Final answer:
The statement that an item's value is based on the work that has gone into it is true, referring to the labor theory of value. This concept was a critique of unfair profit distribution during industrialization, asserting that workers' wages should reflect their contribution to the product's value. The correct option is 1.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question refers to the concept known as the labor theory of value, which suggests that the value of an item is inherently linked to the labor required to produce it. This theory is particularly associated with critics of industrialization, who argued that the workers' wages did not reflect the true value they added to the finished products.
They believed that the profits from the sale of goods should be distributed in a way that laborers would recover, through wages, the value their efforts contributed, and that factory owners should receive a fair, but not disproportionately large, share of the profits.
The statement that theorists contended an item's value is based on the work that has gone into it is true. This idea is central to the labor theory of value, which was a significant point of discussion during the industrial era, where the debate on the fair distribution of profits and labor exploitation was prominent.
The labor theory of value interconnects with the broader economic and social discussions of the time, highlighting the tension between the burgeoning class of industrial capitalists and the working class.