My God, I was talking about the insidious transition from the language of "citizen" to the language of "consumer" 30 years ago. It was truly heartening to hear her explicitly make this important (yet seemingly minor) point. Thanks for this.
@@JohnnyMotel99 Well said. But, in response to the original poster, I would like to comment. I am architect/urban designer originally from Ireland, who has been living in the United States for many years. It has been alarming to me to see the RAPID increase over the last 25 years or so, of the United Kingdom wittingly or unwittingly, blindly picking up certain terms from the United States' "Corporatization Dictionary" When I lived in Ireland, up until 1980, I NEVER heard anybody in Britain or Ireland referred to as simply "A CONSUMER". It is an insidious, reductionist term, which most definitely originated here in the United States as a CATCHALL phrase to include everybody. Grace CANNOT be expected to know all the answers. But, she is one of a GROWING number of people trying to articulate, for OUR benefit, the many ways in which, to quote Noam Chomsky, "we have been turned into WAGE SLAVES", and some suggestions of how we combat this soul crushing state of affairs. And as for online criticisms of her comments: If "the left" keeps forever shooting itself in the foot looking for UTOPIA, there will NEVER be social justice in the world, just endless, circular, bitter complaining. This, of course, is EXACTLY what global Oligarchs, Corporations, Banks and corrupt, sold out Governments LOVE to see.
The pervading and rampant culture of individualism. Absolutely nailed it. The cause of so much despair, division, hopelessness and suffering in western societies.
GenZ is in crisis because this individualism has poisoned society so much that they cannot even bear to look upon one another without the pain of endless competitive nihilism.
It started with thatcher and Reagan and imo it has ruined society and our culture. People qho bought into it have a tendency to selfishness and also they gained from it despite the losses to others. Argue a case and they'll call you a communist! 😧
I'm not sure you did the 90's, individualism was huge, as was community. You've got the wrong target. What's happened has happened since then. Mainly 30years of putin thinking he ruled the internet and brainwashing the youth with his troll teams. And he used eugenicists in the uk and USA to enable it. Tories worked in tandem with the Republicans and putin to create his invading nazis. He really wanted to be invaded. It was his excuse. He got denied. Trump got denied, we still have to clean up our mess. Streets of London are paved in rubles.
This was extraordinarily good. The way this flowed was really impressive. Talking for nearly an hour, barely pausing and with no repetition and being completely engaging throughout too.
I just have to say, Politics Joe is such a WONDERFUL interviewer. Listens well, allows her to speak, engaging responses, knowledgeable, he did his homework and this is a wonderful conversation
I was 19 when Thatcher came to power and I can confirm everything stated here. It was all a calculated con. The problem was, organised Labour had made itself an easy target for divide-and-conquer politics. Unions appeared to be driven by selfish acquisition for their membership and the aggrandisement of their leaders. The general public did not take much persuading with a few cheap bribes like utility privatisations and social housing sell-offs. What we have come to now is an obscene caricature of a political “system”, dominated by lies, corruption and greed. First, we need to cut out the diseased tissue at the next election and then get to work improving what is remaining. There is hope, but it will be a very long haul.
Partially correct. But a number of Unions were taking the piss. They actually found a "sleeping room" in British Leyland. A number of Unions refused to any changes. You may have forgotten, but in the 1970s we had blackouts due to strikes.
I tiurned 18 in 1979 and was just and just too young to vote against her. Everything since has been the protection and consolidation of the wicked system she (re)introduced.
@@gavincutler8889 and now it's all privatized we can't afford the electricity when it's there 😂 candles are still the option for many. (I have been there, they were cheaper to run than an incandescent), by now it has to be vastly cheaper. But regardless it's all because the Tories ran off with the money. Again and again, and again. We can afford a healthy normal life quite easily, with all the perks. We just can't afford to sustain the rich who don't give back. The personal profiteers. Leeches, we're covered in em.
I feel I've been banging this drum for 20 years. Blakeley puts it all so succinctly - really important to do the history lesson first as well, as so many think what we have now is just the "default setting". Just pre-ordered the book. If it's anywhere near as good as the interview, it'll be 15 quid well spent.
so selling communism eh? how socialist of her ffs you people are beyond gullible. Todays modern socialist is literally SELLING the idea onto the gullible, they are about as revolutionary as garden gnome
she is dumb, her solution is socialism/communism, an idea so wrong on so many level even "communists" do not adhere to the core principle. Even the CCP embraced markets ffs. She has not ONE original concept, she is an idiot
Grace articulated here what so many of us understand but can't necessarily express, better than almost every other current commentator. Thanks to both. A double-act with Nick Abbot is urgently needed.
@nonfictionone I have no criticism of her factual points, but she offers multiple analyses of the facts throughout the discussion, which I disagree with. Of course, she is a smart lady and a compelling speaker, so that goes a long way for me .
@@nmk5003 If only you could actually come up with a concrete point to show how her "arguments" were lacking for you...that would actually give your critique some validity
@@upendasana7857 to be fair (and honest, and balanced), nmk didnt say she had a reason why, she just stated a fact about her own mind. But yeah, it would be great to have some actual critique
The guy who ran the Lucas Plan and went to work for the GLC was Prof Michael Cooley. A truly remarkable man and an original thinker. Born in Ireland in 1935, he passed away in 2020. President Michael D Higgins termed him a delinquent genius. He was the founding editor of AI & Society and is regarded as one of the fathers of CAD. He was nominated for a Nobel Prize and received the 'alternative' Nobel prize in the early 1980s. A school friend of famed Irish Playwright Tom Murphy, he started his career as a trainee machine master in Tuam Sugar Factory.
I was on the periphery of support for the Lucas Aerospace Plan when I was a student in Birmingham, 50 years ago. I have banged on about its importance for, ooh, fifty years. What a delight to discover that it hadn’t just vanished from scrutiny… Sadly - and it is a point Grace Blakeley didn’t make in the podcast - much of the traditional left did not support the Lucas Plan at the time; it challenged their ossified structures just as much as did those of the capitalist state.
It blows my mind people can't understand the collusion that goes on between big buisness and government.. And that you can't pull down one without pulling down the other.. Keep handing out the message! Appreciate it guys!
"It blows my mind people can't understand the collusion that goes on between big business and government." Then read "War is a Racket" (1935) by Maj Gen Smedley D Butler USMC, ret'd. It's not a long read, is available as a free PDF download, and precedes Michael Moore's similar observations by many decades... A quote from him- “I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914... There's a lot more...
same.... people are by and large -desparate -poorly schooled on such topics -too busy to look into it Then you have other forces against developing an understanding with terms like 'conspiracy theorist' which exist to add to the pile of de-incentivising factors leaning against self education on and speaking openly about such things as you risk becoming a best unpopular at worst laughed at and insulted. there's a hell of a mess to clear up.
Seems like world is dominated by “big”… big government, big business, big unions. The problem instead any one of these things it is that they are “big” Anything “Big” seeks to acquire and consolidate power. The left right dichotomy and the establishment vs non-establishment are framing the discussion to avoid dealing with “big”
Funny how those who advocate for complete state control are saying that there is a critical set of problems with capitalism BECAUSE of COMPLETE state control.
You can see the ragged edge of dying capitalism here in the US with private equity buying up trailer parks all over the country. These are assets that 20 years ago would have been laughed at by institutional investors but now they are being sought out, finding ones where older owners are eager to sell, doing minimal improvements, then jacking up the lot rents. The tenants own their homes but not the land they sit on so if they can't afford the new fees they can't stay, although they are "free" to have their homes moved (they are "mobile" after all). Once the older tenants have been flushed out, they can then move in a wealthier tenant (generally younger folks who have been priced out of a regular home) and then rake in the profits.
Exactly the same thing is happening to veterinary practices, which investors intend to make just as expensive as human hospitals, making pet insurance a requirement. A spay can now cost upwards of $700, simple diagnostics can cost $2,300+, other non standard surgeries are $10,000+. Pets are rapidly becoming a luxury.
Why is this the ragged edge of dying capitalism? It doesn't seem as bad as the for-profit housing plan schemes for immigrants outlined by Upton Sinclair in the Jungle 120 years ago. I'm also not sure it's that much worse than 3 or 4 families sharing a single apartment that you get in Havana today- something that would be an outrage to propose as a solution for homelessness in a capitalist country.
Of course you ignore that largely progressive policies that claim to "help the poor" do the absolute opposite. -- and you sit back and blame capitalism and investors? LOL
"'Rugged individualism' has meant all the 'individualism' for the masters, while the people are regimented into a slave caste to serve a handful of self-seeking 'supermen.' America is perhaps the best representative of this kind of individualism, in whose name political tyranny and social oppression are defended and held up as virtues; while every aspiration and attempt of man to gain freedom and social opportunity to live is denounced as 'un-American' and evil in the name of that same individuality." ~ Emma Goldman
I think Rush Limbaugh said, "I have the most difficult time defending Capitalism when all I can point at is "Crony-Capitalism". The problem is not the system, it's the individual character problem, right ?
