Conclusion
Marx begins Capital with the commodity as a real abstraction that takes form in the act of exchange because it is the basis through which he will develop a critique of the philosophy of value that emerges from the commodity’s premise. When value is measured solely through a count of the commodities produced and mistaken to represent the actual state of societal wealth, it produces a dynamic that, as we will see, reinforces inequality and leads to structural immiseration. This dynamic is counterintuitive to the way in which capitalists talk about commodification as a rising tide that lifts all boats, and about capitalism as a force that is ultimately uplifting and constructive, rather than darkly destructive and damaging on a number of counts. In order to get to how this dynamic works, we first need to follow Marx’s analysis from Capital’s first chapter through its second and third chapters, where Marx details the important (and insoluble) relationship between the commodity and money.