Abstract
Commodities—goods with prices—are old; in capitalist societies, commodities have distinctive moral and social significance. The capitalist commodity presupposes private property and the roles of buyer and seller, who meet as free and juridically equal persons. The commodity spectrum includes commodity capital, ex-commodities, quasi-commodities, and shadow commodities. Capitalist-produced commodities bear surplus value; they are commodity capital. Ex-commodities surround us; some return to the market. Commodities bought by the rich often double as stores of value or investments. Quasi-commodities include subsidized tuition, a college degree that you pay for but cannot buy, and regulated drugs. Buying on credit makes ownership ambiguous. Gary Becker’s shadow prices posit shadow commodities, making everything inventory. Marx observes: (1) Commodities are fetishes. Market freedoms come with impersonal domination by prices. (2) Credit and the perilous borrower-lender relation accompany commodities. (3) Because commodities presuppose capital, assessing the commodity and capital go together.