@@chioma3100 Yes, we have a profit based health care system in US. We have had inhumanely high work load WITHOUT adequate assistance and support staff. We have had over one million deaths due to COVID 19, worse than any other country!!! Our health care system has failed to keep workloads safe for nurses, and yet nurse's feel responsible for this failure.
It's not like Hedges had anything useful to say. Trying to pain USA/The West as the Big Bad Wolf, and the BS about the arms industry and Empire etc. is so out of touch from reality, it's silly to listen to. Russia is the one to blame in the current conflict, while Ukraine have every right to defend themselves and continue to fight for their right to live in freedom, as a democracy and as an European nation, part of NATO if they so choose. NATO is an defense alliance, meant to protect all the small nations of Europe as if we are one big power. Anything should be done to prevent the pattern of the former centuries of war after war after war, with rivers of blood.
Thank you for talking about nurses. Our company aggressively blocked union organization a few years ago. I don't hear any talk of reattempting. In fact we just merged with another hospital to become a larger system in Michigan. Hospitals in general never want to have enough staff. They always fight safe patient legislation (patient to staff ratios) with lies about choice somehow.
In Russia, nurses were hired during the covid crisis for salaries 10 times higher than usual🤣 many nurses solved their housing problems during this crisis🤣🤣🤣 Everything is as usual🤷♂️ cutting spendings, closing hospitals, firing staff🤣 if a catastrophe occurs - we understand that we were doing some kind of nonsense all the time🤣
Nurses are the real heroes of our time, especially in the not-so-wealthy capitalist countries where the state is pursuing a policy of austerity. People fell from their feet from fatigue, worked for a meager salary, while saving other people's lives. And no one makes blockbusters about them, no one writes songs in honor of these people, no one builds monuments to them.
Truth in media is so sadly lacking nowadays that we need to elevate gentlemen such as these as best we can because they constitute very few of the remaining journalists and economists with integrity.
I'm dealing with my father's end of life issues and its the American nightmare that everyone knows about. Including having whatever you've managed to work for being taken in exchange for "care" given by profit driven healthcare choices In speaking with friends and family about these things, over and over(including myself) there is an agreement that that's "Not going to be me" because we're all literally planning how we will kill ourselves instead. Like the nursing shortage and the horrid stress nurses are under, this is all a feature of the profit takers who we are paying to create these circumstances while their share prices continue to grow through no work of their own. Despair and suicide are a feature of healthcare in America on both sides.
The USA and its vassal states literally need to be East Germany'd by the civilized countries of the global south(global north is clearly a barbarian hellscape that sees empathy as a threat) if civilization, humanity, and nature are to have any hope of making it out of the century alive.
May the Fates protect and assist you and your family. What you are going through is typical in the US now. You cannot even grow old in this country without it costing money. It's killing the people. Our population is in decline. Instead of correcting the real inequity of the system, our "fearless leaders" seem only to worry about one thing: scoring enough money to NOT share the same fate as the rest of us.
Having spoken recently to one family I was totally shocked with what they said confidentially. Similar to your story, they had an ill, very loved relative. Inside the 15 months from diagnosis to death, the price of a house was extracted from X. I am calling them X for the following reasons. They have paid collosal health insurance annually to X; during the illness they were obliged to countersign payments made on their behalf from the insurance company (X) to the health industry. They did not get value for money as they expected the family member to recover. Now, on analysis they consider it a fraud, but one people can do little about.
I love hearing Prof. Wolff talk with Mr. Hedges. I could have enjoyed another 2 hours of that conversation. Now, hopefully another million or so hear them.
Canada sold its entire rail system to American and multinational interests long ago, resulting in a complete deletion of all safety and environmental regulations. As good and faithful adherents to the hyper-capitalist imperative (AKA as neoliberal economics) Canada will happily increase fees and profits just because there's a rumor of a crisis caused by the Russians (Canada's not great at independent analysis and policy making - what uncle Sam claims is gospel no matter how absurd). But don't worry, there'll be no increases in wages and the taxpayer will happily foot the bill for any R&D the multinationals "need", including changes (disguised as improvements) in logistics (que the trucker's anthem - I'm sure they've got one by now). On most of Canada's major highways, the ratio of cars to trucks must be approaching 1:1; what's a few million more trucks on the road, as long as Canada can keep feeding US business to pay for the billions in losses if we can't keep giving bombs and guns to Ukraine? Do you think this market may result in a more realistic picture of what it actually costs to run this absurd economy? Not likely, workers will always be expected to keep costs down so the rich can get richer. Maybe we'll see a trucker's strike for wages and working conditions instead of a public hostage-taking to whine about masks and vaccines.
@@myleshagar9722 “Nuremberg trial level”? Talk about hyperbole. Every nation had some sort of vaccination mandates for cross-border workers, including the the USA whose mandates preceded Canada’s. Then the FluTruxKlan went to Ottawa to protest vaccination and mask mandates that were under provincial jurisdiction. Of course the Ottawa police showed their usual level of incompetence and the citizens and businesses of Ottawa paid the price.
Thank you so much Prof Wolff, I always send your videos to my work colleagues. I am eternally grateful and sincerely wish you well, much love and respect from Australia.
Nothing wrong with the nurses when I was hospitalized last September, but boy were they overworked! I was cared for by rotating students who were not yet certified. You should have seen my arm trying to get a line in as my veins kept collapsing. The students and new nurses were so apologetic. Finally, a real nurse was called and the line went in without any difficulty! Not enough nurses in good times and far too few in a pandemic.
Wolff and Hedges ticket in 2024. Though I would hate to lose them as content creators, I can’t even imagine how much good they would do for our country and the rest of the world.
