Commodity Fetishism

Commodity fetishism is a concept in Marxism that describes how social relationships are transformed into relationships between objects—in this case, commodities. Instead of recognizing the labor and human effort behind products, people tend to view the commodities themselves as having intrinsic value. This obscures the true social dynamics, like exploitation and inequality, that underpin their production. Essentially, it means we often prioritize the material goods we consume over the social relationships that create them, leading to misguided perceptions of value and desire in capitalist societies.