Dr wolf had a unique lucid style of presenting modern Marxists theory. Thanks for this noble cause. I appreciate his noble task of his knowledge of socialism.
But you'll never hear him discuss how China on the eve of Mao's 125th birthday in 2018 disbanded Marxist study groups and labor activist organizations on university campuses and rounded up their leaders.
In Yugoslavia (which nobody ever mentions for some reason) we had state capitalism as an economic system (with some participation of the workers in decision making that we called self management) but in political and social sphere we had socialism. But we were blinded by the colorful toys in the window shops and we wanted more so we lost what we had. Serves us right.
Yugoslavia is a Great Mistery :) isn't it? I am one of few lucky who knew it, and still know the feeling being a part of Yugoslavia. What a place that was! :)
Including them...that is very inconvenient for Wolff...and a little less so for Hudson...but still inconvenient when it gets to the destruction of capitalism post WWII.
They didn't educate you...and the only thing the youth are being educated to question is their obvious sexual identity. As for your advice, you should begin by grasping the meaning of the concept of "everything."
Funny his energy doesn't seem to extend to reading the comments here, or answering the questions that have been repeated over and over for as long as he has been doing this.
He is a professor, a lecturer. He just need a sip of water now and then and occasional bite, he can lecture for four hours, detour and not loose the thread. A skilled good high school teacher can do the same. It's practice of telling a long story every teacher has to master.
Professor Richard is humble and on point with his analysis as always. I always look forward to his 2 hrs+ lectures because he can tell one story over in a different way but his use of different perspectives and words always reinforces his delivery of the same points. He gets even more mellow with time and encourages us to accept our small period of existence in the wide expanse of time... It all boils down to a shared hope.....
@@jgalt308 Haha. The only analyses that has the potantial to be serious is a marxist one. The only people to be taken seriously are people who understand this.
Re: 55.01: Dr. Wolff, I listen to you and Dr. Fraad at every opportunity. What Dr. Fraud pointed out and I wish you would also mention is that the federal minimum wage is for restaurant servers is just $2.13/hour. New. Orleans, for example, supports about a thousand restaurants. Apart from a handful of haute cuisine establishments, $2.13 is considered standard payment. Patrons who leave a tip on a credit card may be in fact handing that tip over to management. Tips are no longer given out in cash at the end of a shift but are now added onto the server's weekly paycheck. It's up to management whether or not the server receives all of the tips she earned. Furthermore, in many restaurants a server is expected to share her tips with those who cook and those who bus tables. Many tourists visiting New Orleans are unaware of the urgent need for generous tipping, especially those from countries where the gratuity is included in the bill. That was my first point. My second point is with regard to Dr. Wolff's occasional examples in which he uses Walmart greeters. Walmart discontinued that position sometime ago. I guess retirees, such as myself, can just starve. Social Darwinism is on the march.
See the Canadian anthropologist, Wade Davis', The Wayfinders, for a further demolition of the narrow pecuniary ideology of incentives. Esteem is a much stronger incentive than money or material rewards. It always has been.
Thank you Professor Wolff. Thorstein Veblen offers his thoughts in his book "Theory of the Lesiure Class". What Do you think his theory says about the relationship between Capitalism, Social class structure, and the family unit?
Depends on what you mean by democracy... In the case of actual capitalism, democracy exists when the consumer spends his money and is most effective in a free market where the price is determined by the supply of what has been produced, and the for it demand. In government, democracy is the tyranny of the majority...which can take what it wants from anyone.
@@jgalt308 Lol, I dare you, challenge me. Na, you won´t, you rather repeat Eliza Rosenbaum´s/"Ayn Rand"´s BS that she wrote after reading Schopenhauer (without understanding even 10% of Schopenhauer)...
It has been challenged...but instead of a label it cannot comprehend...it drops names, instead of an argument that explains why the simple statements made are not true. I guess ..."Depends on what you mean by democracy..." is also beyond its comprehension. and the mindless babbling will probably continue...
25:30 “… to finally take us beyond the capitalist system. Everything here is premise of following idea… the human race can do better than capitalism… It is not the end; it is not the perpetual; it is not the always has been… It is none of those things… and it is desperately trying to hold on to get people to believe all of that… and it isn’t working.”
I've huge respect and admiration for Professor Wolff and have learned much from him. That said, I've just one disagreement here. Professor Wolff asserts that capitalism has no slavery. But doesn't prison labor count as slavery?! We have prisoners risking their lives putting out forest fires for mere pennies per hour. We have prisoners working for large corporations without compensation. How does that not count as slavery?
1:35:50 - 1:43:13 I'm not so sure if I agree with his take on this topic. Can the Marxist analysis truly be applied to the household formation? I can see some parallels between the function of a household and the function of an economy but I'm doubtful that the two can truly be compared. Beyond that I think the culture of which the household is ingrained gives merit to the validity of feminism. The claims and gripes of feminism only have legitimacy in some cultures, in others they are baseless.
Please explain the impact of The General Theory to develop the theory of Relativity and The Ahimsa or Non.violence theory of Mahatma Gandhi for social struggle as an effective tool, will influence the future Marxists and future human society of this planet?
The way civilizations work there will always be leaders and followers. Is then the best civilization not just one in which the leader shares benefits with the workers? Should profit be shared equally or on the basis of level of risk/production? How would Marx answer this?
As the Marxist has demonstrated, their leadership produces ever diminishing benefits, which were expropriated from those who can actually produce them, leading to the starvation of the workers until they rebel and get rid of them.
If you click on the "transcript" function, it appears in the "chat window"... and essentially useless. This is not provided here...and actual "transcripts" are NOT convenient for Wolff's purpose.
For the vast majority of history, those in power always manipulated us into submission. most often with sticks or some invisible carrot. If you got stuck on an island, would you prefer a pouch of gold or one of potatoes? What is "value"?
