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Value and Prices Marx defines value, as the socially necessary labor needed to produce a commodity. To understand what value is we must first understand what socially necessary labor and a commodity are, furthermore how they interact to give us a true value of a given commodity. A commodity that by which “a man must not only produce an article satisfying some social want, but also his labor itself must form part and parcel of the total sum of labor expended in society”. (Marx, Capital Vol.1) This is stating that to produce a commodity a man must not only produce it because there is a demand but must also add in all other labor that went into producing the raw materials he is using to make the final commodity. All “the relative mass of labor” that is needed to make the materials, machines, buildings and tools that were originally used in t