Labor is what's gone in, use is the inherent/intrinsic value in the object, and exchange value is what people will trade in exchange for it. That's a bad summary, and there's a lot more to the dialectic examination of them.
Reading Capital (along with David Harvey's lectures) is worth it if you find these things interesting, it's a deep analysis of markets and capital.
You're probably right about it's use in understanding a capitalist market, Marx spends no shortage of time on how capitalists warp that basic idea.
Also - it's entirely possible that you make spectacular wine with the same effort I make bad wine.
They are somehow 'equal' in value?
It's just ridiculous. Labour theory of value just doesn't have a lot of meaning.
Explain how it is possible, and how the situation does not immediately solve itself with you stopping doing something you hate and are bad at.
As many have pointed out, "value" is subjective. Your terrible wine may be loved by someone. Or you may really enjoy making wine. As wine has zero intrinsic value, it is a luxury good, it's very possible for both wines to be just as valuable.
It has plenty of meaning, it just doesn't explain "profit."
Yes - of course people will have differing opinions - but aggregate market demand can be different for something made with the same amount of labour - that is not an issue of scarcity.
i.e. 'most people' can view one wine as better than the other with equal amounts of labour.
Again - surely you can, if you want get into issues of 'scarcity' i.e. you can talk about production volumes etc. but that's kind of a second order issue.
"Aggregate market demands" are capitalism, where wine is a status symbol and "good" wine generally refers to price. You are continuing to view this only in the eyes of capitalism and considering "value" to include "profit."
No - what I meant by 'aggregate market demand' was really just 'average price / perception of value' - and 'good' does not refer to 'price' - good wine literally is better.
I am not equating value and profit. I am equating value and price.
Some goods are generally better than others (i.e. most people will think one is better than the other) and require the same labour - this is my point - and it's unrelated to scarcity.
Price is value plus profit, thats the only reason to distinguish between the two.
If you could produce infinite quantities of Chateau-Petrus, it would be extremely cheap. But since it depends on being produced at a specific location, with a specific know-how, the quantities are limited. In this case, the amount of labour involved has little effect on the price of the wine.
Back on topic, "expensive" and "price" again add the concept of profit to the value produced. The only value of wine is enjoyment, so even Petrus wine has little more value than similar wines.
That increase in value is largely labor from learning the trade and long running slow maintenance. The only part that is scarce is the soil composition, something that could be recreated with a large amount of labor. Similarly, discovering that that area produced quality wine was labor intensive as well.
No - not at all.
Good wine can be 'more expensive' simply because it is better!
There's more willingness to pay, i.e. better demand curve!
Doesn't need to be less supply!
Point being: not all labour is equal, ergo, the idea of something being valued upon the 'amount of labour' put into it is really not useful.
I just don't believe the labour theory of value is a useful concept.
I don't think Marx provides any understanding of how the economy works - other than to hint strongly that prices are really a function of power - i.e. when one group has a monopoly on some critical thing, i.e. land or capital, then they can use that to leverage over another group, and then you have basically class struggle.
I mean, it's useful rhetoric, I'm not sure if it's useful theory.
Sorry if this missed the mark completely. Would love to learn.
Given how much our labour is amplified by machines, energy, machine intelligence, parts, equipment, R&D, support - it's not a very helpful way to think about anything.
It's also very unhelpful when considering prices of IP related things.
You study your whole life to become a great actor, you make a film - it only takes a month. Is it only a 'one month film'? Equivalent to the quality of a newby actor?
Almost everything requires at least some skill ...
Because I bet the price changes drastically, and that's the labor-value represented in object.