In the first volume of Das Kapital, published in 1867, Karl Marx asks what sets the value of a commodity. His answer is a quantity of time. Es ist also nur das Quantum gesellschaftlich notwendiger Arbeit oder die zur Herstellung eines Gebrauchswertes gesellschaftlich notwendige Arbeitszeit, welche seine Wertgröße bestimmt. It is only the amount of socially necessary labor, or the labor time socially necessary to produce a useful thing, that determines the size of its value. Marx defines this time precisely. It is the time needed to make a thing under the normal conditions of production, with the average skill and intensity of the society. A slow or clumsy worker does not make his product more valuable.
As Dear as I Ought
In 1524 Martin Luther published Von Kaufshandlung und Wucher, On Trade and Usury. He quotes the rule of the merchants. In modern German it reads: Ich darf meine Ware so teuer geben, wie ich kann. I may sell my goods as dear as I can. Luther calls this rule the basis of all the tricks of usury. He tells the Christian merchant to ask a different question: Ja, wie teuer soll ich’s denn geben? Wo treffe ich das Rechte und die Billigkeit, dass ich meinen Nächsten nicht übervorteile oder überteuere? How dear should I sell it, then? Where do I find what is right and fair, so that I do not take advantage of my neighbor or overcharge him? Luther also gives the method. The merchant should count the days he spent getting and fetching the goods. He should weigh his labor and his risk, and compare his reward with the wage of a common day laborer.
The Natural Wage on a Gravestone
Johann Heinrich von Thünen was a Mecklenburg landowner and economist. In 1826 he published the first part of Der isolirte Staat, The Isolated State. The second part followed in 1850, the year he died. In it he looked for the naturgemäße Arbeitslohn, the natural wage. He did not mean the wage the market happened to pay. He meant a wage that could be derived. His answer was a formula, the square root of A times P. A is the value of what labor and capital produce. P is what the worker and his family need to live. Thünen wished the formula to be placed on his gravestone. It is there today.
The Child Support Table
When German parents separate, the parent who does not live with the child pays support. The amount usually comes from one table, the Düsseldorfer Tabelle. The table goes back to 1962. The Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf publishes it, and courts across the country use it. The table has rows for the paying parent’s net income and columns for the child’s age. In 2026 it has fifteen income brackets. The first ends at 2,100 euros a month, and the fifteenth at 11,200 euros. In the lowest bracket, a child up to five years old receives 486 euros a month. A child from six to eleven receives 558 euros, and a child from twelve to seventeen receives 653 euros. The table is not a law. The legal publisher C.H. Beck calls it a generally recognized aid for finding the appropriate amount.
Fees by Points and Tables
A German doctor treating a private patient bills under the Gebührenordnung für Ärzte, the GOÄ. Each service has a number of points. The points are multiplied by a point value of 5.82873 cents. As a rule, the doctor may then charge between one and 2.3 times that rate, depending on difficulty and time. A lawyer bills under the Rechtsanwaltsvergütungsgesetz, the RVG. The fee follows the value of the matter, the Gegenstandswert, and a table is attached to the law. For a matter worth up to 500 euros, one fee is 51.50 euros. The fee grows with the value of the matter, step by step, according to the table.
The Craftsman’s Estimate
A German customer who calls a plumber without agreeing on a price still owes a definite amount. Section 632 of the Civil Code fills the gap. If a fee schedule exists, the scheduled fee counts as agreed. If none exists, the usual fee counts as agreed. The written estimate, the Kostenanschlag or Kostenvoranschlag, is free unless the parties agreed otherwise. Section 649 covers the case where the estimate turns out too low. If the work cannot be done without a substantial overrun, the craftsman must tell the customer without delay. The customer may then end the contract and pay only for the work done so far. The Frankfurt Chamber of Industry and Commerce explains that an overrun of 10 to 20 percent is probably not yet substantial.
That cannot be calculated
That cannot be calculated. A German objection to a proposal, and it is a refusal rather than a complaint. What is being said is that the thing cannot be priced, and therefore cannot be undertaken.
Own-costs
Own-costs. The German term for what a thing costs the producer before any margin, and it appears in ordinary commercial speech as well as in accounting.
Zu Selbstkosten abgeben — to hand something over at own-cost — is a specific and meaningful statement in German business. It names an exact point on a scale everyone is assumed to know exists.
Under the line
Under the line. The German for the net result, and the line in question is the one drawn across a column of figures before the total is written beneath it. The phrase assumes a column exists.
Sighted over the thumb
Sighted over the thumb. The German for a rough estimate, from the surveyor’s trick of gauging distance by holding up a thumb. It is always flagged, and flagging it is the point — the speaker is marking the number as not properly derived before anyone else can.