Rhodes Center Podcast: Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It?
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- Опубліковано 21 чер 2024
- On this episode Mark talks with political economist Brett Christophers. Brett’s a Professor at Uppsala University, and author of ‘Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It?’. In the book, Brett explains how neoliberalism and financialization have led to an explosion of rent-seeking businesses in a variety of sectors, from natural resource extraction and finance, to tech and hospitality. And while it allows some companies to thrive, Brett argues that mostly it stifles innovation, hurts competition, and defangs what’s left of organized labor. In Brett’s view, this new model of capitalism is one of the key economics challenges we face. After reading his book, you might agree.
You can learn more about and purchase Brett Christopher's book here: [www.versobooks.com/books/3683-rentier-capitalism]
I live in a small rural town in Michigan and the common people can hardly afford a home or farm land. It seems mortgage companies like Black rock are buying properties at an inflated price for renting out. I dont have an economics degree but i figured this out.
Excellent ..........we have moved into a rentier economy run by large corporations.
This was incredibly fascinating and frightening.
i know im asking randomly but does someone know a way to get back into an Instagram account?
I stupidly lost the password. I would love any tricks you can give me!
@Judah Alberto instablaster :)
Fascinating and tragic enough to make me pre ordered the book
@Temple of Ridicule what's that mean then?
@Temple of Ridicule I was just checking to see if you were as obnoxious as I thought you were. You'd think that the Watson institute channel wouldn't be full of arseholes but you've proved me wrong. Congratulations
@Temple of Ridicule No no it you. It's all you. Goodbye now
I pre-ordered it months ago and it's scheduled to arrive on Nov. 24 hahaha. Like back in June or May 🤣🤣. So worth the wait though
Imagine an economy where virtually all production was rent based, but instead of paying rent in money directly, renters gave up the ownership of what they produce for less than what it sells for, and the owner just pocketed this difference left from all renters and their labour, as a form of rent.
In this way all means of productions would work as a scarce resource, one which ultimately would consentrate around few owners who had less insentive to improve it compared to just gaining larger control and increasing the rent.
That would be wild
It fails for the same reasons barter does because it lacks coincidence of wants. Additionally, I can't see this working out at all for service-based jobs.
@@n00btotale The joke is that it's the world we live in
Well when you it like that... maybe we could even have a system that guaranteed the assets of the owners of production at the cost of the rental labourers!
This is the best way to mock capitalism without using the word I have ever seen. Bravo.
Watch THEY LIVE.... they are among us....
For those who are economically securing enough to consider this an intellectual exercise, fine. For the rest of us it means the difference between surviving or not. So tell us how to get the politicians to hear us and act in OUR interests.
looking at the US I would ask the question: is there an economy at all?
the most dangerous part of that I think is that, after distracting themselves with election and deluding themselves with the stock market, americans (at least some) are asking: "will there be a crash and when?"
how do you think they'll take it, when they realize the crash happened at the end of march and early april?
when the amount of debt in the system of both households and business basically made all cash disappear?
revenue couldn't cover monthly payments, so they couldn't borrow new cash to pay wages... had to fire employees and still needed the FED to cover the difference...
and the same happened for households... only for them there's no FED...
since then businesses and banks have been technically bancrupt being kept alive by the fed... but the song is sung... the revenue situation hasn't improved and won't since there's no wages for large parts of consumers...
how are they even still in an operative state?
I'm aware the magic of accounting keeps them technically alive so long they can keep the stocks they base their asset value on rising... but still it seems like utter madness to me... but then again I'm german, we're quite arcaic and produce things and sell them...
Prof. Blyth, Rhodes Center folks, much appreciation for all your great work. Would you be able to suggest short 5-8 book reading list for contemporary economic literacy? Thanks for considering it.
Good idea 👍
I recommend is Hajoon Chang (Economics: A User Guide) and Hirshman (Exit, Voice and Loyalty). I don' t think that they would help much with the jargons but they described the thoughts behind the people who were behind them and the criticisms. I' ve got Steve Keen (Debunking Economics) which go more indepth in criticisms. I learned by an introductory class and being skeptical, I like Keen attack on it. For mainstream viewpoints, I recommend Learn Liberty youtube channel, they are stout defenders.
Thank you. @@Account.for.Comment
* Lying for money - Dan Davies
Data rights for software and other types of data has got to be the next stage of the renter economy. The power to control access to data and software is the power to control the economy. Remember when TV was free as long as you watched the commercials. Now we pay for access to how many streaming services, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, Disney, etc. Most people don’t even know how many they subscribe to and how much they pay each month.
"Data rights for software"
That is already in effect. Years back, Tech got in a war with each other, for patents owned by Nortel Networks, after Nortel went bust. And the resolution they came to was joint ownership - if I can remember right, called Rock Star. By the way, many of us don't buy any online subscriptions.
I do! Got none and pay zero.
Very interesting discussion. Thank you!
Very interesting. Definitely getting my hands on that book
Keep up the good work Mark, weer"all pull'enforyu
Fantasic episode. I listened 2x on Google Podcasts, but they don't have a comment/rate section there.