As always, an excellent report. It is great to hear the truth. Living in Spain, I had no idea about the nurse suicide rate in the US which is dreadfully sad and should not be happening. Here, there has also been tremendous stress on the health service but, as you say, the main problem in the US is the corporate system: killing off humanitarian values.
comment for the Social page of the journal: Chris Hedges's coverage of the Assange wedding was moving, superlative writing! Bride's pale lavender gown by Vivienne Westwood was fitting for our martyr. (And bravo for this economic update)
@@cultureclashmusicvideo4545 I wish I could remember where I read it & saw beautiful picture. Somebody enclosed the lovely writing on a Facebook post. Picture had little boy gently lifting end of veil.
As an old broken retired nurse I agree that nurses need to organize. They have so much power if they'd only use it. I'm done. Too many years of night shift weekends doubles etc. Always understaffed. But it's what we do. Or did..
In these days and times I guess it would be easier to organize as workers, then it used to be before. Too bad people in USA seem to think that anything about workers rights have to do with socialism, and therefore bad.
@@elvenkind6072 The USA is finished.Don't look to this country for any progressive models whatsoever on how to resolve the apocalyptic level of social inequality and all that will come of it in the near future. The next ten years will make the Trump/Biden ere seem like a golden age.
It saddened me to learn about the Nurses high rate of suicides or any suicide. Five years ago I had a major heart surgery and was in hospital for two weeks. I had opportunity to talk to each and all nurses who took care me so diligently. I learned about their level of education. They all had AT LEAST 5 years of hard, specialized college trainings. In my humble opinion: nurses are very hard working highly specialized health service providers. They truly need more recognition and appreciation of our society. Just like our teachers. Greetings from California.
Greetings from Russia. Your sanctions bomb aimed at the Russian economy actually landed on Russian corruption. Thanks a lot. PS. Life without Rolexes and iPhones is easier than without food and fuel.
хаха) у меня никогда и не было айфона. Жене я купил, но это такая чушь) китайский смартфон в 5 раз лучше этих ваших айфонов. Ролекс я точно никогда не куплю) мне бы за ипотеку расчитаться)
Sergey we all have nasty, selfish oligarchs. It is a Russian problem. It is a problem in Western Europe also. In Britain the Minister for Finance has a wife who was dodging taxes. Her family are extremely rich. In Ireland an oligarch practically owns one of the governing parties. He also owned an outsized proportion of the media, and sold it to an unaccountable entity in Belgium, which is also corrupt. We are all need to fight the real enemy - >>> Corporatist power. For everything else we need to negotiate and talk openly.
@@themsmloveswar3985 thats why the elites want us to stay divided and to hate each other. While people in different countries are at each other throats its much easier to hold onto power.
The very finest interview of Leonard Peltier's tremendous lawyer was conducted by Chris Hedges, not very long ago at all. UA-cam destroyed the entire archive. "Because RT."
Its time for the US to take back the original Workers day in place of Labor day. Originally celebrated here on May 1st. Lets join 70 countries to celebrate THE WORKER of which all labor comes!
But according to the IRS for a single person $15 an hour full time, 31,200 is 2.5 times the poverty level, a grand opulent life. And after the gracious godly personal exemption you only have to pay income tax on about $17,000 of that at 10%. I think we should demand Congress pass a bill that their salary can be no more than 3 times the poverty level as designated by the economic policy experts.
Why don't you just cancel your w-4 voluntary withholding agreement, since "the law" states it is a request by an "employee" to an employer to withhold for payment of a "tax on income"...and you are the one responsible for providing the form to make the request. The law also states, that even if you do make the request, the employer is not required to accept it. But it gets better... If you are not working for government, you are not "by law" an employee, nor are "wages" subject to a "tax on income" because wages are not now and have never been income. So how is it possible that all of the above is "unknown" to the "wage earner" and the experience is entirely opposite the reality of what the 'law" requires???? The answer is simple. When you complete that form you sign it under penalty of perjury, which is both a declaration that you ARE an "employee" and therefore "subject to such a tax".
None of my income has been from employment for about 12 years. I'm a low income small capitalist slacker Get this from our gracious kind government in the instructions about rent charged : did you charge fair market rent? As set by HUD for your area. If not, the IRS may gross your income up to what a kindly proper person should have charged. Thus wether a property owner needs to raise rent or not the government is threatening you to raise it every year or possibly be penalized. And note the question about virtual currency now front and center on the tax forms. Play tax avoidance so long as you have no assets.
the problematic politicians dont care about anything as common as a salary. they're making money from investments, scams and the other magical wealth generating devices of the rich
Let us not forget Nursing Assistants, Medical assistants besides Nurses and Orderlies. Nursing assistants work hard and do a lot of the work that Nurses don't have time for.
Prof. Wolff, please realize that the term "orderly" is no longer used in the hospital. Orderlies really don't even exist in the hospital setting anymore as distinct employees. Basically what has happened is that the work of the orderly has been dumped on the nurse.
@@jackgallo5616 Spoken like a good hospital administrator, really can spin it. If you really are a nurse, let me know what hospital system you work for so I can apply.
Thank-you for explaining about nurses. As a Retired Registered Nurse, I can tell you that years ago the Hospitals had nurses as the top Bosses and now the CEOs are educated in economics with money is their top priority are in charge. So glad nurses now know to join Unions! Now, with Covid Hospitals showed their evil agenda!
Historically, society has always held the highest expectation for nurses in every setting, but especially hospitals. I wonder if any economist or historian has ever compared # of lives saved by nurses as opposed to # of lives saved by doctors alone, and # saved by teams of doctors vs teams of nursing staff..
@@cg4806 Of course, this is absurd. Especially in case of covid. The nurse puts injections and droppers, the resuscitator connects the person to the ventilator with the help of a nurse and an anesthesiologist. The doctor prescribes treatment and makes a diagnosis based on the tests that the laboratory assistant studies. The patient is transported to the hospital by an ambulance doctor in an ambulance driven by an ambulance driver or even a fire department. The surgeon performs the operation based on the analyzes and x-rays (ultrasound, MRI, and so on) performed by the doctor-radiologist. After the operation, the patient is given antibiotics by a nurse, who also treats wounds. A surgeon without a nurse, a radiologist and so on is nobody. He can't help the person
@@cg4806 I have one friend who died (literally because of a trifling operation something like appendicitis), because of an anesthetist mistake. hypoxia and death. Looks like this doctor should have been out of jail by now.
number of lives saved is silly. a better metric would be life expectancy for the region a hospital serves. though even that can be problematic since poor areas would have poor hospitals and we all know what poverty does to life expectancy
Even if you don't completely agree with them, discussions between Wolff and Hedges contain some of the most compelling, intelligent words spoken by anyone alive today.
