Dinesh D'Souza and the Labor Theory of Value

[RedMaterialist]

I was listening to some of the Wacko-Bird conservatives at the CPAC convention today, and I heard this from the right-wing D'Souza. He said that he had to pay $30 to park in a parking lot and he had asked the car attendant how many cars he had parked. The attendant told him 100. D'Souza asked the attendant what he had made in one day, it was about $100. D'Souza then figured out that a fat-cat (his words) had made $3,000 while the attendant had made $100 and had done all the work. D'Souza's conclusion was that Republicans had to "address" this problem.

It is not possible that D'Souza had figured out the labor theory of value for himself. He must have been reading Marx. Or maybe, he just suddenly recognized the exploitative nature of capitalism.

[AConfusedSocialDemocrat]

Or maybe, he just suddenly recognized the exploitative nature of capitalism

It's not that hard to do...

[Jimmie Higgins]

I was listening to some of the Wacko-Bird conservatives at the CPAC convention today, and I heard this from the right-wing D'Souza. He said that he had to pay $30 to park in a parking lot and he had asked the car attendant how many cars he had parked. The attendant told him 100. D'Souza asked the attendant what he had made in one day, it was about $100. D'Souza then figured out that a fat-cat (his words) had made $3,000 while the attendant had made $100 and had done all the work. D'Souza's conclusion was that Republicans had to "address" this problem.

It is not possible that D'Souza had figured out the labor theory of value for himself. He must have been reading Marx. Or maybe, he just suddenly recognized the exploitative nature of capitalism.

"right-wing D'Souza"... redundant :lol:

I don't know what the context of this argument was and if he just sort of said it off-hand it could very well be he just dosn't see the significance of what he's saying. But just that tid-bit alone doesn't mean anyone - especially on the US right - is really rethinking neo-liberal assumptions. I'd guess that D'Souza was saying "conservatives have to confront the reality of wealth inequality, the gap between the 99 and 1%".

His analogy, if described like in the above quote, suggests that inequality is just the result of people "skimming off the top" i.e. greed and corruption. This is an argument about economic inequalities used by both conservatives and liberals (though conservatives in the last generation have tended to glorify personal greed as a Randian virtue - something that has less traction among even their supporters these days). A liberal or social-democrat might argue that this greed shows the need for reforms to reign-in capitalists and prevent "excesses". Someone like D'Sousa might even use the existance of this imbalance to argue that it's evidence of a lack of "true capitalism". He can say on the one hand that the inequality brought about by "fat-cats" and their "cronies" is a problem and the solution would be for every vallet to own their own lot - if the vallet is a small businessman then he can labor and then keep that 3.000 to use as he wishes.

[Zealot]

We should start a smear campaign calling him a Marxist like they do with everyone else. I actually thought this thread was going to be a video or something of Dinesh trying to explain the labour theory of value. I was disappointed.