@@keithcommins it would mean that all workers within an establishment own the means of production and that the workers themselves get to dictate how the business is operated through a referendum within the workplace. You can even have something like a worker council for different sects of positions within the workplace who would be the delegates who represent the workers of said positions; who come together to make decision at the behest of said workers. So, the delegates are elected and their positions can be revoked at anytime if the workers so please. This system would be such that the workers have a lot more say in the business that they contribute their labour towards.
Yes that's the understanding that Yanis Varoufakis has. Having had an inside seat as Finance Minister in the Greek government at the time of their most severe crisis, he is remarkably realistic too.
Yes, not just these conversations more, but also conversations that lead to community action in solidarity with a system change movement to move beyond capitalism. Sources suggested: Zeitgeist films with Peter Joseph (new one called "Requiem" is out soon, trailer online to see!), Moneyless Society, World Beyond Capitalism, Second Thought, Our Changing Climate, Michael Tellinger with One Small Town Contributionism.
@@coolioso808 This is a difficult time to live in and change wil be tough, but seeing this video and reading these comments makes me think that there's a real opening for major progressive change
@@DoylePerdue I agree, seeing all the people and organizations who care about building a better society to live in, that’s great! We need that. But what I’m saying is we need organized action to achieve those goals. We won’t just get to a healthy, cooperative post-capitalist society by happy thoughts. So all those organizations and people I mentioned in my last comment are part of the solution. Do you know any any others? I’m very intrigued by the ideas of Library Socialism promote by Srsly Wrong boys and Andrewism. But again, we need more than just good ideas. I look forward to seeing a mass shift in social progress. I want to be part of that ride to a better future.
I only wish these people could give Lenin the credit he deserves, he wrote the book on imperialism: the highest stage of capitalism. Sadly, v1nd1ct1ve l1berals censor communists and completely slander Lenin because he beat them
I only wish people like this would give Lenin the credit he deserves. He wrote the book on imperialism: the highest stage of capitalism. But vindictive liberals censor Communists and slander and throw all kinds of dirt on Lenin since it was Marxist ideas that won the hearts and minds of the masses
What is so refreshing about this channel (I'm not always on board with the opinions of the hosts, so this is definitely not just being a fanboy) and the likes of Novara (again, I'm indifferent to most of the presenters) is that they just have a good faith conversation on the terms of the interviewee and generally just give them space to talk. They will challenge something they don't agree with, but it's seldom hostile, never anti intellectual or disingenuous, and they will talk to anyone from across the political spectrum who comes in good faith with a reasonable argument. Compare this to the hostility of the BBC or the lumpen rhetoric of Sky News. Or worse: UA-cam keeps pushing Telegraph nonsense on me and it's staggering: their version of the "intellectual" conversation interview seems so dull, incurious and superficial. Who could stand it?
@johnbehan1526 Well, certainly agreed on that!.. the likes of the BBC including the legions of dishonrable others is totally unbearable at times..this was very refreshing although like yourself I'm not a politics Joe groupee but I'd say more from where this intervuew came from all day.. thanks
@@johnbehan1526 Sky news runs circles around the BBC in terms of truth dude. nice try. and Grace> that coward is a socialist that chooses to live under capitalism.
I remember laughing out loud in a HMRC meeting in the 80s being told taxpayers are now customers. Ludicrous then and now and I have always known thisxwas when it started to change under Thatcher and Reagan. Both dead but still causing misery from the grave. This young woman is great . I shall read her book. Thanks for another great interview, Joe.
The fundamental problem is that everybody works within a business to produce a surplus. A small group of people within that entity then decide what to do with that surplus. It's really no surprise that they choose to use that surplus to enrich themselves by voting for larger shareholder dividends and increased pay for board members while hundreds or thousands of other members of the organisation get almost nothing or literally nothing despite being the largest group that contributed to the surplus that was created. The solution here is to democratise the workplace. Trading shares should be made illegal. When a person joins a company they get a single share which grants them a single vote in all company affairs. When you leave you surrender that share. Then Monday to Thursday everyone works like normal. Friday is voting day where everybody votes on all company decisions. Who to hire, where to move production to, how much to produce, who you want to lead your department, how much to sell things for, who to sell it to and what do the with the surplus. Under this model, how many companies would vote to outsource work to the other side of the world? How many would vote to dump toxic waste into local rivers where the employees live? During a cost of living crisis shouldn't the workers be able to vote to use the surplus to ease their suffering?
You are describing what is called 'stakeholder' corporate governance. The UK uses 'shareholder' corporate governance. Germany uses stakeholder corporate governance rather well.
@@cfalvl2380 it's not describing stakeholder governance, it's describing socialism. stakeholder governance is still capitalism because anyone can own shares in the company if they buy them on the capital markets. the stakeholder model is superior to the shareholder model regarding worker rights, but you're missing the point. who owns the means of production is key
I would say that it is not the workers of the factory that decide whether to dump the toxic waste in the river but the people who live downstream of that factory. If the employees live there then that's the same of course, but if the employees live upstream of the factory then it's not fair to those downstream of the factory.
@@iss5021 Far be it from me to say what the original poster meant. What the original poster described is stakeholder corporate governance. Not all incorporated businesses are publicly traded. You don't have to list your company on an exchange just because you incorporate it. Co-Ops can be incorporated and stay private. Not all capital in a country is for sale to anyone with money. You have, by my estimation, skipped a major step in what can legitimately said to be 'socialism'. The central bank would have to own the entire banking system. The BOE still sells bonds to primary dealers who then sell those bonds on a secondary market exchange. They facilitate the trade of bonds, they don't own them. The currency in circulation is the liquidity from those bonds. Add in that the OECD is a capital market structure, you could not have trade agreements that would be considered 'fair' if one country was socialist and the other was not. Socialism doesn't work efficiently. I know people have a romance with the ideology, but if you are serious and run simulations, it isn't on par with capitalism. Having a private democratic workplace though, isn't socialism.
Blakeley is amazing! She is so interesting and explains some hard to grasp concepts in a way that is easy to understand. Looking forward to reading her book.
The essence of capitalism is a few people that are offered access to capital for their entrepreneurship. The story told is that only a few have the ideas and moxie to bring their ideas to market. Untrue. Without capital it means nothing. Capitalists are allowed to fail again and again, whereas normal folks have to risk their enrire lives to attempt a project.
Grace is so lovely, intelligent and empathetic. Just wow. I saw and felt that cultural shift within the 60/70's to the beginnings of this mess that had taken full hold by the 80's. If I'd had a daughter I'd have been proud as hell for her to be like grace👏👏👏
you mean the hell socialists created in the 70s? imf bail outs, the bankrupcies, the inflation? why was tatcher elected 2 times in a landlside, if socialism is so good why did they need her so much?
Phenomenal. Ordered the book, can't wait to read. It's refreshing to hear someone talking as Grace does about not just what is wrong with the current system, but crucially what we could do to make better systems and live better lives. That messaging is the only thing that will get people to take notice.
LOL - "hey guys it is these total greedy businesses that are to blame, here BUY my book so I can PROFIT off you poor people who moan about the system I have the answers trust me, it is TOTALLY not some dead idiot who hates the world with failed theories TRUST me guys"
@@James_36 "You dislike capitalism and yet you take part in it. You are a hypocrite. I am so smart" that's your argument here basically and it's thick as mince. Also... I'm not poor, you don't have to be poor to believe the system is unfair or not working well, or indeed to care if the system is not working for the poorest. Cope harder mate, I'm sure you sticking up for corruption in business and government will convince them to be nicer to you.
@@ovilord so other businesses cannot make a profit and keep their money but Grace can? she is selling her book for profit? so she is okay to play the game at the same time as moaning about the game she is getting richer from? demanding other business cannot do but she can play it also? LOL how lost you are
@@James_36 who said businesses cannot profit? She certainly didn't and neither did I. The issue is a corruption of the market and of public life such that some people and companies get preferential treatment and can take the system for a ride whilst others have to play by the rules, that's wrong. You need to learn some reading and listening comprehension.
@@ovilord first off, she claims to be a socialist.. socialists are anti- private business hello?? like i said, you are totally fckin lost. what legitimate business is not playing by the rules? they are all playing by the rules.
I’m confused and dismayed at Grace’s repeated use of the term Anarchy. I realise there is a historical precedent for referí g to some economic systems as Anarchy. But imho it muddies the water between what the political ideology of Anarchism has achieved over hundreds of years. ( ie: bottom up structures - a dissolution of hierarchy ) and it continues the trope in people’s minds that Anarchy is Chaos. It’s really unfortunate but using the term chaotic or something would be much more helpful.
Obviously, she knows what it means, you know what it means and I know what it means. A descriptive definition would be useful for those scared of the word, but I doubt that they'd be the kind of person who watches this anyway
You could say that about most political terms. Every word is basically dog whistle, inuendo, obscuring bullshit. It's hard to talk to someone using a different set of definitions for the same words.
Yes, I agree with you. I have read her 'corona crash' and it seems to me that she comes from a party-political view of society and the 'economy', at the expenses for the potentials for antagonism and revolt from below.
"Democratize everything" falls right into what I've been going through lately. Talking to people even when it's difficult, trying to get everyone to understand everyone else. Compassion and Humility can be difficult to facilitate but just trying goes a long way.