What I don't understand...the corporations have made exceptional profits and at the same time they have trillions in debt as well. It's insane isn't it?
They've made trillions for the banks. It's not their money, you see, it's the banks. That's why the current system is so bad because even the corporations are in hock to the banks. Yet unlike the corporations the banks create nothing but live, like parasites, at the expense of everyone else, sucking the lifeblood out of the economy.
It’s actually quite easy. Cash goes to shareholders and execs for growth. When money is cheap to borrow, public companies can borrow heavily, shave employee numbers and keep cash dividends flowing to shareholders.
Nurses are the true angels of health care! The doctor sees the patient once every now and then while the Nurses and nursing staff spend days and long times with patients and when they eventually pass away, the Nurse looses a friend.
Billionaires increased their wealth by 60% over two years during the pandemic. Why isn't anyone talking about a price rollback? Or a price freeze? In the face of similar inflation, President Nixon imposed a wage/price freeze! So let's demand a price rollback to pre-pandemic prices!
Speaking as a frontline healthcare worker (in New York State) for over 20 years, the lack of regulation for staffing levels is the main problem for staff. The level of work never reaches a manageable level because the management sees staff as an expense instead of the reason that they themselves have jobs. It's just a morally vacant outlook that has permeated the entire industry for decades. The ownership of nursing homes are essentially just slumlords who spend more on their legal defense teams than they do on providing care for the residents in the facilities they own...smh
I hear ya about the nursing homes slumlords on this side of the Atlantic as well, same exact thing. It's sickening. Also staffing levels is a day to day issue here as well.
Every time I listen to Professor Wolff, my level of understanding the capitialist system increases. What I see is that we cannot blame employers for getting away with paying the lowest wages they possibly can. No; what people do in capitalism is get as much money they can from the the system. Period. It's the way the capitalist system works. What I see is that after 3 centuries of consumer capitalism or whatever label you want to put on it, there is no other way to evaluate it other than an economic system that is not good for the human community. Period. There is nothing more that can be said. It's not the people exploiting workers and evading taxes who are to blame. People will do anything for money even at the expense of others. It's human nature. We can't change that. But we can change the system to have an economic opportunity that everyone can tap into.
but how do we change the system if people will do anything for money, even at the expense of others? It's going to take a change in mentality where even some of them who make a profit admit that it's wrong.
@@ddehggial9932 It's a human behaviour. We have changed our behaviour before and we will continue to do it in the future. Slavery was universal, keeping the majority of the population from voting was the dominating system etc etc. We changed that because we learned how detrimental it was for social development and future of human civilization. That is also why the people benefiting from the current system are spending enormous amounts of resources to convince us that there is no other option. They go out of their ways to tell us that it's capitalism that has given us everything and that markets and inventions are supposed to be a capitalism only trait.
@@carlkolchak4437 Well it’s already in play. PE owns a plurality of property i some sunbelt areas and have been 20% of all sales. they pay in cash and over asking, then convert to rental with 30% higher rent. they themselves set the market price because of their share of it
Finally some truths being said on this medium! This will turn as a boomerang for the western world; crushing anyone "in their way" is not the way to go, neither are there longtime enemies...understanding and cooperation is
“The vaccine was not brought in for COVID. COVID was brought in for the vaccine. Once you realize that, everything else makes sense.” ~ Dr. Reiner Fuellmich
Nurse here, from Canada where all nurses in our public & universal healthcare system are unionized- candidly, the negative impacts on mental wellness in the face of wave after wave of Covid with no end in sight and next to no solidarity from the population DOES contribute substantially to burnout and despair. Even unionized and comfortably paid nurses are taking their own lives, directly after leaving shift- before so much as removing their scrubs, no notes, nothing... Nurses are also leaving the profession in droves. Conditions which are intolerable, interminable & feel inescapable are driving nurses to desperation. Rather than ‘all being in this together’ we are being gaslit by the political class & the commentariat *including many on the so-called left* who have struck a posture of reactive contrarianism and liberal individualism all too often. However well intended professor Wolfe, the observation that what is happening to nurses is little more than stress which unionization would relieve truly misses the mark…
Misinterpretation? I believe both these speakers are simply speaking to the masses, briefly highlighting and discussing identifiable topics and variables within the encompassing dilemma of system failure.
That sounds very difficult. My niece was in the middle of chemotherapy in San Francisco when Covid hit. Her nurses totally upended their lives. They saved her life. Please take care of yourself. ❤
I say this every time UA-cam doesn't cut videos off at 30 minutes.. This isn't cable, 22 minutes plus commercials, run the interviews as long as it takes to tease out the best of every guest / topic.. There is an appetite for long form interviews
How can Chris Hedges draw the analyses that he does and understand it all so well and yet continue to describe the U.S. as a 'democracy' ? Truly bizarre !
Richard Wolf, I appreciate yours and Chris Hedge's work. Chris referred to the US as a democracy. Can you give me a single example showing that the US is a democracy?
Are there celebrity TV programs where the audience gets to vote off contestants??? That is democracy in the other side of the North Atlantic. It was invented by the Dutch as low cost TV and became a fully fledged circus in Britain's Channel 4.
Professor Wolff and Chris Hedges, along with Dr West and Noam Chomsky are all speaking from a broadly based shared narrative that's coherent and makes sense.
I could write a book about my experience as a nursing assistant for almost six and a half years. I worked at a rehab hospital in Massachusetts. I contacted 6 different state bodies that told me I could do nothing... The hospital I worked for became a nationwide scandal in 1998 with whistleblower nurse Barry Adams. Nothing ever changed.