Both are commodities and one can be exchanged for the other depending on circumstance. It is the circumstance which determines the relative value of any commodity. You have created a circumstance which determines the relative value. How about the choice between a sack of potatoes and fishing equipment? Or the value of the world's best boat builder who demands that pouch of gold? Isn't real economics fun??????
@@jgalt308 Value, commercial value is fictitious and wealth is addictive. Potatoes (and fish) are real. What are you going to do when commercial fishing is not worth it anymore? Or when you can't grow potatoes on your land anymore? Economics today might be fun for some, but it's also generating destruction. How much is worth a planet with complex life forms on it? Economics used to mean good management of the suff in the home. We lost the good management part because wealth is addictive. (summarized) “Wealth is addictive, the rich will eventually destroy society” - Socrates
@@jgalt308 Why would I like your answers? Economy is NOT a science. It is indefensible. A meteorologist does not have to worry that the weather may change it's ways because he or she has made a particular prediction. Whereas in social sciences, whether is sociology, economics, whatever. The phenomenon really cares about our theories about the phenomenon. Because, as theories have the capacity to alter our behavior - Yanis Varoufakis
@@a.randomjack6661 They would be your answers...not mine. BTW the faux Nobel, Bank,of Sweden Prize for economic sciences will be announced on Monday. So far your posts are non-responsive...so like Wolff avoidance of meaning is a requirement. And they are simply being examined for consistency. But you refuse to engage. If you want my analysis of the video...posted 2 hours ago...feel free to scroll down as I am sure it's at the bottom. Then you can ask questions, or argue, or whatever.
All people being hosted by social media define capatilism with one single word free market but in reality there is nothing absolute free market as government intervene let's say at emergency situations can we call this as instant a socialism or there a fine line between socialism and capatilism with single word if possible
I think this 'capitalist democracy' will remain in force as long as a sufficiently large and strong middle-class wage-earning population is doing well or at least tolerably well. The wage earners in good employment relationships and in strong positions clearly belong to the middle class with all their lifestyles, and they do, as a rule, want to support the system that supplies them this. People don't care that much about any real democracy. As long as you are doing well or at least better than those who are doing poorly, that is enough for most of as.
Capitalism: a system in which a populace-minority of people get to vote. Democracy: a system in which a populace-majority or people get to vote. Capitalist-Democracy: a system which does NOT, can NOT, & will NOT exist. The entire world is bought, owned, bribed, & controlled by the corrupt, wealthy-class minority & their corrupt RW-politics of enslavement of the working-class majority. The wealthy-class authoritarians will NEVER willingly give up their lifestyle-addictions. They will NEVER willingly seek treatment for their mental-illnesses. They will NEVER stop trying to avoid physical & manual labor. They will NEVER stop trying to enslave working-class people. They will NEVER willingly allow Democracy to exist. They will NEVER allow the working-class majority to vote in any meaningful way. DON'T be fooled -- 'capitalist democracy' is not a real thing -- and STOP trying to fool others.
One will have to understand the classes and there are sub ordinate gradiation too what capitalism have developed,lower middle class,higher middle, average middle class and middle class is lot of capitalism
In 2021 Xi gave a speech at the Central Economic Work Conference attacking welfarism and pledging China would not opt for a model that would “uplift a group of lazy people who gain without working,” with explicit derogatory references to South American “populism.” This type of language might as well be coming from a right-wing fundamentalist in the US.
I agree with your sentiment (even if you don't agree with my following sentiments). The Chinese have allowed a wealthy-class to flourish in China; wealthy-class politics are RW-politics; Xi is now a member of the wealthy-class, and, thus (as far as I'm concerned) he IS a RWer. The next world-war won't be between Capitalism & Socialism, like the wealthy-class wants the working-class to believe. The next world-war will be over the same thing as the previous two world-wars: the wealthy-class authoritarians and their corrupt RW-political-systems of Capitalism, Corporatism, & Fascism.
Many years ago I learned about the history of imperialism and its impact on both India and China reading the works of Marxist economist and historian Ernest Mandel. At the time I was reading his writing, he was controversial because he was also known as a Trotskyite, but then I considered that Trotsky would have been a better leader for the Soviet Union than Stalin was.
Marx believed that the transition from capitalism to socialism or communism could be through a an intermediary state economy. Then the state will finely despair afterward... Isn't it?
It's easy to criticize "capitalism", esp. given the distortions and cronyism and central bank nonsense, and Marxists do a great job at criticizing. But what Marxists fail at is providing an alternative. As a non-Marxist I can both criticize and provide an alternative, ie, a market based system without central bank shenanigans and the corporate cronyism. What we need is not more of the unbalanced criticism of capitalism, but tell us how Marxism can be a practical alternative. Explain how Marxism will work in everyday life, from the local street vendor, shop keeper, to the big companies. How do profits get distributed? Who takes the risks? How are decisions made? Do prices play a role as a market signal? If not, then what? I'm surprised to learn that China's model is actually "Marxism." I always thought it was "capitalism", but with Chinese socialized characteristics. Now, if China is what Marxism is, then I don't see a whole lot of difference between so-called capitalism and Marxism, except that Western capitalism is completely corrupted at this stage. Something else that Marxists often leave out is that Marxism is not just an economic model, but philosophical IDEOLOGY. It speaks to not just the realm of economics, but life itself. But what if you don't agree with its philosophical dogma in regards to life and the nature of reality?
