Concrete Labor

Corresponding to “abstract labor”. Marx also called it “useful labor”, which refers to the innumerable different human labors carried out in different forms for the production of different use-values, such as the carpenter’s work in making furniture, the tailor’s work in sewing clothes, etc. Differences in concrete labor manifest themselves as different phenomenal forms of labor, and produce different use-values of commodities. The purpose of concrete labor, the objects of labor, the means of labor and the results of labor vary, forming a social division of labor by category. Concrete labor reflects the relation between man and nature, and like the natural property of use-value, it has nothing to do with the relations of production of society. Marx once pointed out that so far as labor forms use-values, i.e., as useful labor, it is therefore a necessary condition, independent of all forms of society, for the existence of the human race; it is an eternal nature-imposed necessity, in order to mediate the metabolism between man and nature, and thus human life. It needs to be made clear that concrete labor, although it is the labor that creates use-values, is not the only source of use-values, or of material wealth; concrete labor and materials of nature together constitute the source of use-values.