Venezuela not exploited but an exploiter???

[bailey_187]

So i was reading Slavoj Zizek's Living in End Times and it talks in one chapter quite abit about the Labour Theory of Value. It then makes an interesting point concerning Venezuela and other states that survive by exporting natural resources. I dont have the book with me right now, so cant quote, but it says something like this:

All value comes from human labour according to Marxists. Therefore when a landlord rents land he is an exploiter. In the same way Oil states are rentiers as they are selling natural resources that are just under the ground by luck.

The only way you could say Venezuela is exploited as a nation is to say subscribe to the neoclassical view that Land, Labour and Capital are all equal and so all demand returns, and Venezuela sells its oil below market price.



Any comments? Zizek explains it better, so when i get my copy of the book back i will quote it, or if anyone else has a copy it would be very helpful if they quote the relevent section. Its near the end of the chapter "Return To Political Economy" i think.

[Dean]

So i was reading Slavoj Zizek's Living in End Times and it talks in one chapter quite abit about the Labour Theory of Value. It then makes an interesting point concerning Venezuela and other states that survive by exporting natural resources. I dont have the book with me right now, so cant quote, but it says something like this:

All value comes from human labour according to Marxists. Therefore when a landlord rents land he is an exploiter. In the same way Oil states are rentiers as they are selling natural resources that are just under the ground by luck.

The only way you could say Venezuela is exploited as a nation is to say subscribe to the neoclassical view that Land, Labour and Capital are all equal and so all demand returns, and Venezuela sells its oil below market price.



Any comments? Zizek explains it better, so when i get my copy of the book back i will quote it, or if anyone else has a copy it would be very helpful if they quote the relevent section. Its near the end of the chapter "Return To Political Economy" i think.

This is precisely why rigid adherence to the old models of exploitation are damaging to our understanding of exploitative relations. The facts surrounding media and credit reporting agencies alone - that is the dissemination of information - show an exploitative relationship in and of themselves.

I wouldn't be surprised if Venezuela was an exploitative force. But its worth noting that oil exporting nations are routinely exploited by the US oil refinery industry which resells refined oil products to them in a system akin to mercantilism. So I think Zizek is incredibly narrow in his approach to the issue of exploitation, even just in terms of oil.

[Zanthorus]

So Zizek thinks that the oil just pops out of the ground without the aid of anything like oil rigs...?