Everyone should read: 'The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists' by Robert Noonan (pen name Robert Tressell) and 'The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism' by Naomi Klein and watch the documentary films, 'Sicko' and 'Capitalism: A Love Story', both made by Michael Moore (film maker) Those are a good place to start when looking into the mess we are in atm.
@@oldishandwoke-ish1181no one likes socialism, we’ve seen it fail time and time again. No one liked Jeremy, he’s an anti-Western, Britain hating socialist.
Great Vid Joe, really interesting look at what an alternative future could look like. Grace explains her ideas in such a clear and understandable way. This sort of stuff should be on the BBC.👍
Another great interview with Grace. What she was saying about how'oh, that's not real capitalism/socialism' is that people confuse the ideology which is a utopian model of how things should be that usually ignores crucial aspects of how things actually are, so the implementation of those ideas never resembles the ideology because it's just a set of ideas that most people don't even agree with or accept grudgingly due to their lowly position in the power structure. Additionally, they often create perverse incentives eg I remember an Adam Curtis documentary where Russian taxi drivers would drive around pointlessly just to fulfil their fuel quotas.
Looking forward to reading the book. She's saying things I've always intuited, & I've always been looking for answers to this mess, & open to new ideas. Thanks.
answer to what mess? freedom under capitalism? move to North Korea -- then lets see if anything Grace Blakeley says "intrigues you" LOL. my god you sad people that believe this shit
That is the finest dissertation of political and economic circumstances I have ever heard. Cogent and intelligent. This girl should be in parliament - if it wasn’t so corrupting. Thank you for that précis of the situation everyone faces. This was a joy to listen to.
By using 'chaos' instead of 'anarchy' as a term (to describe chaos), it is more respectful to those who follow or refer to anarchist philosophy, which is often socially collectivist.
imagine the level of ignorance it takes to put brilliant and socialism in the same sentence. wow. welcome to the depths of stupidity of todays political left.
‘Stolen’ the first book really hit home with me how the Thatcher years I lived through were the formative years of changing society forever. Living through it. You could feel something really wrong was happening. So looking fwd to getting my hands on Vulture Capitalism ❤✊
So refreshing to hear people like Grace, expand, develop and encourage more and more of us to wake up and smell the coffee. Fabulous interview, and ordering the book. Next?
1% of the global population owns more wealth than the bottom 95% put together, capitals wealth accumulation is working just fine. As long as the working class is happy piling up wealth for a tiny minority then all well and good, more fools them.
00:00 Neoliberal shift aimed at crushing collective power and promoting toxic individualism 02:06 The divide between more market and more government is unhelpful. 05:57 Marxism views capitalism as a social system based on class division and exploitation. 07:46 Capitalism leading to corruption in major industries 11:34 Corporate power intertwined with free market capitalism 13:27 Capitalism not working as supposed to, corrupted by those at the top. 17:21 Capitalist institutions wield immense power with little accountability 19:12 Individual power vs systemic control 22:48 Shift from collective consciousness to toxic individualism 24:33 Shift from collective agency to individual blame 27:58 Shift towards individualized capitalist mindset in the 80s 29:48 Neoliberalism led to the financialization of the economy 33:35 Challenges in combating powerful financial institutions 35:28 Workers at Lucas Aerospace proposed transforming the firm into a worker-owned organization producing socially useful commodities. 38:52 Empowering communities to resist exploitation and build socialism. 40:44 Democratizing everything for a better future 44:23 Shifting towards community, worker, and people power threatens the status quo of capitalism. 46:20 Shift in the Labour party's stance on Gaza to support for humanitarian ceasefire 50:00 Politicians shape the news agenda, leading to a narrow political focus. 51:42 Media focuses on political stories rather than ecological impact. 55:19 Advocating for democratization of public services 57:11 Advocating for collective self-governance over elected officials Crafted by Merlin AI.
Grace Blakeley is able to describe the sort of future may of us are hoping for but aren't able to describe, how wonderful it is to hear her speak, but Wow - I wish she would talk slower!
It's really nice to see an intelligent economist who lives in the real world. I completely agree with everything that she's saying here. I just heard you had Yanis Varoufakis on. I'm a big fan of him too. I just subscribed. Please keep up the good work. Thank you.
Fantastic interview! You're a wonderful interviewer: you keep the conversation going but you let your guest speak. It's so refreshing! You never dominate the discussion or interrupt the way too many interviewers do. This was profoundly educational.
It's also murdered billions to make the profit necessary to give people like you the illusion that you're out of poverty. No longer in material poverty, just poverty of your soul.
The complexity of the many crises that beset us so often leads to a sense of being overwhelmed and confused about how to diagnose the problems and where to start with solutions. Grace cuts through all this with a clarity that is so refreshing and - for me, at least - feels like she is describing a fundamental truth. I have a sense that the acceptance of democratisation starts with a sense of personal agency - not an expression of individualism but a sense that you give yourself permission to challenge the orthodoxy of our system and seek the support of others who have similarly freed themselves from the old straitjacket. Ironically, individualism may actually stifle personal agency for those who do not have the means or experience (or even the desire) to play the system. I suspect many have been sucked into Thatcher's so-called democratisation of capital ownership and felt the fear of the responsibility not to lose it all as they try to navigate an alien financial world whose rules are opaque and whose unpredictability is alarming. We just should not be handing the management of essential services to a casino-style market where the odds are rigged in favour of the house (for 'house' read corporations) and nor should such a fundamental safeguard as a roof over our heads be put at risk, whether it is owned or rented, through the fluctuation of property prices and the B of E's anti-social efforts to protect the financiers.
Funny how those who advocate for complete state control are saying that there is a critical set of problems with capitalism BECAUSE of COMPLETE state control.
Great interview. Very good. Terrible comments as usual. Seems to mostly be a mix of 'you like socialism yet you eat food', 'if you like socialism so much then go and live in a socialist state', and personal attacks. Classic.
I don't know what it is about these kinds of videos. Not just from here but other channels, whenever a socialist or communist gets interviewed it's like a signal gets sent out for theses kinds of people/comments to just miraculously appear from the ether en masse. Unless it's like some kind of hive mind thing, it's like how do they know?
No, i think its the fact that nowhere in the world is socialism successful -- and Grace lives under capitalism herself -by choice. so-- grace is a worthless coward that does not practice what she preaches.
People do say that about physical health issues. It's only when you get properly ill that you realise that the only way people cope with the fear of being in your position is by believing you did it to yourself. That way they can tell themselves as long as they do everything right they'll never get sick/ lose their job/ become homeless etc
I rarely see interviewer asking questions this good. I watched 3 or 4 interviews with Grace Blakeley and some of the questions that pop up in other places are so vapid or even backwards, I'd be ashamed to think these things, let alone say them aloud. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Oli did a great job here.
Everything she describes is not Capitalism, it's Corporate cronyism and Gov't clientelism. In a proper Capitalist economy, there wouldn't be any Federal Reserve, fiat money, bailouts, nationalisation, Gov'ts acting as quasi corporations, pork barrelling, welfare state, NHS, etc. That's not to say Capitalism is a perfect system: it isn't, but put the blame where it belongs.
There are quite a few in-depth arguments that say capitalism cannot exist or properly function without major state intervention to uphold its hegemony, bail it out when bad decisions are inevitably made, and allow it to achieve its final goal: monopoly. The idea of free markets cannot be achieved. Because the whole idea of capitalism is to gain as much market share, and therefore maximize profit getting closer to major market control. This will obviously create major barriers to entry to any real competition, and will eventually create a dystopian monopoly where these corporate entities will control the market. The capitalism you’re discussing is impossible, it will - by design - always devolve into corporate cronyism.
All of that is capitalism because we got here by design...capitalism concentrates power into fewer hands and utilizes (the existing) government to uphold the status quo. If you magically deleted all of those things they would come back almost instantly, not even a couple decades. Even places with the "good capitalism" in Europe are slowly heading this route, because again it's part of the system. Even if you manage to largely restrict all those bad things, the people, companies, politicians, etc will take any chance or measure to free themselves of those chains, because they are not only incentivized by the system but required to. There has to be a point where you stop trying to grasp onto capitalism and doing the mental gymnastics to devoid the system of its consequences to realize there's too many contradictions in the system for it to support itself and humanity forever. We're seeing it now, that people prefer to try to argue for a chained up and controlled capitalism rather than acknowledge that the system is bringing us to societal collapse through climate change and the wealth inequality
As system design was mentioned, Deming has a great quote of "a bad system beats a good person, everytime." The "toxic individualism" mentioned is effectively blaming the good person for not being able to rise above a badly designed system.
I've seen this dynamic many times in the workplace. What happens is akin to the famous prison experiment, the good get beaten down or they leave and the 'jailers' rise to the top
Here's the issue though. Socialism isn't the opposite of Capitalism. It's actually just a different side of the same coin. Having government take over all industry, abolishing private property, etc is simply an extreme reaction to Capitalism, rather than a solution. Distributism is the true solution, the only moral position on the economy, and the TRUE anthesis to the exploitation of Capitalism and Socialism. Capitalism and Socialism are two sides of the same coin, while Distributism is the negation of the coin altogether. Capitalism is a system of rule dominated by the owners of capital, a few. It's wage slavery. The problem of Capitalism is not too many capitalists, but too few. Socialism is the government ownership of the means of production. It's simply a reactionary movement to Capitalism. Rather than seeing the distribution of private ownership as a problem, Socialism sees ownership itself as a problem. Become a Distributist.
