Following the Marxist theory of commodity fetishism, I suggest that these discourses of oil create the illusion that the social value of oil is the product itself (objective), which ignores the human processes (subjective) that shape the capitalistic machine. According to Marx, commodities are the products and services of human labor that organize the productive system of a society. While fetishism “is the representational complex through which objects appear as the source of the powers which human labor inscribes in them” (Coronil 34). In modern economies, oil is the primary commodity that shapes political and social live in Venezuela and other nations. Oil reveals that the connection between the production and representation of the value
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As a consequence, individuals with more capital receive greater benefits and civil rights; in contrast, individuals who lack capital are vulnerable, devalued, and do not have the same citizenship rights (Ong 6-7). This two economic and social realities are determined by the purchasing power of individuals, which is related to the access to oil profits. To put it in another way, employees in the oil companies are usually the best paid workers, local elites benefit from oil production and exportation because they have business with both: government and oil companies, and the government benefits the most because it receives and manages all the oil …show more content…
These include the commodification and privatization of land and the forceful expulsion of peasant populations; the conversion of various forms of property rights (common, collective, state, etc.) into exclusive private property rights; the suppression of rights to the commons; the commodification of labour power and the suppression of alternative (indigenous) forms of production and consumption; colonial, neo-colonial, and imperial processes of appropriation of assets (including natural resources); the monetization of exchange and taxation, particularly of land; the slave tradejfand usury, the national debt, and ultimately the credit system as radical means of primitive accumulation
As a consequence, individuals with more capital receive greater benefits and civil rights; in contrast, individuals who lack capital are vulnerable, devalued, and do not have the same citizenship rights (Ong 6-7). This two economic and social realities are determined by the purchasing power of individuals, which is related to the access to oil profits. To put it in another way, employees in the oil companies are usually the best paid workers, local elites benefit from oil production and exportation because they have business with both: government and oil companies, and the government benefits the most because it receives and manages all the oil …show more content…
These include the commodification and privatization of land and the forceful expulsion of peasant populations; the conversion of various forms of property rights (common, collective, state, etc.) into exclusive private property rights; the suppression of rights to the commons; the commodification of labour power and the suppression of alternative (indigenous) forms of production and consumption; colonial, neo-colonial, and imperial processes of appropriation of assets (including natural resources); the monetization of exchange and taxation, particularly of land; the slave tradejfand usury, the national debt, and ultimately the credit system as radical means of primitive accumulation