does value and price equate . They are scientifically measurable quantities that perfectly express each other in numerical fashion . In everyday economic dealings , rarely do , according to Marx , individual quantifiable values coincide with their specific prices in the sense that there is constant fluctuations between individual market values and individual market prices . It is only over an extended period of time that “ the various local fluctuations … reciprocally neutralize one another ”[ 19 ], in the sense that it is only through an extended period of competition that there is “ the establishment of a uniform market value and market price out of the various individual values [ and prices ] of commodities ”[ 20 ]. For Marx , value and price are synonymous when understood at the abstract level of economic totality . Moreover , for Marx , profit and surplus-value are as well synonymous , when understood from a level of economic totality . Logically speaking , for Marx , total value and total price contain within their structures all values and all profits expressed in price , because by the very definition of being totalities , according to Marx , total value and total price must inevitably contain the total sum of surplus-value and the total sum of profit in equal proportions and magnitudes . As Marx states , “ the sum of the profits for all the different spheres of production must accordingly be equal to the sum of surplus values ”[ 21 ], due to the fact that “ the sum of prices … for the total social product [ is ]… equal to the sum of … values ”[ 22 ]. Total profit and total surplus value are equivalent in the sense that , being aggregate parts of total value and total price at a level of economic totality , they are likewise equivalencies of equal size .
In addition , Marx postulates that because total profit equals total surplus-value , at the abstract level of economic totality , this in turn , means that rate of profit articulated in value is equivalent to the rate of profit articulated in price , price being , for Marx , “ the monetary expression of value ”[ 23 ]. The value rate of profit equals the monetary rate of profit , due to the fact that , at the abstract level of economic totality , profit equals surplus-value articulated in money / price . If “ price is the monetary expression of value ”[ 24 ], then , simultaneously , price is as well the money expression of surplus value ; and furthermore , if profit always equals surplus value at the abstract level of economic totality , according to Marx , then simultaneously surplus value and profit have the same rate and ratio , i . e ., a rate and ratio that can be expressed in value and / or in money , simultaneously . Out of this basic supposition , that total value always equals total price at the abstract level of economic totality , Marx , is able to advance a whole series of logical equivalences , which permit Marx to construct a self-enclosed economic value / price apparatus . An apparatus capable of explaining the specific socio-economic phenomena of value , price and profit as mutually interdependent , scientifically quantifiable and always tending towards general overall equalization . It is an economic model that outlines capitalism as predetermined autonomous mechanism , whose logic , expressed in free-standing laws , is programmed towards specific outcomes , regardless of interventions and / or creative influences .
Predicated on the basic assumptions that value is strictly quantifiable socially necessary labortime , and that total value always equals total price at the abstract level of economic totality , Marx outlines a series of economic calculations , and an economic model , explaining how market prices invariably fluctuate in relation to market values ; yet , broadly speaking , always reflect a solid ever-increasing sum of scientifically quantifiable value that is perfectly expressed in price . According to Marx , due to competition and the capitalist search for surplus profit , in general , profit , value and price have a tendency to equalize and reflect one another over a long period of time within capitalist society . These have a tendency to equalize over time between each other and between the various spheres of production found across capitalist society , in the end , settling around specific prices of production , prices of production being the average profit on top of production-cost that particular commodities , within specific branches of production , fetch in the marketplace .
Prices of production can be described as the limited price range , or average price , that a specific product or commodities can be exchanged for , priced too high means that a buyer cannot afford the product and priced too low means that a seller cannot cover production-costs and / or make a profit . As a