I think collectivism still exists in society, but only at the lower rungs. I have run and used food banks at different points of my life. There was a lot of mutual aid in the pandemic, there are extensive networks of support up and down the country among the low paid. People who live in their communities are so exhausted and burnt out that it is threatening the fabric of society. Libraries are run by volunteers. Churches provide homeless shelters in wintertime. We often talk about creating communities that can survive successive governments with different agendas. Charity is not sustainable in poor communities. Too much money is needed, I do think CICs and Social Enterprises have to be the solution. Self-funding community-run organisations. It is great to know there is hope, but the work is exhausting.
the fabric of society has eroded because of too many social entitlements that have jacked up inflation, and made people dependent on the government. Socialism always destroys societies. Capitalism is what builds societies.
I believe we need democracy at work. However the game of monopoly has been played, before you were born. The owner class killed, stole, bribed and cheated, your ancestors. How do we redress the balance? Who do you put in charge to task that redress? Could that person, once in power just become a dictator? Many more issues I'm sure I'm not smart enough to think of.
You know this, but I guess you need remembering, coming to some international corporation will never end in your workplace becoming more democratic. I work for current employer for the last 9 years, 4 years from home. Low stress, one shift, nice boss and colleagues.. It is sweet. If you want it be democratic, why not try starting your own business, which if you find a great grope of people, it is profitable and think they might be right for it, you can later turn into commune, where you would all participate, decide what to do with surplus, etc.. That is the only way it is happening.
"The owner class killed, stole, bribed and cheated, your ancestors." It may even be that many of us "working classes" were complicit in killing, cheating, and stealing from, others, in far flung lands ( take southern Africa for instance) in order that the "owner class" could enrich themselves, safely... Those diamonds, that gold, won't steal themselves, you know...
@@bramvanduijn8086 well it is not a democracy, and you have no way of changing it. Actually I am wrong. If you had money to buy it outright, then you could change it. No more shareholders deciding. In start you are autocrat. But then you can change it into what ever you want..
Our whole economic system is based on two illusions..Disunity and Insufficiency. We believe we are seperate from each other and that there is not enough to go around. A New Guiding principle must be put in place to guide our evolutionary process. Evolved beings understand that all things are One so this would guide the process.
Well. The poors are held down by too much regulation. And having less skills in handling money, leads most people to be employees. Government needs less power to prevent purchasing legislation
Corruption seems to be the bane of every kind of system, not sure of the answer to it, it seems like a human constant. Sounds negative but I don't intend it to be, it seems like the remainder whenever I try to figure out how any of these systems should work, whether it's some ideal implementation of capitalism, socialism or communism etc.
> Corruption seems to be the bane of every kind of system I think one of the root causes is better described as 'competition'. Competition is inherently destructive.
“When the rich steal from the poor it’s called business, when the poor resist it’s called violence”. Mark Twain
Mark Twain wrote and propagated calumny on Palestine on his "travels" there. a racist and an orientalist.
the governmet steal from tax payers
You rock!
When you believe that's the way it should be it's called eugenics.
I love the sentiment, but Twain never said this.
My God, I was talking about the insidious transition from the language of "citizen" to the language of "consumer" 30 years ago. It was truly heartening to hear her explicitly make this important (yet seemingly minor) point.
Thanks for this.
me too brother
About the same time we became a human resource
I'm looking forward when we transition just 'human being', no other label is really necessary.
@@JohnnyMotel99me too 😞
@@JohnnyMotel99 Well said. But, in response to the original poster, I would like to comment. I am architect/urban designer originally from Ireland, who has been living in the United States for many years.
It has been alarming to me to see the RAPID increase over the last 25 years or so, of the United Kingdom wittingly or unwittingly, blindly picking up certain terms from the United States' "Corporatization Dictionary"
When I lived in Ireland, up until 1980, I NEVER heard anybody in Britain or Ireland referred to as simply "A CONSUMER".
It is an insidious, reductionist term, which most definitely originated here in the United States as a CATCHALL phrase to include everybody.
Grace CANNOT be expected to know all the answers. But, she is one of a GROWING number of people trying to articulate, for OUR benefit, the many ways in which, to quote Noam Chomsky, "we have been turned into WAGE SLAVES",
and some suggestions of how we combat this soul crushing state of affairs.
And as for online criticisms of her comments: If "the left" keeps forever shooting itself in the foot looking for UTOPIA, there will NEVER be social justice in the world, just endless, circular, bitter complaining.
This, of course, is EXACTLY what global Oligarchs, Corporations, Banks and corrupt, sold out Governments LOVE to see.
The pervading and rampant culture of individualism. Absolutely nailed it. The cause of so much despair, division, hopelessness and suffering in western societies.
GenZ is in crisis because this individualism has poisoned society so much that they cannot even bear to look upon one another without the pain of endless competitive nihilism.
The ultimate divide and conquer!
@pottero6 & @pooheadlou. Thanks for the valuable input! Y'll be quoted on the above lines!
Cheers
It started with thatcher and Reagan and imo it has ruined society and our culture. People qho bought into it have a tendency to selfishness and also they gained from it despite the losses to others. Argue a case and they'll call you a communist! 😧
I'm not sure you did the 90's, individualism was huge, as was community. You've got the wrong target. What's happened has happened since then. Mainly 30years of putin thinking he ruled the internet and brainwashing the youth with his troll teams. And he used eugenicists in the uk and USA to enable it. Tories worked in tandem with the Republicans and putin to create his invading nazis. He really wanted to be invaded. It was his excuse. He got denied.
Trump got denied, we still have to clean up our mess. Streets of London are paved in rubles.
This was extraordinarily good. The way this flowed was really impressive. Talking for nearly an hour, barely pausing and with no repetition and being completely engaging throughout too.
lol,
another
clue
less
Mar
I just have to say, Politics Joe is such a WONDERFUL interviewer. Listens well, allows her to speak, engaging responses, knowledgeable, he did his homework and this is a wonderful conversation
His name is oli not joe but otherwise agree with your points
Utterly brilliant, accurate, incisive and reaffirming truth, thanks a million Grace and Oli.
why dont grace and oli live under socialism? because it doesnt work.
I was 19 when Thatcher came to power and I can confirm everything stated here. It was all a calculated con. The problem was, organised Labour had made itself an easy target for divide-and-conquer politics. Unions appeared to be driven by selfish acquisition for their membership and the aggrandisement of their leaders. The general public did not take much persuading with a few cheap bribes like utility privatisations and social housing sell-offs. What we have come to now is an obscene caricature of a political “system”, dominated by lies, corruption and greed. First, we need to cut out the diseased tissue at the next election and then get to work improving what is remaining. There is hope, but it will be a very long haul.
Partially correct. But a number of Unions were taking the piss. They actually found a "sleeping room" in British Leyland. A number of Unions refused to any changes. You may have forgotten, but in the 1970s we had blackouts due to strikes.
@@albertbrammer9263 agreed, the thrill of homework by candlelight soon wore off
I tiurned 18 in 1979 and was just and just too young to vote against her. Everything since has been the protection and consolidation of the wicked system she (re)introduced.
Unions have been captured, like every institution as been. This is the problem we are facing.
@@gavincutler8889 and now it's all privatized we can't afford the electricity when it's there 😂 candles are still the option for many. (I have been there, they were cheaper to run than an incandescent), by now it has to be vastly cheaper.
But regardless it's all because the Tories ran off with the money. Again and again, and again.
We can afford a healthy normal life quite easily, with all the perks.
We just can't afford to sustain the rich who don't give back. The personal profiteers. Leeches, we're covered in em.
I feel I've been banging this drum for 20 years. Blakeley puts it all so succinctly - really important to do the history lesson first as well, as so many think what we have now is just the "default setting". Just pre-ordered the book. If it's anywhere near as good as the interview, it'll be 15 quid well spent.
Why are you buying private property? I thought capitalism was slavery.
I ordered it as well.
@@emperorstevee I bet you were so proud of this post and how clever you think you're being
Not really, it's just a UA-cam comment section.@@Mackerdaymia
so selling communism eh? how socialist of her ffs you people are beyond gullible. Todays modern socialist is literally SELLING the idea onto the gullible, they are about as revolutionary as garden gnome
She is well spoken and highly intelligent. An absolute treasure to listen to. Thank you for sharing this.
she is dumb, her solution is socialism/communism, an idea so wrong on so many level even "communists" do not adhere to the core principle. Even the CCP embraced markets ffs. She has not ONE original concept, she is an idiot
lol, she is a simpleton who does not know how the world works.
she
is a
simpl
Wow....what a smart woman....great to listen to....thanks a lot for this informative interview
Remarkable! The woman was very intelligent and engaging during the interview. Thank you for sharing such informative content.