In continuation to what I said that capitalism is not bad if USA has not politically waged wars in other countries through whatever means in other words capitalism can't be assessed in absolute economic perspective but there a political dimension which unstabilize the capatialisim
Thank you, Dr. Wolff. First of all, let me start by apologizing for the comment essay…. At my previous job as a foreman for a construction company in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, I would frequently complain to my crew about how sick I was living in a society where I have two options: to take advantage of other people, or to be taken advantage of - and of course that’s only one option to a moral person (the latter, to be clear). And being given a shovel by a corporation, told to shovel money into somebody else’s bank account, from which I was allowed to collect some of the coins that fell off the side of the shovel for my effort, and told to be thankful for being given the shovel and the opportunity to do the shoveling. For example: my company won a contract with the county of Montgomery in the state of Maryland. One of the company’s tasks in this contract was to maintain certain stormwater management facilities for the county. These facilities consisted basically of sand traps underlain by gravel and perforated pipes, which allows storm water to seep into the ground slowly and lessen the destruction caused by all the impervious surfaces we’ve been slathering over the land like mayonnaise. This maintenance consisted of first using a weed whacker with a metal blade to remove any weeds that had grown in the sand, then using a garden tiller to turn over the sand. This operation usually took one person about 30 to 45 minutes to complete, for a sand trap about the size of an average living room. We sent a team of two or three to make it just a little quicker. Our company was sometimes paid up to $1200 for each of these sand traps. Some of the smaller ones were more like 10ft x 10ft and for those the company got paid more like $500. The larger ones could be something like 40‘ x 20‘. I would tell my crew, “Doesn’t it seem funny that our company gets paid $1200 for an operation for which we get paid perhaps $13-$20?” ($20 for some of the higher paid workers for 45 minutes - not including drive time so I am cheating a little bit on the MASSIVE overhead our company paid for the operation.) I would ask them, “What’s stopping me from bidding on this contract to do the work in 45 minutes for $300? That would be ample compensation for a single person to do such a simple job that requires an old pick up truck, a garden tiller and a weed whacker, and save taxes to boot.” (And we were the only crew performing the task for the company, so the benefit of company scale is not taken into account here.) I would muse that, surely this contract would easily be lost to a bid like that. Unfortunately, I know what’s stopping me: I don’t know anybody in the government in Montgomery County. And frankly, it seems absurd to me that our company won the bid for this contract at such ridiculous prices, anyway - I mean surely some other nepotist was less greedy… ? Anyway…. Such rapine of our tax money, such blatant corporate welfare is sickening. I didn’t have such a hard time convincing the mainly Trump voters that I worked with - and many of them immigrants mostly from El Salvador (though, for certain the support for Trump among the Salvadorians was not as prevalent, but was there) that socialism isn’t such a bad idea (so long as I didn’t tell them it was socialism I was describing). But they all thought for sure the Democrats were much, much worse than the Republicans - I mean with all the baby murdering, who could blame them - and no way in hell would they ever vote for a socialist, no, sir. That has been nearly 10 years past now and nothing has changed, and I’m willing to bet things have gotten worse in that particular arena. Another favorite tactic of the -male- higher-ups in the company I worked for, was to start their own companies to contract with our construction company - with access to government funds. Companies that do things like clear trees to make paths for our access to streams and such, which, of course the company I actually worked for does anyway - I did it myself. And since our company had requirements to contract with minority owned, and women owned businesses, mandated by the state, they would simply put those businesses in their wives’ names - which I’m sure is exactly the spirit in which the mandate was intended (no sarcasm intended) - though, the wives typically had nothing to do with the day-to-day operations of those companies and probably had their own jobs. The president of our company would often buy our heavy equipment himself and rent it to the company, clamping his teeth firmly on the, “rancid teat of the government“ (to quote an illustrious Republican candidate, who thankfully recently lost because of his propensity for spouting Nazi-love on porn sites). I of course ran my crews as democratically as possible, which made me very much a non-favorite to the president of the company, which is why I no longer work there as I could never get raises - no matter how high our production standard was. I walked off the job when one of our laborers accidentally let slip how much he was being paid and it was more than I was being paid! Not that he didn’t deserve it, it’s just that our companies in America have a nasty habit of greasing squeaky wheels instead of greasing the wheels that work. So the “meritocracy“ we are so ardently propagandized about mainly values whining, pompous grandstanding, scapegoating, and sociopathy. Verrrry meritorious things to be sure, but I thought production and good old-fashioned hard work was the point. Silly me! Lolllllll Unfortunately, Dr. Wolff, the right-most (that is, wrong-most) elements of our society, rich (for greed’s sake) and poor (for the sake of ignorance and greed for dreamed-of wealth) are impervious to logic and reason. They only respond to flimflammery, silk handkerchiefs and doves popping out of sleeves (well, that’s the option our politicians with moral integrity have open to them), lies, coercion, bad faith entreaties, fear-mongering, hate-mongering, rage porn, and being beaten by sticks (which our politicians with moral integrity are loath to engage in). So what are we to do? Most of the left-wing media outlets I can find mostly say that political violence is the recourse of inferiors (and given the age-old tradition of the rich and powerful being talked out of their money and influence, I TOTALLY understand why they say such things), but I am a bit more impatient. I fear when our society collapses, all those rich and powerful parasite-barons are going to fuck-off to another country with our resources and leave us, sat here in the ruins before we can achieve that goal with talk. Unless the next Democratic nominees are Penn and Teller (who, I believe, thankfully, are no longer libertarian) or the Amazing Randy (Sagan willing, he’s still alive) - i.e. charismatic, trustworthy flimflammers (or perhaps they should run a monster truck as a nominee), I think our chances for getting out of this without a lot of bloodshed - to be avoided for sure - are slim. And forgive me, I can’t say I wouldn’t be at least a little delighted to see billionaire necks in nooses - oh metaphorically speaking, of course. Thank you for all that you do. [And now, since I dictated this, I’m going to have to have to spend the next hour correcting the incorrect capitalization and punctuation. I love how Apple apparently doesn’t have to do any beta testing. Or maybe their beta testers never read Strunk and White.] P.S.: I may leave the same comment on a more recent video as well. So, sorry if you have to read it twice.
That old crap? 😂 What has come since. Before you say what the USSR had was Communism let me tell you the most important thing in Communism is worker owned work places.
@@vivalaleta Communism and socialism came after capitalism. They are disastrous as their own systems. They can be used to temper capitalism, but it is still the only way to drive economic progress.
