Nominal Value and Exchange Value

Smith's use of the 'Real'-'Nominal' contrast to represent the distinction between Labor Value and Exchange Value is not only unusual, but potentially profoundly misleading. For, traditionally, the former pair corresponds to a logical distinction--an individual universal vs. a set of particulars that share some characteristic, whereas the latter contrasts two particular quantities--one, inherent, the other, contingent. Now, while his successors have tended to use Real-Nominal otherwise, the veneer of the rationality of Exchange Value has lingered, fortifying those who tend to profit from the obscuring of the essential arbitrariness of some market prices, especially wages, i. e. it provides them with grounds for a defense against a presumed 'redistribution' of income, familiar in contemporary political rhetoric.