@@1LaOriental thus is the way of the whistleblower. Everything is rigged against the workers. I'm also a nursing assistant (14 years exp) over in the UK. The sheer idiocy of management and last minute ass covering, penny wise-dollar foolishness, patient mismanagement and bullying of nursing staff by the bosses I've seen in my time... Perhaps someday I'll write a book, too. After I leave the field, of course.
An interesting point made about small businesses. I'm reading a lot about capitalism's tendency toward monopoly (Luxemburg, Bukharin, Lenin, Trotsky... ). Basically, the orthodox Marxist view is that moves throughout the 19th and 20th centuries to contain monopolisation by reformers (Trotsky gives the example of the New Deal in the US) are ultimately ineffective... "we need to reform the monopolisation and increase competition" is an unending conversation by reformers, whose moves do nothing to stop monopolies. Exactly the same conversations are being had today as in the 1930's in that regard. Socialists rightly argue that heavy taxation of trusts/cartels/monopolies is good as an immediate measure, but it is not a solution in itself. The Marxists I have read argue that moving to increase competition is reactionary because reverting to increased competition between smaller businesses still leads to monopoly. The only solution is the democratic ownership of monopolies in order to direct their immense productive capabilities in the interests of all.
Richard Wolff & Chris Hedges in the same video?!!? 😃
They’re clearly the real Dynamic Duo 💪🏻
It's Wolff.
@@SunnyJohn45, as a fellow grammar nazi, I appreciate your input & I stand corrected 😉☺️
I dream come true of real news and situacion on the " land of the free"🤣
Great duo to speak about the reallity on the " land of the free"🤣
Warning us of the death rattles of our empire!
As a nurse, I am really impressed by your insight, and appreciate your coverage.
Turk ?
Is this true in the states? Does this broadcast match your experience?
@@chioma3100 Yes, we have a profit based health care system in US. We have had inhumanely high work load WITHOUT adequate assistance and support staff. We have had over one million deaths due to COVID 19, worse than any other country!!!
Our health care system has failed to keep workloads safe for nurses, and yet nurse's feel responsible for this failure.
@@Q_QQ_Q close, take another guess!
@@rhythmfusion Iran ?
My number one professor and his friend Chris Hedge Thanks you! Thanks for your hard work
Thank you Professor Wolff for dropping these Hard Truths, I'd rather hear a Hard Truth than a soft Lie.
Shit
Same here. Your comment reminded me of this interview. Little lengthy, but great interview. m.ua-cam.com/video/XUVxdM5giKE/v-deo.html&feature=share
In the UK the NHS makes you wait until your nearly dead before you get a diagnosis ☹️. It's publicly funded
The lies these days are getting pretty brazen.
The UK NHS is publicly funded and has asked for unpaid volunteer ambulance drivers 🤔
So sorry that this conversation could not have been much longer. Thank you!
So sorry that this conversation was even able to take place; such is the state of America these days.
It's not like Hedges had anything useful to say. Trying to pain USA/The West as the Big Bad Wolf, and the BS about the arms industry and Empire etc. is so out of touch from reality, it's silly to listen to. Russia is the one to blame in the current conflict, while Ukraine have every right to defend themselves and continue to fight for their right to live in freedom, as a democracy and as an European nation, part of NATO if they so choose. NATO is an defense alliance, meant to protect all the small nations of Europe as if we are one big power. Anything should be done to prevent the pattern of the former centuries of war after war after war, with rivers of blood.
What an enlightening conversation between two remarkable scholars ! Thank you very much.
Thank you for talking about nurses. Our company aggressively blocked union organization a few years ago. I don't hear any talk of reattempting. In fact we just merged with another hospital to become a larger system in Michigan. Hospitals in general never want to have enough staff. They always fight safe patient legislation (patient to staff ratios) with lies about choice somehow.
Like so many other situations in this country, the propaganda of having a “choice’ is unfortunately, extremely effective 😟
In Russia, nurses were hired during the covid crisis for salaries 10 times higher than usual🤣 many nurses solved their housing problems during this crisis🤣🤣🤣
Everything is as usual🤷♂️ cutting spendings, closing hospitals, firing staff🤣
if a catastrophe occurs - we understand that we were doing some kind of nonsense all the time🤣
Excessively huge profit margins could be a factor.
My sister still works as a nurse at age 75. She caught Covid. I don't want the cause of her death to be employment.
Nurses are the real heroes of our time, especially in the not-so-wealthy capitalist countries where the state is pursuing a policy of austerity. People fell from their feet from fatigue, worked for a meager salary, while saving other people's lives. And no one makes blockbusters about them, no one writes songs in honor of these people, no one builds monuments to them.
This is a damn bonus!!! Prof & Chris in one vid‼️
Always a treat to see Chris hedges. Thanks economic update!!
Keep up the good work Profresser Richard Wolfe.
It's Wolff.
@@SunnyJohn45 WOW 😂
Again?? It’s really not that big of a deal, dude…..take a chill pill 💊
@@jinabrasser9439 It's his name... of course people should get it right.
@@Tetragrammaton22 whatever you say 🙄
My two favorites in one place. Please have Chris back on for a full show.
Thank you very much
Truth in media is so sadly lacking nowadays that we need to elevate gentlemen such as these as best we can because they constitute very few of the remaining journalists and economists with integrity.
Any compromise the hospitals make to nurses WILL BE passed on to the patient.. not one penny will ever be 'absorbed into profit loss'
As a nurse I really appreciate this report!
Two of the best people advocates and truth tellers around .
Professor Thomas Wolfe, and Christopher Hedges, thank you both for all you do speaking Truth to Power. ❤️
ua-cam.com/video/y7wECccLRec/v-deo.html
Who is Thomas Wolfe?
@@nolitetebastardescarborund9761 I am sorry I get so excited I meant Richard ❤️
What a duo! Fantastically concise, truly inspiring conversation. Thank you SO much.
A dynamic duo held in highest regards!
