Money Wisdom #204

"...the real essence of money is not disclosed by the labor theory of value but by a theory of ownership - i.e. power. 'But how are gold and silver distinguished form other forms of wealth? Not by the magnitude of their value, for this is determined by the quantity of labor materialized in them; but by the fact that they represent independent incarnations, expressions of the social character of wealth.' The value of money does not lie in the value with which the labor theory of value is concerned. And conversely - this is the crucial point - the labor theory of value does not contain the answer to the problem of power.

Norman O Brown Life against Death - The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History (1959) p.251