This idea of labour being hid­den in things, and the val­ue of things aris­ing from the labour con­gealed inside them, is an unex­pect­ed­ly pow­er­ful explana­to­ry tool in the dig­i­tal world. … When you start look­ing for this mech­a­nism at work in the con­tem­po­rary world you see it every­where, often in the form of sur­plus val­ue being cre­at­ed by you, the cus­tomer or client of a com­pa­ny. Online check-in and bag drop at air­ports, for example.