Thank you professor Wolff and Chris Hedges. Two of our most important voices.
We in SEAsia hopes u & your channel could carry on with your unbiased reporting . We too are happy u have brought back Chris this episode. 👍🏻👏👏🙏
Salute to Mr. Hedge, a journalist worthy of respect
I'm dealing with my father's end of life issues and its the American nightmare that everyone knows about. Including having whatever you've managed to work for being taken in exchange for "care" given by profit driven healthcare choices In speaking with friends and family about these things, over and over(including myself) there is an agreement that that's "Not going to be me" because we're all literally planning how we will kill ourselves instead. Like the nursing shortage and the horrid stress nurses are under, this is all a feature of the profit takers who we are paying to create these circumstances while their share prices continue to grow through no work of their own. Despair and suicide are a feature of healthcare in America on both sides.
The USA and its vassal states literally need to be East Germany'd by the civilized countries of the global south(global north is clearly a barbarian hellscape that sees empathy as a threat) if civilization, humanity, and nature are to have any hope of making it out of the century alive.
May the Fates protect and assist you and your family. What you are going through is typical in the US now. You cannot even grow old in this country without it costing money. It's killing the people. Our population is in decline. Instead of correcting the real inequity of the system, our "fearless leaders" seem only to worry about one thing: scoring enough money to NOT share the same fate as the rest of us.
Having spoken recently to one family I was totally shocked with what they said confidentially. Similar to your story, they had an ill, very loved relative. Inside the 15 months from diagnosis to death, the price of a house was extracted from X. I am calling them X for the following reasons.
They have paid collosal health insurance annually to X; during the illness they were obliged to countersign payments made on their behalf from the insurance company (X) to the health industry. They did not get value for money as they expected the family member to recover. Now, on analysis they consider it a fraud, but one people can do little about.
@@MonaLisa-lu8zi I would give this a thumbs up but obviously can't for reasons we know. Thanks for sharing.
I've been there. I'm emigrating.
Two kind hearts shining the light of humanity. love you both, Michael and Chris
Wolff and Hedges are an unrivalled combination. Always drop what I'm doing to listen to new content from these two.
Imagine Wolff, Hedges, Yanis and Noam
I love hearing Prof. Wolff talk with Mr. Hedges. I could have enjoyed another 2 hours of that conversation. Now, hopefully another million or so hear them.
What a great program!
Thank you all.
As always, Chris' wisdom and knowledge abounds! Thank you!
Once again a brilliant economic review.
I learn so much from Prof. Wolff. Great show as usual, thank you, Prof. Wolff, and thanks for having Chris Hedges!
Canada sold its entire rail system to American and multinational interests long ago, resulting in a complete deletion of all safety and environmental regulations. As good and faithful adherents to the hyper-capitalist imperative (AKA as neoliberal economics) Canada will happily increase fees and profits just because there's a rumor of a crisis caused by the Russians (Canada's not great at independent analysis and policy making - what uncle Sam claims is gospel no matter how absurd). But don't worry, there'll be no increases in wages and the taxpayer will happily foot the bill for any R&D the multinationals "need", including changes (disguised as improvements) in logistics (que the trucker's anthem - I'm sure they've got one by now).
On most of Canada's major highways, the ratio of cars to trucks must be approaching 1:1; what's a few million more trucks on the road, as long as Canada can keep feeding US business to pay for the billions in losses if we can't keep giving bombs and guns to Ukraine? Do you think this market may result in a more realistic picture of what it actually costs to run this absurd economy? Not likely, workers will always be expected to keep costs down so the rich can get richer. Maybe we'll see a trucker's strike for wages and working conditions instead of a public hostage-taking to whine about masks and vaccines.
America has ruined Canada.
If you think they were there only to whine about masks and vaccines, ask yourself why I'm watching the same content as you?
@@charlenefrench5404 The mandated inoculations in Canada and their widespread damaging effects are at Nuremburg trial level.
@@myleshagar9722 agreed.
@@myleshagar9722 “Nuremberg trial level”? Talk about hyperbole. Every nation had some sort of vaccination mandates for cross-border workers, including the the USA whose mandates preceded Canada’s. Then the FluTruxKlan went to Ottawa to protest vaccination and mask mandates that were under provincial jurisdiction. Of course the Ottawa police showed their usual level of incompetence and the citizens and businesses of Ottawa paid the price.
Thank you so much Prof Wolff, I always send your videos to my work colleagues. I am eternally grateful and sincerely wish you well, much love and respect from Australia.
Thank you Prof Wolff!!
God how enhanced the quality of our lives would be if Chris Hedges was president and Richard Wolff vice president
Nothing wrong with the nurses when I was hospitalized last September, but boy were they overworked! I was cared for by rotating students who were not yet certified. You should have seen my arm trying to get a line in as my veins kept collapsing. The students and new nurses were so apologetic. Finally, a real nurse was called and the line went in without any difficulty! Not enough nurses in good times and far too few in a pandemic.
Thank you both for your analyses. I hope you can talk with Chris for longer next time.
Wolff and Hedges ticket in 2024. Though I would hate to lose them as content creators, I can’t even imagine how much good they would do for our country and the rest of the world.
It is not just a great person or two, dynamic, democratic and capable movements are needed down to local levels but I catch your drift.
Worshipping personalities is not useful or healthy.
Chris Hedges, the man, the myth, the legend, my hero.
As always, an excellent report. It is great to hear the truth. Living in Spain, I had no idea about the nurse suicide rate in the US which is dreadfully sad and should not be happening. Here, there has also been tremendous stress on the health service but, as you say, the main problem in the US is the corporate system: killing off humanitarian values.
Brilliant episode, great interview with Chris Hedges!
Thank you for your great work, telling the truth
What a brilliant conversation by two geniuses, sadly too short and not enough people listening!
I can feel the pain in Prof. Wolff's voice as he explains how the ordinary folks are being trampled on by the rich and the powerful.