Grace articulated here what so many of us understand but can't necessarily express, better than almost every other current commentator. Thanks to both. A double-act with Nick Abbot is urgently needed.
I have to be honest, I really didn't find many of her arguments all that compelling, and I say this as a leftist.
@@nmk5003 there wasn't a lot of argument to be fair, just lots of facts.
@nonfictionone I have no criticism of her factual points, but she offers multiple analyses of the facts throughout the discussion, which I disagree with. Of course, she is a smart lady and a compelling speaker, so that goes a long way for me .
@@nmk5003 If only you could actually come up with a concrete point to show how her "arguments" were lacking for you...that would actually give your critique some validity
@@upendasana7857 to be fair (and honest, and balanced), nmk didnt say she had a reason why, she just stated a fact about her own mind.
But yeah, it would be great to have some actual critique
The guy who ran the Lucas Plan and went to work for the GLC was Prof Michael Cooley. A truly remarkable man and an original thinker. Born in Ireland in 1935, he passed away in 2020. President Michael D Higgins termed him a delinquent genius. He was the founding editor of AI & Society and is regarded as one of the fathers of CAD. He was nominated for a Nobel Prize and received the 'alternative' Nobel prize in the early 1980s. A school friend of famed Irish Playwright Tom Murphy, he started his career as a trainee machine master in Tuam Sugar Factory.
We need many more like him, there is so much to do to repair the destruction of industry brought about by financialization and neo-liberalism
Thanks for the info.
And another, thank you. I will educate myself about this man.
I was on the periphery of support for the Lucas Aerospace Plan when I was a student in Birmingham, 50 years ago. I have banged on about its importance for, ooh, fifty years. What a delight to discover that it hadn’t just vanished from scrutiny… Sadly - and it is a point Grace Blakeley didn’t make in the podcast - much of the traditional left did not support the Lucas Plan at the time; it challenged their ossified structures just as much as did those of the capitalist state.
It blows my mind people can't understand the collusion that goes on between big buisness and government.. And that you can't pull down one without pulling down the other.. Keep handing out the message! Appreciate it guys!
"It blows my mind people can't understand the collusion that goes on between big business and government."
Then read "War is a Racket" (1935) by Maj Gen Smedley D Butler USMC, ret'd. It's not a long read, is available as a free PDF download, and precedes Michael Moore's similar observations by many decades... A quote from him-
“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914...
There's a lot more...
right, each party only blames only one, so that the uniparty as a whole can keep colluding!
same....
people are by and large
-desparate
-poorly schooled on such topics
-too busy to look into it
Then you have other forces against developing an understanding with terms like 'conspiracy theorist' which exist to add to the pile of de-incentivising factors leaning against self education on and speaking openly about such things as you risk becoming a best unpopular at worst laughed at and insulted.
there's a hell of a mess to clear up.
Seems like world is dominated by “big”… big government, big business, big unions. The problem instead any one of these things it is that they are “big”
Anything “Big” seeks to acquire and consolidate power.
The left right dichotomy and the establishment vs non-establishment are framing the discussion to avoid dealing with “big”
Funny how those who advocate for complete state control are saying that there is a critical set of problems with capitalism BECAUSE of COMPLETE state control.
You can see the ragged edge of dying capitalism here in the US with private equity buying up trailer parks all over the country. These are assets that 20 years ago would have been laughed at by institutional investors but now they are being sought out, finding ones where older owners are eager to sell, doing minimal improvements, then jacking up the lot rents. The tenants own their homes but not the land they sit on so if they can't afford the new fees they can't stay, although they are "free" to have their homes moved (they are "mobile" after all). Once the older tenants have been flushed out, they can then move in a wealthier tenant (generally younger folks who have been priced out of a regular home) and then rake in the profits.
Exactly the same thing is happening to veterinary practices, which investors intend to make just as expensive as human hospitals, making pet insurance a requirement. A spay can now cost upwards of $700, simple diagnostics can cost $2,300+, other non standard surgeries are $10,000+. Pets are rapidly becoming a luxury.
Why is this the ragged edge of dying capitalism?
It doesn't seem as bad as the for-profit housing plan schemes for immigrants outlined by Upton Sinclair in the Jungle 120 years ago.
I'm also not sure it's that much worse than 3 or 4 families sharing a single apartment that you get in Havana today- something that would be an outrage to propose as a solution for homelessness in a capitalist country.
Of course you ignore that largely progressive policies that claim to "help the poor" do the absolute opposite. -- and you sit back and blame capitalism and investors? LOL
Remember also that these trailer park people are Trump’s main voters 😂🤯.
Idiotcrazy at it’s finest 👌🗽
Yapyapyap what have you built?
"'Rugged individualism' has meant all the 'individualism' for the masters, while the people are regimented into a slave caste to serve a handful of self-seeking 'supermen.' America is perhaps the best representative of this kind of individualism, in whose name political tyranny and social oppression are defended and held up as virtues; while every aspiration and attempt of man to gain freedom and social opportunity to live is denounced as 'un-American' and evil in the name of that same individuality." ~ Emma Goldman
Individualism is a class of Liberalism.
yet, 90% of American millionaires are all self made each generation. go figure. freedom prevails for those that work hard and live responsibly.
The culture war isn't Left vs Right it's Top vs Bottom.
But the Left have embraced hypa Liberalism and the open borders Globalisation project. They didn't need to
Yeah and these people in this video are the top 🤣
Yea mate, they’re clearly billionaires
@@Sam-dc8du no but they are part of the wealthy, private educated ruling class
EXACTLY
We need to stop dancing around the fact that capitalism is economic authoritarianism
Whats your alternative comrade, communism?
I think Rush Limbaugh said, "I have the most difficult time defending Capitalism when all I can point at is "Crony-Capitalism". The problem is not the system, it's the individual character problem, right ?
@@keithcommins workplace direct democracy (and direct democracy at the political level).
@@michaelregis1015 what does that mean in reality? Who owns the means of production?
@@keithcommins it would mean that all workers within an establishment own the means of production and that the workers themselves get to dictate how the business is operated through a referendum within the workplace. You can even have something like a worker council for different sects of positions within the workplace who would be the delegates who represent the workers of said positions; who come together to make decision at the behest of said workers. So, the delegates are elected and their positions can be revoked at anytime if the workers so please. This system would be such that the workers have a lot more say in the business that they contribute their labour towards.
techno feudalism is the era we are in
That’s just the end state of capitalism
Tech is the means it actually corporate feudalism .
Corprocratic Feudalism?
exactly its the corporations that own the tech same as it always was @@sterlingarcher5698
Yes that's the understanding that Yanis Varoufakis has. Having had an inside seat as Finance Minister in the Greek government at the time of their most severe crisis, he is remarkably realistic too.
Am I the only one that had to change the playback speed to .75 in order to follow and understand. It was well worth the listen.
These are the kinds of conversations we need to be having, very important and very insightful.
Yes, not just these conversations more, but also conversations that lead to community action in solidarity with a system change movement to move beyond capitalism.
Sources suggested: Zeitgeist films with Peter Joseph (new one called "Requiem" is out soon, trailer online to see!), Moneyless Society, World Beyond Capitalism, Second Thought, Our Changing Climate, Michael Tellinger with One Small Town Contributionism.
where in the world is socialism successful? why doesn't Grace live in a socialist country? because she's a coward.
insightful? a socialist woman that surrounds her life with capitalism? LOL. what hypocrisy.
@@coolioso808 This is a difficult time to live in and change wil be tough, but seeing this video and reading these comments makes me think that there's a real opening for major progressive change
@@DoylePerdue I agree, seeing all the people and organizations who care about building a better society to live in, that’s great! We need that. But what I’m saying is we need organized action to achieve those goals. We won’t just get to a healthy, cooperative post-capitalist society by happy thoughts.
So all those organizations and people I mentioned in my last comment are part of the solution. Do you know any any others? I’m very intrigued by the ideas of Library Socialism promote by Srsly Wrong boys and Andrewism. But again, we need more than just good ideas.
I look forward to seeing a mass shift in social progress. I want to be part of that ride to a better future.
This woman is sound as fuck, more interviews like this
Many people would like to, 100%, true
I only wish these people could give Lenin the credit he deserves, he wrote the book on imperialism: the highest stage of capitalism.
Sadly, v1nd1ct1ve l1berals censor communists and completely slander Lenin because he beat them
I only wish people like this would give Lenin the credit he deserves. He wrote the book on imperialism: the highest stage of capitalism.
But vindictive liberals censor Communists and slander and throw all kinds of dirt on Lenin since it was Marxist ideas that won the hearts and minds of the masses
"how tools enslaved us all" isnt a sound headliner
Excellent comment - love it 😀
Great interview. Grace Berkeley is spot on.
why doesnt she live in a socialist country? LOL
To be fair, this was a stellar interview. All areas on topics covered and found the commentary very coherent and on point. Great 👍
What is so refreshing about this channel (I'm not always on board with the opinions of the hosts, so this is definitely not just being a fanboy) and the likes of Novara (again, I'm indifferent to most of the presenters) is that they just have a good faith conversation on the terms of the interviewee and generally just give them space to talk. They will challenge something they don't agree with, but it's seldom hostile, never anti intellectual or disingenuous, and they will talk to anyone from across the political spectrum who comes in good faith with a reasonable argument.