Richard, do you know what is happening at the end of socialism/communism in the Soviet Union, Warshava block, Yugoslavia? China is more capitalist then USA but with one strong political party, unfortunately educated professor don't understand economy on high scale. I know more about socialism/communism than YUO, and also about nationalism and so-called democracy. Karl Marx never worked a day in his life, but he got a prosperous marriage and Engels a paying sympathizer. My genie is Nikola Tesla, not Karl Marx or Darwin.
Could you please have a student that can speak a bit better English. It is not possible for me to listen to him although I would very much Licht lo listen to Mr Wolf I have to skip this.
Here we go again. Another weekly anti-capitalism video by The Nutty Professor. The DOW hit a record high this week and everyone with a 401k is loving the PROFIT they have earned through capitalism including The Nutty Professor. Don't let Wolff fool you. He takes every cent of PROFIT he earns in the market from HIS pension and other retirement accounts. Wolff talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk.
These people don't speak English. They're just convinced that they do. This is Indianish. Every bloody word is mispronounced. While it might work great as lingua franca in India, anywhere else it's just pointless, and painful to listen to. Let's not do this again...
Why should Indians care about the authentic pronunciation of this bloody language? English is foreign to Indians. In fact, the Westerners should be grateful that Indians always happily take the trouble of speaking in your language while interacting with you people, which Indians certainly shouldn't. Sometimes, you speak in hindi and let us have the opportunity to judge your pronunciation. India is home to more than 100 languages. Some of them stand out as the most beautiful languages in the world. So, Indians don't need English. It's the colonial hangover that some people are yet to get rid of. Also, imperialism of the English language has added to this burden in recent times. Otherwise, most of the Indians hate English. It's equally painful for us to speak in this bloody language, leaving our own languages. Still, what we say you are able to understand. But I'm certain that if you try to speak in our language, that will sound horrible. Come out of the illusion of superiority. From now on, think twice before putting forward such an illogical argument.
I'm a life-long English speaker & I understand them just fine. Your inability in this realm is a "you" problem. And whether your problem was previously-imposed by others or continually-selected by yourself, your comment isn't the flex that you think it is. Congratulations... 🥳 ...you're a moron, just like the wealthy-class masters designed you to be with their corrupt RW-politics. 😒 You LITERALLY don't have to watch. You LITERALLY didn't NEED to comment. You LITERALLY could have kept you ineptness & ignorance to yourself. But you, like so many other working-class dupes, have been brainwashed into thinking that your ignorance is a badge-of-honor to be proudly displayed in public. And the brainwashing, coupled with your ignorance, brought you to think that your comment was worth posting in public. The corrupt, wealthy-class authoritarians LOVE working-class dupes like you, because your ignorance is how they maintain their authoritarian RW-politics of enslavement over the working-class. Again, congratulations. 🙄
Instead of pie in the sky ideas. We should discuss proposal that introduce change like campaign finance reform. And stronger regulation of corporations. Or nationalization of certain services
It would take a revolution by the mass population of any capitalist country to rise up and call for a general strike until those demands are met. In the world today where the entire Collective West has been captured by Neoliberalism with it's side effects of racism, hyper individualism, zero sum gain mentality, and consumerism. Also with the rise of Right Wing Fundamentalism, it would be very difficult to move in that direction.
Your rhetoric in the first sentence makes it seem as though you believe that socialist-ideas are "pie in the sky" ideas. But then you say we should do three things that are much more in line with the ideas of socialists. You've made it seem like your understanding of "pie in the sky" ideas have been misguided by "cranium in the rectum". Socialists would vote for campaign finance reform, regulation of corporations, AND nationalization of certain services. Those three things may not be the end-goal of socialists, but any reasonable, logical, and competent socialist would vote for those things. Maybe you didn't do a good job of writing what you meant. Or maybe I misunderstood.
@@robertfelts8773 I just can't vote for her. She's a grifter like Trump. She's taken downward the former Green Party, she' destroyed the Green Party. She's a narcist and needs to leave that party. She only shows up during when an election comes around.
For those that want to expand your mind, rather than listen to the same mantra without question, research various schools of thought.... ua-cam.com/video/17krz_X883I/v-deo.htmlsi=MzHAW4pPUY4rUEma
professor we need you more then ever
Why?
@@jgalt308 troll
@@jgalt308Because he is able and willing to identify, adress and challange the main causes for our global crisis today.
Dr wolf had a unique lucid style of presenting modern Marxists theory. Thanks for this noble cause. I appreciate his noble task of his knowledge of socialism.
I agree
So, can you give us a summary and the definitions of the "economic systems" you now understand?
But you'll never hear him discuss how China on the eve of Mao's 125th birthday in 2018 disbanded Marxist study groups and labor activist organizations on university campuses and rounded up their leaders.
@@jgalt308 troll
Brave and Brilliant economist Dr Wolff 👏
Having not formally studied economics, my understanding of this is a testament to Dr. Wolff's power to teach. Thank you!
So, what do you think you have been taught?
@@jgalt308 your name sucks
You should actually study economics then instead of listening to this buffoon
@@jgalt308 troll
I love wolf so much that I automatically subscribe to any channel that features wolf
@@Bewell200 🐺🦾
In Yugoslavia (which nobody ever mentions for some reason) we had state capitalism as an economic system (with some participation of the workers in decision making that we called self management) but in political and social sphere we had socialism. But we were blinded by the colorful toys in the window shops and we wanted more so we lost what we had. Serves us right.
Yugoslavia is a Great Mistery :) isn't it?
I am one of few lucky who knew it, and still know the feeling being a part of Yugoslavia. What a place that was!
:)
Wolff & Hudson educating youth before they pass for them to carry on the work. Question Everything.
Including them...that is very inconvenient for Wolff...and a little less so
for Hudson...but still inconvenient when it gets to the destruction of
capitalism post WWII.
They didn't educate you...and the only thing the youth are being educated to question
is their obvious sexual identity. As for your advice, you should begin by grasping the meaning
of the concept of "everything."
Yes. Hudson and Wolff are both very intelligent and interesting that they elevate any conversation.
