the notion of work.
Averi, you are saying that labor value is difficult to establish because people generally can’t agree on the value? It takes two people to value labor in an economy, both the supplier and the demand-er, and when anyone has a different definition for establishing the value, then it becomes difficult to determine. Am I hearing you right? For using Collier’s work, I assume you will only mention Duck’s work briefly, as this paper is meant to only use two texts. Be careful that you don’t get too far in over your head by incorporating too many pieces. Also, it sounds like you are using Collier and Smith’s texts to show an agreement by using their implicit and explicit arguments respectively to support one another’s ideas. Is this right? Like you said, both of these pieces have a ton of information, but I would try to draw parallels between them if you can in order to keep your argument organized and strong. Right now I can see each as a distinct part, an argument from Collier and an argument from Smith. Maybe you already have an idea in your mind of how you are going to do this. Lastly, I like your last sentence. I also wrote a similar note to myself (also doing the labor topic) when I was brainstorming: “Not HOW is labor value decided, but WHY is it difficult to decide.”