Compare this to the hostility of the BBC or the lumpen rhetoric of Sky News.
Or worse: UA-cam keeps pushing Telegraph nonsense on me and it's staggering: their version of the "intellectual" conversation interview seems so dull, incurious and superficial. Who could stand it?
@johnbehan1526
Well, certainly agreed on that!.. the likes of the BBC including the legions of dishonrable others is totally unbearable at times..this was very refreshing although like yourself I'm not a politics Joe groupee but I'd say more from where this intervuew came from all day.. thanks
name one country in the entire world where her ideas make people free or rich? why doesn't she live under socialism? because she's a coward.
@@johnbehan1526 Sky news runs circles around the BBC in terms of truth dude. nice try.
and Grace> that coward is a socialist that chooses to live under capitalism.
She was literally speaking what is in her book, which has exactly no original thought
This is the best and most encouraging thing I’ve heard all year. Maybe longer than that. Thank you so much. ❤️💪
I remember laughing out loud in a HMRC meeting in the 80s being told taxpayers are now customers. Ludicrous then and now and I have always known thisxwas when it started to change under Thatcher and Reagan. Both dead but still causing misery from the grave.
This young woman is great . I shall read her book. Thanks for another great interview, Joe.
Taxation is theft
The fundamental problem is that everybody works within a business to produce a surplus. A small group of people within that entity then decide what to do with that surplus. It's really no surprise that they choose to use that surplus to enrich themselves by voting for larger shareholder dividends and increased pay for board members while hundreds or thousands of other members of the organisation get almost nothing or literally nothing despite being the largest group that contributed to the surplus that was created.
The solution here is to democratise the workplace. Trading shares should be made illegal. When a person joins a company they get a single share which grants them a single vote in all company affairs. When you leave you surrender that share. Then Monday to Thursday everyone works like normal. Friday is voting day where everybody votes on all company decisions. Who to hire, where to move production to, how much to produce, who you want to lead your department, how much to sell things for, who to sell it to and what do the with the surplus. Under this model, how many companies would vote to outsource work to the other side of the world? How many would vote to dump toxic waste into local rivers where the employees live? During a cost of living crisis shouldn't the workers be able to vote to use the surplus to ease their suffering?
You are describing what is called 'stakeholder' corporate governance.
The UK uses 'shareholder' corporate governance.
Germany uses stakeholder corporate governance rather well.
@@cfalvl2380 it's not describing stakeholder governance, it's describing socialism. stakeholder governance is still capitalism because anyone can own shares in the company if they buy them on the capital markets. the stakeholder model is superior to the shareholder model regarding worker rights, but you're missing the point. who owns the means of production is key
I would say that it is not the workers of the factory that decide whether to dump the toxic waste in the river but the people who live downstream of that factory. If the employees live there then that's the same of course, but if the employees live upstream of the factory then it's not fair to those downstream of the factory.
Would this not also be cooperative businesses?
@@iss5021
Far be it from me to say what the original poster meant.
What the original poster described is stakeholder corporate governance.
Not all incorporated businesses are publicly traded. You don't have to list your company on an exchange just because you incorporate it.
Co-Ops can be incorporated and stay private. Not all capital in a country is for sale to anyone with money.
You have, by my estimation, skipped a major step in what can legitimately said to be 'socialism'. The central bank would have to own the entire banking system. The BOE still sells bonds to primary dealers who then sell those bonds on a secondary market exchange. They facilitate the trade of bonds, they don't own them. The currency in circulation is the liquidity from those bonds.
Add in that the OECD is a capital market structure, you could not have trade agreements that would be considered 'fair' if one country was socialist and the other was not.
Socialism doesn't work efficiently. I know people have a romance with the ideology, but if you are serious and run simulations, it isn't on par with capitalism.
Having a private democratic workplace though, isn't socialism.
Blakeley is amazing! She is so interesting and explains some hard to grasp concepts in a way that is easy to understand. Looking forward to reading her book.
why does grace not have the courage to live in a socialist country then? what a coward
The essence of capitalism is a few people that are offered access to capital for their entrepreneurship. The story told is that only a few have the ideas and moxie to bring their ideas to market. Untrue. Without capital it means nothing. Capitalists are allowed to fail again and again, whereas normal folks have to risk their enrire lives to attempt a project.
Grace is so lovely, intelligent and empathetic. Just wow. I saw and felt that cultural shift within the 60/70's to the beginnings of this mess that had taken full hold by the 80's. If I'd had a daughter I'd have been proud as hell for her to be like grace👏👏👏
you mean the hell socialists created in the 70s? imf bail outs, the bankrupcies, the inflation? why was tatcher elected 2 times in a landlside, if socialism is so good why did they need her so much?
Phenomenal. Ordered the book, can't wait to read. It's refreshing to hear someone talking as Grace does about not just what is wrong with the current system, but crucially what we could do to make better systems and live better lives. That messaging is the only thing that will get people to take notice.
LOL - "hey guys it is these total greedy businesses that are to blame, here BUY my book so I can PROFIT off you poor people who moan about the system I have the answers trust me, it is TOTALLY not some dead idiot who hates the world with failed theories TRUST me guys"
@@James_36 "You dislike capitalism and yet you take part in it. You are a hypocrite. I am so smart" that's your argument here basically and it's thick as mince.
Also... I'm not poor, you don't have to be poor to believe the system is unfair or not working well, or indeed to care if the system is not working for the poorest.
Cope harder mate, I'm sure you sticking up for corruption in business and government will convince them to be nicer to you.
@@ovilord so other businesses cannot make a profit and keep their money but Grace can? she is selling her book for profit? so she is okay to play the game at the same time as moaning about the game she is getting richer from? demanding other business cannot do but she can play it also? LOL how lost you are
@@James_36 who said businesses cannot profit? She certainly didn't and neither did I. The issue is a corruption of the market and of public life such that some people and companies get preferential treatment and can take the system for a ride whilst others have to play by the rules, that's wrong.
You need to learn some reading and listening comprehension.
@@ovilord first off, she claims to be a socialist.. socialists are anti- private business hello?? like i said, you are totally fckin lost. what legitimate business is not playing by the rules? they are all playing by the rules.
Well explained to us ordinary punters. Thanks for bringing Grace to teach us!
I’m confused and dismayed at Grace’s repeated use of the term Anarchy. I realise there is a historical precedent for referí g to some economic systems as Anarchy. But imho it muddies the water between what the political ideology of Anarchism has achieved over hundreds of years. ( ie: bottom up structures - a dissolution of hierarchy ) and it continues the trope in people’s minds that Anarchy is Chaos. It’s really unfortunate but using the term chaotic or something would be much more helpful.
Obviously, she knows what it means, you know what it means and I know what it means. A descriptive definition would be useful for those scared of the word, but I doubt that they'd be the kind of person who watches this anyway
You could say that about most political terms. Every word is basically dog whistle, inuendo, obscuring bullshit. It's hard to talk to someone using a different set of definitions for the same words.
Anarchism has achieved nothing in the past few centuries
Or re invent the word anarchy, which at is spirit is the true spirit of democracy, giving back to people the ability for self government …demos cratos
Yes, I agree with you. I have read her 'corona crash' and it seems to me that she comes from a party-political view of society and the 'economy', at the expenses for the potentials for antagonism and revolt from below.
"Democratize everything" falls right into what I've been going through lately. Talking to people even when it's difficult, trying to get everyone to understand everyone else. Compassion and Humility can be difficult to facilitate but just trying goes a long way.
See Prof. Richard Wolff & Prof.
Michael Hudson on employer vs.
employee, democratize the entreprise, etc.!
Everyone should read: 'The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists' by Robert Noonan (pen name Robert Tressell) and 'The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism' by Naomi Klein and watch the documentary films, 'Sicko' and 'Capitalism: A Love Story', both made by Michael Moore (film maker)
Those are a good place to start when looking into the mess we are in atm.
Such an excellent interview. Can’t wait to read Grace’s book
We need less Sunak’s and Gove’s in government and more like Grace.
Jeremy Corbyn tried, but the British public were too busy being in love with Boris Johnson 🙄
@@oldishandwoke-ish1181no one likes socialism, we’ve seen it fail time and time again. No one liked Jeremy, he’s an anti-Western, Britain hating socialist.
Why stop at Grace? Why not ask for Chavez, Mao, or Stalin..
Great Vid Joe, really interesting look at what an alternative future could look like. Grace explains her ideas in such a clear and understandable way. This sort of stuff should be on the BBC.👍
They would NEVER allow it. BBC is totally captured, just a mouthpiece for the status quo.
The WEF/Davos/Liebour is now your alternative future. Everything Grace is saying is just that. Enjoy the greatest transfer of wealth 😅
Another great interview with Grace. What she was saying about how'oh, that's not real capitalism/socialism' is that people confuse the ideology which is a utopian model of how things should be that usually ignores crucial aspects of how things actually are, so the implementation of those ideas never resembles the ideology because it's just a set of ideas that most people don't even agree with or accept grudgingly due to their lowly position in the power structure. Additionally, they often create perverse incentives eg I remember an Adam Curtis documentary where Russian taxi drivers would drive around pointlessly just to fulfil their fuel quotas.