And yet their understanding of history and economics is diametrically opposed,
as well as the definitions of "capitalism" and "marxism".
@@jgalt308 troll
I'm not sure where Professor Wolff gets the energy to do so much public education. I'm happy he's doing it, though.
Honesty & healthy philosophy gives collective wisdom & energy to unite :)
Funny his energy doesn't seem to extend to reading the comments here,
or answering the questions that have been repeated over and over for as long
as he has been doing this.
Do not confuse education with propaganda and indoctrination.
He is a professor, a lecturer. He just need a sip of water now and then and occasional bite, he can lecture for four hours, detour and not loose the thread.
A skilled good high school teacher can do the same. It's practice of telling a long story every teacher has to master.
I hope he’s developing his protege
Professor Richard is humble and on point with his analysis as always. I always look forward to his 2 hrs+ lectures because he can tell one story over in a different way but his use of different perspectives and words always reinforces his delivery of the same points. He gets even more mellow with time and encourages us to accept our small period of existence in the wide expanse of time... It all boils down to a shared hope.....
The only thing he manages to accomplish every week, is that he has
no clue what any of the words mean, proving that you don't either.
Ask yourself, am I better off financially after listening to Prof Wolff?
Great job prof! We need this type of serious marxist economic analysis. Now more than ever!
There is no such thing as "serious marxist analysis"...nor is it present here.
Haha. The only analysis that has the potential to be serious is a marxist one.
@@rubennordberg8133wrong. Marxism is to economics as flat Earth is to astronomy
@@jgalt308 Haha. The only analyses that has the potantial to be serious is a marxist one. The only people to be taken seriously are people who understand this.
@@jgalt308 troll
Mr. W😊lf & Mike Hudson combo my favorite
+1 ❤
Deeply informative and fascinating discussion. Thank you Professors Wolff and Azhar, Tathagat Singh.
So, what do you think you have been "informed" about?
@@jgalt308 troll
Thanks!
The analysis provided in here is inspiring to the left movement in the world
Yes, things would implove if the left, left.
I hear China has more than enough housing for you.
I love the length and depth of this conversation
Learning never stops until I die.
Re: 55.01: Dr. Wolff, I listen to you and Dr. Fraad at every opportunity. What Dr. Fraud pointed out and I wish you would also mention is that the federal minimum wage is for restaurant servers is just $2.13/hour. New. Orleans, for example, supports about a thousand restaurants. Apart from a handful of haute cuisine establishments, $2.13 is considered standard payment. Patrons who leave a tip on a credit card may be in fact handing that tip over to management. Tips are no longer given out in cash at the end of a shift but are now added onto the server's weekly paycheck. It's up to management whether or not the server receives all of the tips she earned. Furthermore, in many restaurants a server is expected to share her tips with those who cook and those who bus tables. Many tourists visiting New Orleans are unaware of the urgent need for generous tipping, especially those from countries where the gratuity is included in the bill. That was my first point. My second point is with regard to Dr. Wolff's occasional examples in which he uses Walmart greeters. Walmart discontinued that position sometime ago. I guess retirees, such as myself, can just starve. Social Darwinism is on the march.
Great intro.
Enjoyed listening and learning from. This .
great vid. this is progress
Mr Richard thank you for being a good teacher and always be wild to talk to young people thank you
Wonderful.
Riveting discussion. Bravo
We love you Dr Wolff.
Thank you for your teaching
Thank you please never stop teaching us
See the Canadian anthropologist, Wade Davis', The Wayfinders, for a further demolition of the narrow pecuniary ideology of incentives. Esteem is a much stronger incentive than money or material rewards. It always has been.
1:05:42 Woahhhh! Mind blown!
thank you all
I live you all and I learned alot
Did it put food on the table? Will it?
I live you all?
You mean? - I love you all, and I learnt/learned a lot.
@@stuartwray6175 yes I think I typed fast , are you Mr Critic ?
@@jgalt308 troll
@@jgalt308you are the ones who took the food away. Grow up, go to school, listen ...
For sure
Thank you Professor Wolff. Thorstein Veblen offers his thoughts in his book "Theory of the Lesiure Class". What Do you think his theory says about the relationship between Capitalism, Social class structure, and the family unit?
You mean where your children will turn you in for your "thought crimes"
or your neighbors?
@@jgalt308 troll
That's just Trumpism!
Well said Amen
Wolff Gang gang ganggg in the house!
"Capitalism fosters democracy" is perhaps the most toxic -- and widespread -- lie in political economy.
Depends on what you mean by democracy...
In the case of actual capitalism, democracy exists when the consumer spends his money
and is most effective in a free market where the price is determined by the supply of
what has been produced, and the for it demand.
In government, democracy is the tyranny of the majority...which can take what it wants
from anyone.
@@jgalt308 Lol, another "John Galt" repeating neoliberal talking points.
Another intellectually challenged ????????? attempts to use a label as an argument,
proving it doesn't know what those words mean either.
@@jgalt308 Lol, I dare you, challenge me. Na, you won´t, you rather repeat Eliza Rosenbaum´s/"Ayn Rand"´s BS that she wrote after reading Schopenhauer (without understanding even 10% of Schopenhauer)...
It has been challenged...but instead of a label it cannot comprehend...it drops names,
instead of an argument that explains why the simple statements made are not true.
I guess ..."Depends on what you mean by democracy..." is also beyond its comprehension.
and the mindless babbling will probably continue...
❤❤❤❤❤
25:30 “… to finally take us beyond the capitalist system. Everything here is premise of following idea… the human race can do better than capitalism… It is not the end; it is not the perpetual; it is not the always has been… It is none of those things… and it is desperately trying to hold on to get people to believe all of that… and it isn’t working.”
❤
I've huge respect and admiration for Professor Wolff and have learned much from him. That said, I've just one disagreement here. Professor Wolff asserts that capitalism has no slavery. But doesn't prison labor count as slavery?! We have prisoners risking their lives putting out forest fires for mere pennies per hour. We have prisoners working for large corporations without compensation. How does that not count as slavery?