And the rich have a perfect political party doing their work for them in these evangelical idiots
What if we stopped introducing "Chris Hedges" and just started introducing him as "THE JOURNALIST"...?
That's an idea. 💡
The preeminent journalist Chris Hedges sets the bar high for his colleagues.
When journalist are censored, revolutionaries are made.
comment for the Social page of the journal: Chris Hedges's coverage of the Assange wedding was moving, superlative writing! Bride's pale lavender gown by Vivienne Westwood was fitting for our martyr. (And bravo for this economic update)
I have yet to see that coverage. Which journal are you referring to? Can you share the link here please?
@@cultureclashmusicvideo4545 I wish I could remember where I read it & saw beautiful picture. Somebody enclosed the lovely writing on a Facebook post. Picture had little boy gently lifting end of veil.
As an old broken retired nurse I agree that nurses need to organize. They have so much power if they'd only use it. I'm done. Too many years of night shift weekends doubles etc. Always understaffed. But it's what we do. Or did..
In these days and times I guess it would be easier to organize as workers, then it used to be before. Too bad people in USA seem to think that anything about workers rights have to do with socialism, and therefore bad.
@@elvenkind6072 The USA is finished.Don't look to this country for any progressive models whatsoever on how to resolve the apocalyptic level of social inequality and all that will come of it in the near future. The next ten years will make the Trump/Biden ere seem like a golden age.
Fantastic analysis! Thank you for bringing us TRUTH.
Thank you so much for your unbelievable and relentless work from uk
Brillant analyses as always! Keep it up guys!
Keep up the good work Richard and Chris both. An informed mind is a mind that works for the betterment of workers throughout the world.
It saddened me to learn about the Nurses high rate of suicides or any suicide.
Five years ago I had a major heart surgery and was in hospital for two weeks.
I had opportunity to talk to each and all nurses who took care me so diligently.
I learned about their level of education. They all had AT LEAST 5 years of hard, specialized college trainings.
In my humble opinion: nurses are very hard working highly specialized health service providers.
They truly need more recognition and appreciation of our society. Just like our teachers.
Greetings from California.
Imagine blaming the Nurses who care for the sick at the risk of their lives?
The nurses are seeing horrific injuries from the poison that was forced into people.
Conservativism par for course.
We treat nurses like trash especially in Texas and that was before the pandemic. Working them 12hrs and another 4hrs of paperwork
You are not alone. In Russia, working as a nurse = surviving on the brink of starvation.
now there are a lot of nurses - women migrant workers from Central Asia.
Yeah, Texas is effed up. You all should just cease to exist, you're a drain on humanity. (...Florida can go with you)
This video has got to be one of the top videos that Richard Wolff has made.
Greetings from Russia. Your sanctions bomb aimed at the Russian economy actually landed on Russian corruption. Thanks a lot. PS. Life without Rolexes and iPhones is easier than without food and fuel.
хаха) у меня никогда и не было айфона. Жене я купил, но это такая чушь) китайский смартфон в 5 раз лучше этих ваших айфонов. Ролекс я точно никогда не куплю) мне бы за ипотеку расчитаться)
@@romanyarkov8426 😂
Yeah, the USA politicans today are beyond stupid. Would you be as kind to aim an economic bomb at our corruption?
Sergey we all have nasty, selfish oligarchs. It is a Russian problem. It is a problem in Western Europe also. In Britain the Minister for Finance has a wife who was dodging taxes. Her family are extremely rich.
In Ireland an oligarch practically owns one of the governing parties. He also owned an outsized proportion of the media, and sold it to an unaccountable entity in Belgium, which is also corrupt.
We are all need to fight the real enemy - >>> Corporatist power.
For everything else we need to negotiate and talk openly.
@@themsmloveswar3985 thats why the elites want us to stay divided and to hate each other. While people in different countries are at each other throats its much easier to hold onto power.
The very finest interview of Leonard Peltier's tremendous lawyer was conducted by Chris Hedges, not very long ago at all.
UA-cam destroyed the entire archive. "Because RT."
Blows Me away that u can still believe that there is any difference between the 2 parties..
Chris Hedges is the GOAT!
Solid.
Two brilliant minds speak truthfully on issues that are affecting us.
Its time for the US to take back the original Workers day in place of Labor day. Originally celebrated here on May 1st. Lets join 70 countries to celebrate THE WORKER of which all labor comes!
But according to the IRS for a single person $15 an hour full time, 31,200 is 2.5 times the poverty level, a grand opulent life. And after the gracious godly personal exemption you only have to pay income tax on about $17,000 of that at 10%. I think we should demand Congress pass a bill that their salary can be no more than 3 times the poverty level as designated by the economic policy experts.
Why don't you just cancel your w-4 voluntary withholding agreement, since "the law" states
it is a request by an "employee" to an employer to withhold for payment of a "tax
on income"...and you are the one responsible for providing the form to make the request.
The law also states, that even if you do make the request, the employer is not required to
accept it.
But it gets better...
If you are not working for government, you are not "by law" an employee, nor are
"wages" subject to a "tax on income" because wages are not now and have never been
income.
So how is it possible that all of the above is "unknown" to the "wage earner" and the experience
is entirely opposite the reality of what the 'law" requires????
The answer is simple. When you complete that form you sign it under penalty of perjury,
which is both a declaration that you ARE an "employee" and therefore "subject to such a tax".
They get rich the Nancy way.
None of my income has been from employment for about 12 years. I'm a low income small capitalist slacker Get this from our gracious kind government in the instructions about rent charged : did you charge fair market rent? As set by HUD for your area. If not, the IRS may gross your income up to what a kindly proper person should have charged. Thus wether a property owner needs to raise rent or not the government is threatening you to raise it every year or possibly be penalized. And note the question about virtual currency now front and center on the tax forms. Play tax avoidance so long as you have no assets.
the problematic politicians dont care about anything as common as a salary. they're making money from investments, scams and the other magical wealth generating devices of the rich
Let us not forget Nursing Assistants, Medical assistants besides Nurses and Orderlies. Nursing assistants work hard and do a lot of the work that Nurses don't have time for.