Fascinating. She makes some very eye-opening points.
name one country in the entire world where her ideas make people free or rich? why doesn't she live under socialism? because she's a coward.
Great conversation.
That was a fascinating talk. Thank you xxx 😀
Great show, very interesting and revealing. Keep up the good work.
Looking forward to reading the book. She's saying things I've always intuited, & I've always been looking for answers to this mess, & open to new ideas. Thanks.
name one country in the entire world where her ideas make people free or rich? why doesn't she live under socialism? because she's a coward.
answer to what mess? freedom under capitalism? move to North Korea -- then lets see if anything Grace Blakeley says "intrigues you"
LOL. my god you sad people that believe this shit
Inspiring and brilliant. Tracking the book down. Amazing words, Grace. Well done, Joe. 💌
That is the finest dissertation of political and economic circumstances I have ever heard. Cogent and intelligent. This girl should be in parliament - if it wasn’t so corrupting. Thank you for that précis of the situation everyone faces. This was a joy to listen to.
name one country in the entire world where her ideas make people free or rich? why doesn't she live under socialism? because she's a coward.
By using 'chaos' instead of 'anarchy' as a term (to describe chaos), it is more respectful to those who follow or refer to anarchist philosophy, which is often socially collectivist.
Grace Blakeley is brilliant.
imagine the level of ignorance it takes to put brilliant and socialism in the same sentence. wow. welcome to the depths of stupidity of todays political left.
‘Stolen’ the first book really hit home with me how the Thatcher years I lived through were the formative years of changing society forever. Living through it. You could feel something really wrong was happening.
So looking fwd to getting my hands on Vulture Capitalism ❤✊
The 70s paved the way for her. We need to understand that
Thatcher and Reagan. Two peas in a pod.
name one country in the entire world where her ideas make people free or rich? why doesn't she live under socialism? because she's a coward.
Love Grace! We need more ideas like hers in the mainstream to show everybody there are peaceful alternatives to our current failing system!
why doesn't grace live under socialism then -- you know -- if its so fair and perfect? because she's a coward.
She is reliably excellent.
its interesting how the poorest countries immigrants dont want to go to socialist countries do they? hmmmm
Bought the book, loving it. Great show
So refreshing to hear people like Grace, expand, develop and encourage more and more of us to wake up and smell the coffee.
Fabulous interview, and ordering the book.
Next?
1% of the global population owns more wealth than the bottom 95% put together, capitals wealth accumulation is working just fine. As long as the working class is happy piling up wealth for a tiny minority then all well and good, more fools them.
You Brits do have some great independent left wing media platforms
She not left 😂 she’s just a normal human being and a political sheep 🐑
If I only we didn’t have all the headbangers also!! 😂
These one to one interviews feel like old school PBS
under socialism, this platform would be banned. LOL
why doesn't grace live under socialism then -- you know -- if its so fair and perfect? because she's a coward.
Love Grace, she’s bloody excellent. Would be good to see her on Mainstream channels again too as it’s been a while and she’s long overdue. ✊✊✊✊🙏
why doesn't grace live under socialism then -- you know -- if its so fair and perfect? because she's a coward.
Brilliant analysis from Grace, fabulous interview. ❤
Grace Blakely for PM 👏👏👏
00:00 Neoliberal shift aimed at crushing collective power and promoting toxic individualism
02:06 The divide between more market and more government is unhelpful.
05:57 Marxism views capitalism as a social system based on class division and exploitation.
07:46 Capitalism leading to corruption in major industries
11:34 Corporate power intertwined with free market capitalism
13:27 Capitalism not working as supposed to, corrupted by those at the top.
17:21 Capitalist institutions wield immense power with little accountability
19:12 Individual power vs systemic control
22:48 Shift from collective consciousness to toxic individualism
24:33 Shift from collective agency to individual blame
27:58 Shift towards individualized capitalist mindset in the 80s
29:48 Neoliberalism led to the financialization of the economy
33:35 Challenges in combating powerful financial institutions
35:28 Workers at Lucas Aerospace proposed transforming the firm into a worker-owned organization producing socially useful commodities.
38:52 Empowering communities to resist exploitation and build socialism.
40:44 Democratizing everything for a better future
44:23 Shifting towards community, worker, and people power threatens the status quo of capitalism.
46:20 Shift in the Labour party's stance on Gaza to support for humanitarian ceasefire
50:00 Politicians shape the news agenda, leading to a narrow political focus.
51:42 Media focuses on political stories rather than ecological impact.
55:19 Advocating for democratization of public services
57:11 Advocating for collective self-governance over elected officials
Crafted by Merlin AI.
Thank you Grace!
Daring, powerful conversation
daring? powerful? ---- socialism?? LOL.
Grace Blakeley is able to describe the sort of future may of us are hoping for but aren't able to describe, how wonderful it is to hear her speak, but Wow - I wish she would talk slower!
why doesn't grace live under socialism then -- you know -- if its so fair and perfect? because she's a coward.
"Toxic individualism". Right.
yes. what a ridiculous statement.
Masculinity is now toxic.
Hope she doesn't need a Fire "person" to save her.
Maybe she can wait for a female plumber 😂
Says the woman with a private education and double degrees from Oxford
@@kevoreilly6557 probably cheers on Hamas too
I'm glad you chaps found each other 😂
One of the best conversations I listened to in quite some time!!
It's really nice to see an intelligent economist who lives in the real world. I completely agree with everything that she's saying here. I just heard you had Yanis Varoufakis on. I'm a big fan of him too. I just subscribed. Please keep up the good work. Thank you.
no one with half a brain would use the work economist and socialist in the same god dam sentence. my god. how are you this stupid?
John Kay’s “Obliquity” talks a fair bit about the problems with our current flavour of capitalism.
There are flavours? LOL!
its interesting how the poorest countries immigrants dont want to go to socialist countries do they? hmmmm
Sounds like she should get together with Gary Stevenson, and organise a movement to tackle the wealth gap.
I don't see that guy being a communist.
@@BenOwen-gf9bn and what has that got to do with anything
@@DrSomhairle because both are going to have a radically different solutions to the problem.
Fucking top idea.
yes 2 grifters working together to extract money from their "poor" audience peddling books for PROFIT 🤣🤣🤣 - I mean how socialistic of them to do so.
She’s great. Excellent new find.
why doesn't grace live under socialism then -- you know -- if its so fair and perfect? because she's a coward.
Fantastic interview! You're a wonderful interviewer: you keep the conversation going but you let your guest speak. It's so refreshing! You never dominate the discussion or interrupt the way too many interviewers do. This was profoundly educational.
can you tell me what is profoundly exceptional about socialism -- literally anywhere in the world?
She's done well for herself talking about capitalism.
Capatlism has lifted billions out of poverty... use fancy word but facts and data are facts and data
It's also murdered billions to make the profit necessary to give people like you the illusion that you're out of poverty. No longer in material poverty, just poverty of your soul.
The workers did the lifting, the capitalist took the cream
@@RickB50SS you put your money and risk, you employ people, you give services and products to society you deserve all the money you get, grow up.
A pinnacle of critical thnking, thank you.
critical thinking? with socialism as the conclusion? are you seriously that dumb?
The complexity of the many crises that beset us so often leads to a sense of being overwhelmed and confused about how to diagnose the problems and where to start with solutions. Grace cuts through all this with a clarity that is so refreshing and - for me, at least - feels like she is describing a fundamental truth. I have a sense that the acceptance of democratisation starts with a sense of personal agency - not an expression of individualism but a sense that you give yourself permission to challenge the orthodoxy of our system and seek the support of others who have similarly freed themselves from the old straitjacket. Ironically, individualism may actually stifle personal agency for those who do not have the means or experience (or even the desire) to play the system. I suspect many have been sucked into Thatcher's so-called democratisation of capital ownership and felt the fear of the responsibility not to lose it all as they try to navigate an alien financial world whose rules are opaque and whose unpredictability is alarming. We just should not be handing the management of essential services to a casino-style market where the odds are rigged in favour of the house (for 'house' read corporations) and nor should such a fundamental safeguard as a roof over our heads be put at risk, whether it is owned or rented, through the fluctuation of property prices and the B of E's anti-social efforts to protect the financiers.
I was born in early 90s. I have a hard time thinking economists thought they had solved the boom bust cycles before the 2008 financial crisis.
I am both in love and inspired. Amazing interview.
its interesting how the poorest countries immigrants dont want to go to socialist countries do they? hmmmm
Absolutely mind-blowing! I'd love to see a conversation between Grace and Noam Chomsky.
LOL
how about grace or chompsky and Thomas Sowell. both grace and chompsky would be exposed as pure idiots.
Fucking smart conversation that highlights precisely the issues and problems that face any modern democracy.
why doesn't grace live under socialism then -- you know -- if its so fair and perfect? because she's a coward.
Funny how those who advocate for complete state control are saying that there is a critical set of problems with capitalism BECAUSE of COMPLETE state control.