They have harmed others which costs them their freedom and rights.
Capitalism will die, but not before the dollar has lost all it's value. Expect higher inflation looking forward. Go for gold and other real assets
✊🏾✌🏾
My dad told me don't accept a "title" instead of the monetary increase.
1:35:50 - 1:43:13
I'm not so sure if I agree with his take on this topic. Can the Marxist analysis truly be applied to the household formation? I can see some parallels between the function of a household and the function of an economy but I'm doubtful that the two can truly be compared. Beyond that
I think the culture of which the household is ingrained gives merit to the validity of feminism. The claims and gripes of feminism only have legitimacy in some cultures, in others they are baseless.
Professor
Please mention that states have much higher min wages
👍👍👍👍
Please explain the impact of The General Theory to develop the theory of Relativity and The Ahimsa or Non.violence theory of Mahatma Gandhi for social struggle as an effective tool, will influence the future Marxists and future human society of this planet?
The way civilizations work there will always be leaders and followers.
Is then the best civilization not just one in which the leader shares benefits with the workers?
Should profit be shared equally or on the basis of level of risk/production? How would Marx answer this?
The benevolent leader of a leading civilisation?
As the Marxist has demonstrated, their leadership produces ever diminishing benefits,
which were expropriated from those who can actually produce them, leading to
the starvation of the workers until they rebel and get rid of them.
Work with V J Prashad within this program.
Where is the transcript of this video??
If you click on the "transcript" function, it appears in the "chat window"...
and essentially useless. This is not provided here...and actual "transcripts"
are NOT convenient for Wolff's purpose.
@@jgalt308 troll
🧠💯🙌👍👍,
For the vast majority of history, those in power always manipulated us into submission. most often with sticks or some invisible carrot.
If you got stuck on an island, would you prefer a pouch of gold or one of potatoes? What is "value"?
Both are commodities and one can be exchanged for the other
depending on circumstance.
It is the circumstance which determines the relative value of any commodity.
You have created a circumstance which determines the relative value.
How about the choice between a sack of potatoes and fishing equipment?
Or the value of the world's best boat builder who demands that pouch of gold?
Isn't real economics fun??????
@@jgalt308 Value, commercial value is fictitious and wealth is addictive.
Potatoes (and fish) are real.
What are you going to do when commercial fishing is not worth it anymore? Or when you can't grow potatoes on your land anymore?
Economics today might be fun for some, but it's also generating destruction.
How much is worth a planet with complex life forms on it?
Economics used to mean good management of the suff in the home. We lost the good management part because wealth is addictive.
(summarized) “Wealth is addictive, the rich will eventually destroy society” - Socrates
@@a.randomjack6661 In what medium is "wealth" measured?
You don't really like to answer questions do you?
@@jgalt308 Why would I like your answers? Economy is NOT a science. It is indefensible.
A meteorologist does not have to worry that the weather may change it's ways because he or she has made a particular prediction.
Whereas in social sciences, whether is sociology, economics, whatever.
The phenomenon really cares about our theories about the phenomenon.
Because, as theories have the capacity to alter our behavior - Yanis Varoufakis
@@a.randomjack6661 They would be your answers...not mine.
BTW the faux Nobel, Bank,of Sweden Prize for economic sciences will be announced on Monday.
So far your posts are non-responsive...so like Wolff avoidance of meaning is a requirement.
And they are simply being examined for consistency. But you refuse to engage.
If you want my analysis of the video...posted 2 hours ago...feel free to scroll down as I am
sure it's at the bottom. Then you can ask questions, or argue, or whatever.
All people being hosted by social media define capatilism with one single word free market but in reality there is nothing absolute free market as government intervene let's say at emergency situations can we call this as instant a socialism or there a fine line between socialism and capatilism with single word if possible
I think this 'capitalist democracy' will remain in force as long as a sufficiently large and strong middle-class wage-earning population is doing well or at least tolerably well. The wage earners in good employment relationships and in strong positions clearly belong to the middle class with all their lifestyles, and they do, as a rule, want to support the system that supplies them this. People don't care that much about any real democracy. As long as you are doing well or at least better than those who are doing poorly, that is enough for most of as.
Capitalism: a system in which a populace-minority of people get to vote.
Democracy: a system in which a populace-majority or people get to vote.
Capitalist-Democracy: a system which does NOT, can NOT, & will NOT exist.
The entire world is bought, owned, bribed, & controlled by the corrupt, wealthy-class minority & their corrupt RW-politics of enslavement of the working-class majority.
The wealthy-class authoritarians will NEVER willingly give up their lifestyle-addictions.
They will NEVER willingly seek treatment for their mental-illnesses.
They will NEVER stop trying to avoid physical & manual labor.
They will NEVER stop trying to enslave working-class people.
They will NEVER willingly allow Democracy to exist.
They will NEVER allow the working-class majority to vote in any meaningful way.
DON'T be fooled -- 'capitalist democracy' is not a real thing -- and STOP trying to fool others.
Interesting how these guys complain about socialism (while incorrectly saying it's capitalism or freedom) and propose socialism as the solution
Best show on economy next to Sachs, Michael Hudson, Lena Petrovia
One will have to understand the classes and there are sub ordinate gradiation too what capitalism have developed,lower middle class,higher middle, average middle class and middle class is lot of capitalism
Nope, in Wolff's world there are only two classes, employers and employees...
so the odds are 97 to 3. Now, do better!!!!
that is true to listen that and you find out we live oposite of demokracy and that system must crash for people
In 2021 Xi gave a speech at the Central Economic Work Conference attacking welfarism and pledging China would not opt for a model that would “uplift a group of lazy people who gain without working,” with explicit derogatory references to South American “populism.” This type of language might as well be coming from a right-wing fundamentalist in the US.
I agree with your sentiment (even if you don't agree with my following sentiments). The Chinese have allowed a wealthy-class to flourish in China; wealthy-class politics are RW-politics; Xi is now a member of the wealthy-class, and, thus (as far as I'm concerned) he IS a RWer.
