[gillyruless]

without further adieu, as promised, here's the page 1 of Karl Marx' Das Kapital:

(there are hundreds of pages left so I have plenty of material to post. Resistance is futile. You know I will win)

SECTION 1
THE TWO FACTORS OF A COMMODITY:
USE-VALUE AND VALUE
(THE SUBSTANCE OF VALUE AND THE MAGNITUDE OF VALUE)



The wealth of those societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails, presents itself as “an immense accumulation of commodities,”[1] its unit being a single commodity. Our investigation must therefore begin with the analysis of a commodity.

A commodity is, in the first place, an object outside us, a thing that by its properties satisfies human wants of some sort or another. The nature of such wants, whether, for instance, they spring from the stomach or from fancy, makes no difference.[2] Neither are we here concerned to know how the object satisfies these wants, whether directly as means of subsistence, or indirectly as means of production.

Every useful thing, as iron, paper, &c., may be looked at from the two points of view of quality and quantity. It is an assemblage of many properties, and may therefore be of use in various ways. To discover the various uses of things is the work of history.[3] So also is the establishment of socially-recognized standards of measure for the quantities of these useful objects. The diversity of these measures has its origin partly in the diverse nature of the objects to be measured, partly in convention.

The utility of a thing makes it a use value.[4] But this utility is not a thing of air. Being limited by the physical properties of the commodity, it has no existence apart from that commodity. A commodity, such as iron, corn, or a diamond, is therefore, so far as it is a material thing, a use value, something useful. This property of a commodity is independent of the amount of labour required to appropriate its useful qualities. When treating of use value, we always assume to be dealing with definite quantities, such as dozens of watches, yards of linen, or tons of iron. The use values of commodities furnish the material for a special study, that of the commercial knowledge of commodities.[5] Use values become a reality only by use or consumption: they also constitute the substance of all wealth, whatever may be the social form of that wealth. In the form of society we are about to consider, they are, in addition, the material depositories of exchange value.

Exchange value, at first sight, presents itself as a quantitative relation, as the proportion in which values in use of one sort are exchanged for those of another sort,[6] a relation constantly changing with time and place. Hence exchange value appears to be something accidental and purely relative, and consequently an intrinsic value, i.e., an exchange value that is inseparably connected with, inherent in commodities, seems a contradiction in terms.[7] Let us consider the matter a little more closely.

A given commodity, e.g., a quarter of wheat is exchanged for x blacking, y silk, or z gold, &c. – in short, for other commodities in the most different proportions. Instead of one exchange value, the wheat has, therefore, a great many. But since x blacking, y silk, or z gold &c., each represents the exchange value of one quarter of wheat, x blacking, y silk, z gold, &c., must, as exchange values, be replaceable by each other, or equal to each other. Therefore, first: the valid exchange values of a given commodity express something equal; secondly, exchange value, generally, is only the mode of expression, the phenomenal form, of something contained in it, yet distinguishable from it.

Let us take two commodities, e.g., corn and iron. The proportions in which they are exchangeable, whatever those proportions may be, can always be represented by an equation in which a given quantity of corn is equated to some quantity of iron: e.g., 1 quarter corn = x cwt. iron. What does this equation tell us? It tells us that in two different things – in 1 quarter of corn and x cwt. of iron, there exists in equal quantities something common to both. The two things must therefore be equal to a third, which in itself is neither the one nor the other. Each of them, so far as it is exchange value, must therefore be reducible to this third.

[Sage]

Originally Posted by RLacey

Speak for yourself... By adding users strategically to my Ignore list I can avoid such labels!

But we can still see you post, Junior.

[Karmillo]

All this "people who post after me are..." stuff...well i can play that game too!

Anyone who posts after me is....

...
...my bestest friend ever?


thatl teach yous...

[Lucien21]

Sorry but you lot forced me to take legal action.

[Karmillo]

Originally Posted by Lucien21

Sorry but you lot forced me to take legal action.

Well helloooooo chum


....arnt these forums based in europe though? the US has no power here!

I think

[Lucien21]

That's what Saddamm thought.



p.s Forums based in the US it was invaded by us european types

[Melanie68]

Originally Posted by Lucien21

p.s Forums based in the US it was invaded by us european types

Damn Europeans

[samIamsad]

At least we have class....... and the Royal TS. *hides behind the submit reply button*


So many posts of madness and I still don't see a single point. Here is one (be nice to it, seems to belong to a dying breed...):


.

[Karmillo]

Originally Posted by samIamsad

At least we have class....... and the Royal TS. *hides behind the submit reply button*


So many posts of madness and I still don't see a single point. Here is one (be nice to it, seems to belong to a dying breed...):


.

I always thought a point was more round

[Melanie68]

Originally Posted by Karmillo

I always thought a point was more round

They can be ballpoints

[samIamsad]

Originally Posted by Karmillo

I always thought a point was more round

Heheh. Well, if you still needed proof that there's something, um,... special about this place, that's probably it...

[Maquisard]

Aren't points supposed to be more pointy?

[RLacey]

What's your point?

Gilly, you can't possibly have the stamina to retype the whole of Das Kapital. Not to mention the fact that it would be serious copyright infringement.

So just accept that I've won.

You hear that, Mr Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability.

[Maquisard]

Dude, doesn't copyright expire after like, a hundred years? I don't think he retyped this. Probably found it online, for free, and it's entirely legal too!

[RLacey]

Originally Posted by Mares

Dude, doesn't copyright expire after like, a hundred years? I don't think he retyped this. Probably found it online, for free, and it's entirely legal too!

I don't know what the date on the specific translation is, but you could well be right. In which case, gilly, you're cheating. I could copy and paste from BBC News, but that's just lazy .

Oh, and I do hope to be furnished with the footnotes at some point...

[Fairygdmther]

Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and hemlocks,

Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,

Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,

Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.

Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean

Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.

Lynsie

[simpson_yellow]

[RLacey]

Hammer Time!

[Karmillo]

*click* *click*

[RLacey]

Don't Copy The Floppy!



In other news, can people stop posting now? I want to win, and am perfectly capable of posting random crap into this thread, but if you all agreed not to post in this topic it would make all our lives both that bit easier and that bit more pleasant ...