Refreshing to get this kind of sensible commentary.
That was honestly phenomenal! Thank you❤
Brace for the people conflating 'social democracy' with 'communism' in the comments. Who will do the counting?
socialism leads to communism you fool
Brilliant interview and explanation of so many of the problems that we face. Thanks
why doesn't grace live under socialism then -- you know -- if its so fair and perfect? because she's a coward.
its interesting how the poorest countries immigrants dont want to go to socialist countries do they? hmmmm
i guess you couldnt handle me calling out the truth huh?
Great interview. Very good.
Terrible comments as usual. Seems to mostly be a mix of 'you like socialism yet you eat food', 'if you like socialism so much then go and live in a socialist state', and personal attacks. Classic.
I don't know what it is about these kinds of videos. Not just from here but other channels, whenever a socialist or communist gets interviewed it's like a signal gets sent out for theses kinds of people/comments to just miraculously appear from the ether en masse. Unless it's like some kind of hive mind thing, it's like how do they know?
The right has the slow, insane and the ultra rich. The left has everyone else.
No, i think its the fact that nowhere in the world is socialism successful -- and Grace lives under capitalism herself -by choice.
so-- grace is a worthless coward that does not practice what she preaches.
People do say that about physical health issues. It's only when you get properly ill that you realise that the only way people cope with the fear of being in your position is by believing you did it to yourself. That way they can tell themselves as long as they do everything right they'll never get sick/ lose their job/ become homeless etc
I rarely see interviewer asking questions this good. I watched 3 or 4 interviews with Grace Blakeley and some of the questions that pop up in other places are so vapid or even backwards, I'd be ashamed to think these things, let alone say them aloud. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Oli did a great job here.
Everything she describes is not Capitalism, it's Corporate cronyism and Gov't clientelism. In a proper Capitalist economy, there wouldn't be any Federal Reserve, fiat money, bailouts, nationalisation, Gov'ts acting as quasi corporations, pork barrelling, welfare state, NHS, etc. That's not to say Capitalism is a perfect system: it isn't, but put the blame where it belongs.
There are quite a few in-depth arguments that say capitalism cannot exist or properly function without major state intervention to uphold its hegemony, bail it out when bad decisions are inevitably made, and allow it to achieve its final goal: monopoly.
The idea of free markets cannot be achieved. Because the whole idea of capitalism is to gain as much market share, and therefore maximize profit getting closer to major market control. This will obviously create major barriers to entry to any real competition, and will eventually create a dystopian monopoly where these corporate entities will control the market. The capitalism you’re discussing is impossible, it will - by design - always devolve into corporate cronyism.
Capitalism - the voluntary exchange of goods and services
Any relationship that isn't voluntary, usually very good
All of that is capitalism because we got here by design...capitalism concentrates power into fewer hands and utilizes (the existing) government to uphold the status quo. If you magically deleted all of those things they would come back almost instantly, not even a couple decades. Even places with the "good capitalism" in Europe are slowly heading this route, because again it's part of the system. Even if you manage to largely restrict all those bad things, the people, companies, politicians, etc will take any chance or measure to free themselves of those chains, because they are not only incentivized by the system but required to.
There has to be a point where you stop trying to grasp onto capitalism and doing the mental gymnastics to devoid the system of its consequences to realize there's too many contradictions in the system for it to support itself and humanity forever. We're seeing it now, that people prefer to try to argue for a chained up and controlled capitalism rather than acknowledge that the system is bringing us to societal collapse through climate change and the wealth inequality
As system design was mentioned, Deming has a great quote of "a bad system beats a good person, everytime." The "toxic individualism" mentioned is effectively blaming the good person for not being able to rise above a badly designed system.
I've seen this dynamic many times in the workplace. What happens is akin to the famous prison experiment, the good get beaten down or they leave and the 'jailers' rise to the top
Toxic individualism is believing you can exist in society without cooperating. It's basically a case for psychopathy. These are not good people.
If a “bad system beats a good person, every time, then maybe we should replace the system with a good person… sounds like an authoritarian
Well put...
This is real, practical hope. The revolution may be quieter than imagined..
why doesn't grace live under socialism then -- you know -- if its so fair and perfect? because she's a coward.
What a truly enthralling interview. Great insight from an impressive person. Made me want to buy her book. Full marks Grace and well done PoliticsJOE.
why doesn't grace live under socialism then -- you know -- if its so fair and perfect? because she's a coward.
Here's the issue though. Socialism isn't the opposite of Capitalism. It's actually just a different side of the same coin.
Having government take over all industry, abolishing private property, etc is simply an extreme reaction to Capitalism, rather than a solution.
Distributism is the true solution, the only moral position on the economy, and the TRUE anthesis to the exploitation of Capitalism and Socialism.
Capitalism and Socialism are two sides of the same coin, while Distributism is the negation of the coin altogether.
Capitalism is a system of rule dominated by the owners of capital, a few. It's wage slavery. The problem of Capitalism is not too many capitalists, but too few.
Socialism is the government ownership of the means of production. It's simply a reactionary movement to Capitalism.
Rather than seeing the distribution of private ownership as a problem, Socialism sees ownership itself as a problem.
Become a Distributist.
I think collectivism still exists in society, but only at the lower rungs. I have run and used food banks at different points of my life. There was a lot of mutual aid in the pandemic, there are extensive networks of support up and down the country among the low paid. People who live in their communities are so exhausted and burnt out that it is threatening the fabric of society. Libraries are run by volunteers. Churches provide homeless shelters in wintertime. We often talk about creating communities that can survive successive governments with different agendas. Charity is not sustainable in poor communities. Too much money is needed, I do think CICs and Social Enterprises have to be the solution. Self-funding community-run organisations. It is great to know there is hope, but the work is exhausting.
That's what debt does. Interest compounds until such a point that it is a black hole that sucks all of our effort.
the fabric of society has eroded because of too many social entitlements that have jacked up inflation, and made people dependent on the government. Socialism always destroys societies. Capitalism is what builds societies.
I ‘completely’ agree with you…..
Another good interview, 👍🏽. Good work, keep going.
I believe we need democracy at work. However the game of monopoly has been played, before you were born. The owner class killed, stole, bribed and cheated, your ancestors. How do we redress the balance? Who do you put in charge to task that redress? Could that person, once in power just become a dictator? Many more issues I'm sure I'm not smart enough to think of.
You know this, but I guess you need remembering, coming to some international corporation will never end in your workplace becoming more democratic. I work for current employer for the last 9 years, 4 years from home. Low stress, one shift, nice boss and colleagues.. It is sweet.
If you want it be democratic, why not try starting your own business, which if you find a great grope of people, it is profitable and think they might be right for it, you can later turn into commune, where you would all participate, decide what to do with surplus, etc.. That is the only way it is happening.
"The owner class killed, stole, bribed and cheated, your ancestors." It may even be that many of us "working classes" were complicit in killing, cheating, and stealing from, others, in far flung lands ( take southern Africa for instance) in order that the "owner class" could enrich themselves, safely... Those diamonds, that gold, won't steal themselves, you know...
@@relight6931 "coming to some international corporation will never end in your workplace becoming more democratic." can you expand on that?
@@bramvanduijn8086 well it is not a democracy, and you have no way of changing it. Actually I am wrong. If you had money to buy it outright, then you could change it. No more shareholders deciding. In start you are autocrat. But then you can change it into what ever you want..
Liberal Democracy is just rule by international finance and the Merchant class
capitalism is there's an ad break on this video every 3 minutes.
it is capitalism, small scale free enterprise that is the key to a free society, not university educated never working theorists
Thank you for this essential video oh my goodness!!!!!!
Our whole economic system is based on two illusions..Disunity and Insufficiency.
We believe we are seperate from each other and that there is not enough to go around.
A New Guiding principle must be put in place to guide our evolutionary process.
Evolved beings understand that all things are One so this would guide the process.
Smoke and mirrors is all the Tories do/have/leave in their wake
Labour is almost no different.
Dr David Kelly! How is Labour different?
When did OP mention Labour? You guys rather give the game away when you immediately leap up to say "but Labour!"
Yeah it's not you having made poor financial decisions, it's the tories. Someone else's fault.
@@emperorstevee Do you know who Liz Truss and Kwazi Kwarteng are?
Well. The poors are held down by too much regulation. And having less skills in handling money, leads most people to be employees.
Government needs less power to prevent purchasing legislation
Social class is what determines ypur privelige on the UK, not gender.
Yes and no - women are still always behind men, but an upper class woman is far more privileged than a working class man, of course.
@oldishandwoke-ish1181 Women are not "always behind men" especially in the UK. This may be the case in some other countries but not the UK.
There's different types of privilege, genius. For example, you have the privilege of being blissfully unaware that you're a moron.
Corruption seems to be the bane of every kind of system, not sure of the answer to it, it seems like a human constant. Sounds negative but I don't intend it to be, it seems like the remainder whenever I try to figure out how any of these systems should work, whether it's some ideal implementation of capitalism, socialism or communism etc.
> Corruption seems to be the bane of every kind of system
I think one of the root causes is better described as 'competition'. Competition is inherently destructive.