Una intervención más de David Harvey —la actividad del maestro es frenética— con apoyo de subtítulos en castellano para los más perezosos con el inglés. De nuevo desentrañando las contradicciones del capital a través de El Capital…
Álvaro Sevilla-Buitrago
Professor of Planning Theory and HistoryRecent Comments
multipliciudades 
This blog was truly insightful as far as acquiring more theoretical knowledge behind dire phenomenon like the real estate bubble and even college education. When Harvey drew the parallel to college education, pointing out that the value of exchange supersedes the value of use, I pondered for some time the veracity of this statement as I wondered how applicable it is in my case, studying a social science and bound to graduate next semester. My degree, for the most part, identifies with an expansive liberal arts curriculum. My critical thinking has greatly enhanced, as I have been exposed to a gamma of literature, from fiction, to mostly non-fiction, I have learned to speak and write a third language fluently, and earned a few skills that will nicely launch me into my next endeavours with a feel-ready confidence and wisdom. I value my college education with high value of use. When i graduate and look to enter the labor market and apply the knowledge gained, nonetheless, I will be esteeming the value of exchange of my college education, therefore, I believe that Harvey’s statement on how the “exchange value dynamic drives out the use value concern” is one that plays out once one is out of college and searching for a job. This tendency manifested is one that plays out when entering the market, but when being consumed and enjoyed the use value is the one that is in play. Since he does part from a Marxist perspective, which places the economic structure above all others and parts from a point of criticism towards capitalism, the unbalanced situation will be a given, unbalanced in favour of the market.
One major concern, in the other hand, is the fact that college education is becoming less of a guarantee for pay advances as it was in the past, and therefore the is a declining value scenario with 4 year degrees. The main idea in obtaining a college degree is to launch a career and it is almost the norm to that many recent graduates that do not land a job or internship within their field will find themselves disappointed if they have to earn their living with a job that required no college experience. Again, this disappointment is in terms of market acceptance of their acquired product in an institution that is full of value of use, but whose effect in the value of exchange is also critical.
Furthermore, the latter contradiction , of the foundational kind, as classified by Harvey, is one that is not as dire as the universal alienation that capitalism creates in its participant, a contradiction that Harvey categorizes as a fatal one. This is a contradiction that perpetuates the human happiness and makes them feel constantly unfulfilled, thus creating that vice and greed to feed the constant illusion of consumption different products and services of second or third need. Capitalism with an outlook of constant growth simply creates beasts of destroying and turns us against our own nature with a great appeal towards the toxic.