Richard and Chris it doesn't get any better
Prof. Wolff, please realize that the term "orderly" is no longer used in the hospital. Orderlies really don't even exist in the hospital setting anymore as distinct employees. Basically what has happened is that the work of the orderly has been dumped on the nurse.
We still have plenty of them in Canadian hospitals. What a shame your medical system is
We still have orderlies. They are known as nurse aids. There’s lots of them, mostly recent immigrants.
@@jackgallo5616 Spoken like a good hospital administrator, really can spin it. If you really are a nurse, let me know what hospital system you work for so I can apply.
Thanks!
Money well spent.
Thank You so much, You Both are the Kings on Truth.
Thank-you for explaining about nurses. As a Retired Registered Nurse, I can tell you that years ago the Hospitals had nurses as the top Bosses and now the CEOs are educated in economics with money is their top priority are in charge. So glad nurses now know to join Unions! Now, with Covid Hospitals showed their evil agenda!
Historically, society has always held the highest expectation for nurses in every setting, but especially hospitals. I wonder if any economist or historian has ever compared # of lives saved by nurses as opposed to # of lives saved by doctors alone, and # saved by teams of doctors vs teams of nursing staff..
A progressive world requires a constructive mindset.
Medical error is the officially the third leading cause of death, and in reality
the leading cause of death...and that was before the pandemic.
@@cg4806 Of course, this is absurd. Especially in case of covid. The nurse puts injections and droppers, the resuscitator connects the person to the ventilator with the help of a nurse and an anesthesiologist.
The doctor prescribes treatment and makes a diagnosis based on the tests that the laboratory assistant studies.
The patient is transported to the hospital by an ambulance doctor in an ambulance driven by an ambulance driver or even a fire department.
The surgeon performs the operation based on the analyzes and x-rays (ultrasound, MRI, and so on) performed by the doctor-radiologist. After the operation, the patient is given antibiotics by a nurse, who also treats wounds.
A surgeon without a nurse, a radiologist and so on is nobody. He can't help the person
@@cg4806 I have one friend who died (literally because of a trifling operation something like appendicitis), because of an anesthetist mistake. hypoxia and death. Looks like this doctor should have been out of jail by now.
number of lives saved is silly. a better metric would be life expectancy for the region a hospital serves. though even that can be problematic since poor areas would have poor hospitals and we all know what poverty does to life expectancy
Even if you don't completely agree with them, discussions between Wolff and Hedges contain some of the most compelling, intelligent words spoken by anyone alive today.
What I don't understand...the corporations have made exceptional profits and at the same time they have trillions in debt as well. It's insane isn't it?
Profits buy real things, private jets and mistresses. Debts are numbers on computer screens. Their profits your debts.
They've made trillions for the banks. It's not their money, you see, it's the banks. That's why the current system is so bad because even the corporations are in hock to the banks. Yet unlike the corporations the banks create nothing but live, like parasites, at the expense of everyone else, sucking the lifeblood out of the economy.
It's a debt based economy.
It’s actually quite easy. Cash goes to shareholders and execs for growth. When money is cheap to borrow, public companies can borrow heavily, shave employee numbers and keep cash dividends flowing to shareholders.
Trillions in debt just incase they decide to socialize th loses th gov will bail them
Nurses are the true angels of health care! The doctor sees the patient once every now and then while the Nurses and nursing staff spend days and long times with patients and when they eventually pass away, the Nurse looses a friend.
Billionaires increased their wealth by 60% over two years during the pandemic. Why isn't anyone talking about a price rollback? Or a price freeze? In the face of similar inflation, President Nixon imposed a wage/price freeze! So let's demand a price rollback to pre-pandemic prices!
Nobody wants to impose a wage/price freeze because they don't want to risk triggering the wrath of the pro-corporate US Supreme Court
I remember Nixon's price freeze. That was a complete failure, gas lines and rationing. No thanks
I am reading the Cris Hedges articles in brazilian independent press and I agree about his oppinions! Never surrender!
During the original Occupy Wall Street nearly 10 years ago it was the Striking nurses and Librarians that were the backbone of our movement.
communists....
@@johnsmith-cw3wo Hahah. Capitalist robber get ready for the Gulag.
@@johnsmith-cw3wo Your comment
contains no fact, reality, common sense, or truth to it.
Excellent reporting and providing a big rational picture on current events. Thanks Prof. Wolff and d@w team!
Great show! Thank you!
Speaking as a frontline healthcare worker (in New York State) for over 20 years, the lack of regulation for staffing levels is the main problem for staff. The level of work never reaches a manageable level because the management sees staff as an expense instead of the reason that they themselves have jobs. It's just a morally vacant outlook that has permeated the entire industry for decades. The ownership of nursing homes are essentially just slumlords who spend more on their legal defense teams than they do on providing care for the residents in the facilities they own...smh
I hear ya about the nursing homes slumlords on this side of the Atlantic as well, same exact thing. It's sickening. Also staffing levels is a day to day issue here as well.
So true
Every time I listen to Professor Wolff, my level of understanding the capitialist system increases. What I see is that we cannot blame employers for getting away with paying the lowest wages they possibly can. No; what people do in capitalism is get as much money they can from the the system. Period. It's the way the capitalist system works. What I see is that after 3 centuries of consumer capitalism or whatever label you want to put on it, there is no other way to evaluate it other than an economic system that is not good for the human community. Period. There is nothing more that can be said. It's not the people exploiting workers and evading taxes who are to blame. People will do anything for money even at the expense of others. It's human nature. We can't change that. But we can change the system to have an economic opportunity that everyone can tap into.
but how do we change the system if people will do anything for money, even at the expense of others? It's going to take a change in mentality where even some of them who make a profit admit that it's wrong.
@@ddehggial9932 It's a human behaviour. We have changed our behaviour before and we will continue to do it in the future. Slavery was universal, keeping the majority of the population from voting was the dominating system etc etc.