Fantastic
The extension of the copyright duration.
yeah
Indeed. The common argument that copyright is good because artists need it to live off their work doesn't justify copyright terms extending for _70 years_ after the death of the author.
Woohoo! Went to look for the book and found it’s a Verso pub, which means my Verso Bookclub membership will pop it into my ebook library, when it’s published, mid Nov. Awesome!
Wow so this explains Australia's bjorked political system...
And the US', and Japan's, and Italy's, and , and , and .
Neoliberalism? More like Neofeudalism.
The Road to Serfdom wasn't a warning-it was a roadmap.
Agree. Same old story, new wrapping. Freedom and personal ownership gradually turns into kingdoms and serfs. When will they ever learn......
neodouchebagism
Not correct. Feudalism does not allow people to move freely. Neoliberalism, on the other hand, needs free flow of everything.
@@borisnegrarosa9113 ??? Do tell how Western citizens can up and move to another country of their own volition. Do tell how I, a US citizen, can fly to German, and open a pharmacy selling cheap generic imports from, hmmm, any place I want to. That'd be news to me. Because it looks to be "free flow of everything" is solely at the behest of industry.
If you really parse rent out... it's outsourced tax collection. Tax principally through history was assessed based upon land, property ownership. This makes sense as it's the easiest to tax but also basically is forcing the people of the controlled territory to produce something with the property that they have in effect leased (don't pay your taxes and the government will revoke the lease and find someone who will pay.) However today everyone wants to become the rent seeker over a sphere but NOT PAY TAXES. In other words, the justification for the private property doesn't exist. They do this through a lot of means, like convincing local authorities to waive taxes assessed on the property until the property debts are paid off (at which point the corporation shuts down the property and moves on, they'd rather pay debt, less than zero percent interest than pay tax.) They are no longer "outsourced tax collection." They are STEALING what is ultimately the state's domain as the land, the property all of it is the state's and private property is really a lease document at best.
Of course it was meant to happen. Why else do you suppose that the exact same process occurred across every single Anglosphere country in the world, on the same timescale and by governments on the left and right. Here in Australia, Prime Minister Hawke, ex head of the Unions Labor PM, implemented pretty much all the same policies as Thatcher, as did NZ, Canada and the US, with the exact same outcome. Do you seriously believe that they had no idea what the impact of those policies would be? Bear in mind that, of course, it was not really the politicians deciding any of these things but the Executive Managerial classes in the public service ( or civil service in UK). They all knew exactly what they were doing and if you don’t know that then you clearly haven’t read the international agreements and domestic policy documents of the time
Henry George wept.
Given the generalized decline in the rate of profit that we've seen over the past decade I don't see how any attempt to bring these assets under public ownership is allowed to happen. The "commons" that not just the UK, but all western economies had was the product a specific institutional organization that is not just extinct, but couldn't be brought back if we wanted to. Capitalism has destroyed any ability for these countries to provide a decent standard of living for its inhabitants and it's going to destroy it's own ability to sustain itself continuing down this road.
I imagine suffrage for women looked way less likely before it was forced into society. You might be right about a bleak future, but simply by fighting for a different one might achieve the impossible for someone else. The insanity of resilience can create possibilities politically that only a loon could of imagined. You give Capitalism too much credit, as if it exists, some eternal spiritual entity with purpose. Which is exactly what a few assholes and their families would like you to think. The mystical and unstoppable neo liberal market. The great unknown! Only magical soothsayer mathematics banking on the reputations of
"The Scientific Method" can have any hope of narrowly describing!
cannibal zombies
@Temple of Ridicule The proof is the cannibalizing of Living Wage. Which, ironically, is precisely what caused Marx to sit down and write. JFK said, "If only his employer had given him a raise, ..."
READ YOUR MARX!
I think the goal is to stop falling productivity, not maximise it.
@@mostevil1082 Marximising profits? Why not?
I once shot a capitalist in my rented pajamas...they had of course been repossessed, but why he was wearing them i'll never know.
i feel sorry for economists, they are always swimming in the kiddy pool, and can never stop the big people in the main pool of politics from disrupting their theories.
Fellas... your point that Facebook and Google are profiting from "scarcity." It's the internet. It's as scarce as the number of servers you connect to it. YOU can start a website. You have the same opportunity to draw eyeballs as anybody. There are loads of shopping cart services to help you extract your "rent."
Further, in the UK, don't you pay $1,000 a year to operate a television? Another $1,000 a year to operate a car? Am I hearing wrong? If true, do you really think the Utopia you're looking for is just a few more taxes away?
Commulism!
How fked are we?
Yes
Extremely.
You couldn't dig a hole big enough to fit how the crap to help us survive.
Socialism FTW!
consumer attention?? google? facebook? read " The Age of Surveillance Capitalism ". watch " money as debt " on youtube. last time i check labor creates capital, always has, always will. also to end with is ( sorry more reading ) : " j as in junk economic's " ; " killing the host " ; and " ........and forgive them their debt. " lastly " Debt: The First 5000 Years " . steve keen is another from the area of thinking.
So, basically, the UK is back to Fudelisim. You trying to tell me, that some watery tart gives you a sword, and that gives you the right to talk down to me. Help Help, I'm being repressed !!
and that is why rentiers fear organised unions......