The next world-war won't be between Capitalism & Socialism, like the wealthy-class wants the working-class to believe. The next world-war will be over the same thing as the previous two world-wars: the wealthy-class authoritarians and their corrupt RW-political-systems of Capitalism, Corporatism, & Fascism.
Many years ago I learned about the history of imperialism and its impact on both India and China reading the works of Marxist economist and historian Ernest Mandel. At the time I was reading his writing, he was controversial because he was also known as a Trotskyite, but then I considered that Trotsky would have been a better leader for the Soviet Union than Stalin was.
I recommend his books, if they are still available.
Ernest Mandel was forbidden entry to the US by Richard Nixon from lecturing on campuses in the US
Prof ,is there anything good about capitalism and what options do you offer?
He's a Marxist and so am I. Go look up his speeches on it.
He's a Marxist. Go look up his speeches on it.
Wolff is a Marxist. Look up his talks about it.
Why is UA-cam erasing my comments about Marxism???
@@vivalaleta because it's owned by Capitalists ? ¯ \_(ツ)_/¯
What if we had a bar that no one fell below and then, with that, capitalism ?
Does not deal with "greed", so no different from now.
True true also imperialism they are slicks
How much support did the French Revolution lend to anticolonial struggle in Africa Asia Caribbean, South America Central America and Pacific Islands ?
So did they create the democrats as a buffer?
Marx believed that the transition from capitalism to socialism or communism could be through a an intermediary state economy. Then the state will finely despair afterward... Isn't it?
With that accent
You should not be
Mediator 😍 take it as a gift of your
Life... with thanks
& Respect specially 16 billion ears on🌏.
the US empire following the british empire. there it is. hard to see it another way.
If Marxism was so egalitarian, why did everyone fear expulsion from the party so much? 🤷🏼♂️
Which party?
Seriously tho,,
Central Banker REVEALS The True Economic Power of Russia | Prof. Dejan Šoškić
It's easy to criticize "capitalism", esp. given the distortions and cronyism and central bank nonsense, and Marxists do a great job at criticizing. But what Marxists fail at is providing an alternative. As a non-Marxist I can both criticize and provide an alternative, ie, a market based system without central bank shenanigans and the corporate cronyism.
What we need is not more of the unbalanced criticism of capitalism, but tell us how Marxism can be a practical alternative. Explain how Marxism will work in everyday life, from the local street vendor, shop keeper, to the big companies. How do profits get distributed? Who takes the risks? How are decisions made? Do prices play a role as a market signal? If not, then what?
I'm surprised to learn that China's model is actually "Marxism." I always thought it was "capitalism", but with Chinese socialized characteristics. Now, if China is what Marxism is, then I don't see a whole lot of difference between so-called capitalism and Marxism, except that Western capitalism is completely corrupted at this stage.
Something else that Marxists often leave out is that Marxism is not just an economic model, but philosophical IDEOLOGY. It speaks to not just the realm of economics, but life itself. But what if you don't agree with its philosophical dogma in regards to life and the nature of reality?
In continuation to what I said that capitalism is not bad if USA has not politically waged wars in other countries through whatever means in other words capitalism can't be assessed in absolute economic perspective but there a political dimension which unstabilize the capatialisim
Say it professor Wolff .. a one world 🌎 government .. say it ....!!!!!
A designed game of Robbery in fancy façade😂
Yep. The 3 tacks comment was just scrubbed
Yellow Vest comments get scrubbed from this channel.
2 so far on this thread
Thank you, Dr. Wolff. First of all, let me start by apologizing for the comment essay…. At my previous job as a foreman for a construction company in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, I would frequently complain to my crew about how sick I was living in a society where I have two options: to take advantage of other people, or to be taken advantage of - and of course that’s only one option to a moral person (the latter, to be clear). And being given a shovel by a corporation, told to shovel money into somebody else’s bank account, from which I was allowed to collect some of the coins that fell off the side of the shovel for my effort, and told to be thankful for being given the shovel and the opportunity to do the shoveling. For example: my company won a contract with the county of Montgomery in the state of Maryland. One of the company’s tasks in this contract was to maintain certain stormwater management facilities for the county. These facilities consisted basically of sand traps underlain by gravel and perforated pipes, which allows storm water to seep into the ground slowly and lessen the destruction caused by all the impervious surfaces we’ve been slathering over the land like mayonnaise. This maintenance consisted of first using a weed whacker with a metal blade to remove any weeds that had grown in the sand, then using a garden tiller to turn over the sand. This operation usually took one person about 30 to 45 minutes to complete, for a sand trap about the size of an average living room. We sent a team of two or three to make it just a little quicker. Our company was sometimes paid up to $1200 for each of these sand traps. Some of the smaller ones were more like 10ft x 10ft and for those the company got paid more like $500. The larger ones could be something like 40‘ x 20‘. I would tell my crew, “Doesn’t it seem funny that our company gets paid $1200 for an operation for which we get paid perhaps $13-$20?” ($20 for some of the higher paid workers for 45 minutes - not including drive time so I am cheating a little bit on the MASSIVE overhead our company paid for the operation.) I would ask them, “What’s stopping me from bidding on this contract to do the work in 45 minutes for $300? That would be ample compensation for a single person to do such a simple job that requires an old pick up truck, a garden tiller and a weed whacker, and save taxes to boot.” (And we were the only crew performing the task for the company, so the benefit of company scale is not taken into account here.) I would muse that, surely this contract would easily be lost to a bid like that. Unfortunately, I know what’s stopping me: I don’t know anybody in the government in Montgomery County. And frankly, it seems absurd to me that our company won the bid for this contract at such ridiculous prices, anyway - I mean surely some other nepotist was less greedy… ? Anyway…. Such rapine of our tax money, such blatant corporate welfare is sickening. I didn’t have such a hard time convincing the mainly Trump voters that I worked with - and many of them immigrants mostly from El Salvador (though, for certain the support for Trump among the Salvadorians was not as prevalent, but was there) that socialism isn’t such a bad idea (so long as I didn’t tell them it was socialism I was describing). But they all thought for sure the Democrats were much, much worse than the Republicans - I mean with all the baby murdering, who could blame them - and no way in hell would they ever vote for a socialist, no, sir. That has been nearly 10 years past now and nothing has changed, and I’m willing to bet things have gotten worse in that particular arena.