We changed that because we learned how detrimental it was for social development and future of human civilization. That is also why the people benefiting from the current system are spending enormous amounts of resources to convince us that there is no other option. They go out of their ways to tell us that it's capitalism that has given us everything and that markets and inventions are supposed to be a capitalism only trait.
In a a, $30k is well below poverty line. Housing is exceedingly expensive.
Housing IS THE NEXT TARGET for corporations.
@@carlkolchak4437 Well it’s already in play. PE owns a plurality of property i some sunbelt areas and have been 20% of all sales. they pay in cash and over asking, then convert to rental with 30% higher rent. they themselves set the market price because of their share of it
Carl Kochak Next? Really its been happening for awhile now bud
Finally some truths being said on this medium! This will turn as a boomerang for the western world; crushing anyone "in their way" is not the way to go, neither are there longtime enemies...understanding and cooperation is
My two favorite people!
Two of the greatest intellects on earth.
I would like these two humans to be the leaders of the US. FOREVER✌️
“The vaccine was not brought in for COVID. COVID was brought in for the vaccine. Once you realize that, everything else makes sense.” ~ Dr. Reiner Fuellmich
People won't understand that. They will continue to wear a mask and demand you wear one also.
Mike Pompeo said China was about to catch a cold back in the fall of 2019. An odd statement for your CIA director to make at the time.
Follow Democracy At Work from Vietnam 🇻🇳. Thank you for the analysis and assessment. Great channel for the news.
Great job you guys. I admire both of you.
Great job as alway's. Keep the truth alive for humanity and the planet and to wake up humanity. ❤ ❤
Nurse here, from Canada where all nurses in our public & universal healthcare system are unionized- candidly, the negative impacts on mental wellness in the face of wave after wave of Covid with no end in sight and next to no solidarity from the population DOES contribute substantially to burnout and despair. Even unionized and comfortably paid nurses are taking their own lives, directly after leaving shift- before so much as removing their scrubs, no notes, nothing... Nurses are also leaving the profession in droves. Conditions which are intolerable, interminable & feel inescapable are driving nurses to desperation. Rather than ‘all being in this together’ we are being gaslit by the political class & the commentariat *including many on the so-called left* who have struck a posture of reactive contrarianism and liberal individualism all too often.
However well intended professor Wolfe, the observation that what is happening to nurses is little more than stress which unionization would relieve truly misses the mark…
Misinterpretation? I believe both these speakers are simply speaking to the masses, briefly highlighting and discussing identifiable topics and variables within the encompassing dilemma of system failure.
That sounds very difficult. My niece was in the middle of chemotherapy in San Francisco when Covid hit. Her nurses totally upended their lives. They saved her life. Please take care of yourself. ❤
I say this every time
UA-cam doesn't cut videos off at 30 minutes.. This isn't cable, 22 minutes plus commercials, run the interviews as long as it takes to tease out the best of every guest / topic..
There is an appetite for long form interviews
How can Chris Hedges draw the analyses that he does and understand it all so well and yet continue to describe the U.S. as a 'democracy' ? Truly bizarre !
Probably so that normies can understand and not be scared off of the truth
Richard Wolf, I appreciate yours and Chris Hedge's work. Chris referred to the US as a democracy. Can you give me a single example showing that the US is a democracy?
Are there celebrity TV programs where the audience gets to vote off contestants??? That is democracy in the other side of the North Atlantic. It was invented by the Dutch as low cost TV and became a fully fledged circus in Britain's Channel 4.
I agree we need to look after our essential service people ie, nurses, doctors, emergency service and police.
swap police for infrastructure engineers and we have a deal
Two of the many Wise Sages of the Twenty-First Century
Chris Hedges interview begins at 14:23
Professor Wolff and Chris Hedges, along with Dr West and Noam Chomsky are all speaking from a broadly based shared narrative that's coherent and makes sense.
@Pinnedby Democracy At Work So
What's up ?
I could write a book about my experience as a nursing assistant for almost six and a half years. I worked at a rehab hospital in Massachusetts. I contacted 6 different state bodies that told me I could do nothing... The hospital I worked for became a nationwide scandal in 1998 with whistleblower nurse Barry Adams. Nothing ever changed.
You should write a book. Be a whistle-blower
@@BillyBasd I was... I got fired; which was a huge blessing.
@@1LaOriental I'm glad you were blessed by your retaliatory termination. You should go further & write a book. I'd buy it
@@1LaOriental thus is the way of the whistleblower. Everything is rigged against the workers. I'm also a nursing assistant (14 years exp) over in the UK. The sheer idiocy of management and last minute ass covering, penny wise-dollar foolishness, patient mismanagement and bullying of nursing staff by the bosses I've seen in my time... Perhaps someday I'll write a book, too. After I leave the field, of course.
@@ddehggial9932 Bless you and stay strong my fellow CNA.
What a sad world we live in where people behave this way.
Scary truth always,two heroes right here on utube,and thanks for all of you.
Funny how inept our leaders are when they get their jobs through Frats.
Professor Wolff....i think im IN LOVE 💘
Thank you for sticking up for THE
LITTLE GIRL..your the best..BOSTON🍀
An interesting point made about small businesses. I'm reading a lot about capitalism's tendency toward monopoly (Luxemburg, Bukharin, Lenin, Trotsky... ). Basically, the orthodox Marxist view is that moves throughout the 19th and 20th centuries to contain monopolisation by reformers (Trotsky gives the example of the New Deal in the US) are ultimately ineffective... "we need to reform the monopolisation and increase competition" is an unending conversation by reformers, whose moves do nothing to stop monopolies. Exactly the same conversations are being had today as in the 1930's in that regard. Socialists rightly argue that heavy taxation of trusts/cartels/monopolies is good as an immediate measure, but it is not a solution in itself. The Marxists I have read argue that moving to increase competition is reactionary because reverting to increased competition between smaller businesses still leads to monopoly. The only solution is the democratic ownership of monopolies in order to direct their immense productive capabilities in the interests of all.