How the Labor Theory of Value Emerges from Egalitarianism

The purpose of this essay is to put the last vestiges of the labor theory of value to rest. My goal is to explain why when we look at large sections of the economy, we find that value added correlates with labor time. The correlation comes not from some universal law of value. Instead, I argue that it results from a simple heuristic: humans seek income that is equivalent to their peers’. I call this principle the ‘egalitarian heuristic’. If it holds, even in rough form, then value added will correlate strongly with labor time. In short, we do not need the labor theory of value to explain the evidence.