Scottish computer scientist Paul Cockshott and his devotees have frequently portrayed Marx as a proponent of their own “labor theory of value.” But a recent essay by “RV,” a young Belgian activist and theorist, has exposed sharp differences between Cockshott’s theory and Marx’s actual theory. In this interview, RV explains to the co-hosts what the differences are, why they are important, and what impelled him to push back against the efforts to “force Marx, at all costs, to hold” Cockshott’s theory. They also discuss RV’s suggestion that we should let these two different theories contend, to “see which one better stands the test of reality,” how Cockshott is likely to respond to this suggestion, and why RV rejects the “empirical evidence” that supposedly supports Cockshott’s theory.
In the current-events segment, the co-hosts discuss the calls to “defund the police” and proposals to reform policing in the US. Can policing indeed be reformed? If so, what reforms are possible?
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Kapitalism101 
The main point of Cockshott Is about” denial of formation of average rate of profit “
Unfortunately this is not addressed in this discussion
The attempts to prove equalization of rate of profit must be examined
Thanks for listening and commenting. Although that may be a major part of Cockshott’s work it was not the focus of this discussion. For one, we can’t cover everything in one podcast (I already had to edit a two our discussion down to a 45 minute segment.) But more importantly, the interpretive issues at stake, whether Cockshott should be allowed to substitute his own theories for Marx’s, need to be dealt prior to an investigation as to whether these theories have empirical validity. We have to be clear on what the theory is we are attempting to verify.