Another favorite tactic of the -male- higher-ups in the company I worked for, was to start their own companies to contract with our construction company - with access to government funds. Companies that do things like clear trees to make paths for our access to streams and such, which, of course the company I actually worked for does anyway - I did it myself. And since our company had requirements to contract with minority owned, and women owned businesses, mandated by the state, they would simply put those businesses in their wives’ names - which I’m sure is exactly the spirit in which the mandate was intended (no sarcasm intended) - though, the wives typically had nothing to do with the day-to-day operations of those companies and probably had their own jobs. The president of our company would often buy our heavy equipment himself and rent it to the company, clamping his teeth firmly on the, “rancid teat of the government“ (to quote an illustrious Republican candidate, who thankfully recently lost because of his propensity for spouting Nazi-love on porn sites).
I of course ran my crews as democratically as possible, which made me very much a non-favorite to the president of the company, which is why I no longer work there as I could never get raises - no matter how high our production standard was. I walked off the job when one of our laborers accidentally let slip how much he was being paid and it was more than I was being paid! Not that he didn’t deserve it, it’s just that our companies in America have a nasty habit of greasing squeaky wheels instead of greasing the wheels that work. So the “meritocracy“ we are so ardently propagandized about mainly values whining, pompous grandstanding, scapegoating, and sociopathy. Verrrry meritorious things to be sure, but I thought production and good old-fashioned hard work was the point. Silly me! Lolllllll
Unfortunately, Dr. Wolff, the right-most (that is, wrong-most) elements of our society, rich (for greed’s sake) and poor (for the sake of ignorance and greed for dreamed-of wealth) are impervious to logic and reason. They only respond to flimflammery, silk handkerchiefs and doves popping out of sleeves (well, that’s the option our politicians with moral integrity have open to them), lies, coercion, bad faith entreaties, fear-mongering, hate-mongering, rage porn, and being beaten by sticks (which our politicians with moral integrity are loath to engage in). So what are we to do? Most of the left-wing media outlets I can find mostly say that political violence is the recourse of inferiors (and given the age-old tradition of the rich and powerful being talked out of their money and influence, I TOTALLY understand why they say such things), but I am a bit more impatient. I fear when our society collapses, all those rich and powerful parasite-barons are going to fuck-off to another country with our resources and leave us, sat here in the ruins before we can achieve that goal with talk. Unless the next Democratic nominees are Penn and Teller (who, I believe, thankfully, are no longer libertarian) or the Amazing Randy (Sagan willing, he’s still alive) - i.e. charismatic, trustworthy flimflammers (or perhaps they should run a monster truck as a nominee), I think our chances for getting out of this without a lot of bloodshed - to be avoided for sure - are slim. And forgive me, I can’t say I wouldn’t be at least a little delighted to see billionaire necks in nooses - oh metaphorically speaking, of course.
Thank you for all that you do.
[And now, since I dictated this, I’m going to have to have to spend the next hour correcting the incorrect capitalization and punctuation. I love how Apple apparently doesn’t have to do any beta testing. Or maybe their beta testers never read Strunk and White.]
P.S.: I may leave the same comment on a more recent video as well. So, sorry if you have to read it twice.
It's just like the construction industry in NZ. Worldwide phenomena?
Capitalism is the worst economic system, unless you compare it to any of the others that have come before or since.
That old crap? 😂
What has come since. Before you say what the USSR had was Communism let me tell you the most important thing in Communism is worker owned work places.
@@vivalaleta Communism and socialism came after capitalism. They are disastrous as their own systems. They can be used to temper capitalism, but it is still the only way to drive economic progress.
@@VampireTuesday Then let's improve them.
@@JoseColomer-e9u Ok. I agree.
@@vivalaleta Start a co-op... why not????? Oh, you commies think you can steal other people's property, right????
Richard, do you know what is happening at the end of socialism/communism in the Soviet Union, Warshava block, Yugoslavia? China is more capitalist then USA but with one strong political party, unfortunately educated professor don't understand economy on high scale. I know more about socialism/communism than YUO, and also about nationalism and so-called democracy. Karl Marx never worked a day in his life, but he got a prosperous marriage and Engels a paying sympathizer. My genie is Nikola Tesla, not Karl Marx or Darwin.
CAPITALISM IS SOCIALISM.
Martin Shirley Wilson Maria Smith Amy
Could you please have a student that can speak a bit better English. It is not possible for me to listen to him although I would very much Licht lo listen to Mr Wolf I have to skip this.
🤮
bunch of careerists!
Here we go again. Another weekly anti-capitalism video by The Nutty Professor. The DOW hit a record high this week and everyone with a 401k is loving the PROFIT they have earned through capitalism including The Nutty Professor. Don't let Wolff fool you. He takes every cent of PROFIT he earns in the market from HIS pension and other retirement accounts. Wolff talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk.
These people don't speak English. They're just convinced that they do.
This is Indianish.
Every bloody word is mispronounced.
While it might work great as lingua franca in India, anywhere else it's just pointless, and painful to listen to.
Let's not do this again...
Why should Indians care about the authentic pronunciation of this bloody language? English is foreign to Indians.
In fact, the Westerners should be grateful that Indians always happily take the trouble of speaking in your language while interacting with you people, which Indians certainly shouldn't.
Sometimes, you speak in hindi and let us have the opportunity to judge your pronunciation.
India is home to more than 100 languages. Some of them stand out as the most beautiful languages in the world. So, Indians don't need English. It's the colonial hangover that some people are yet to get rid of. Also, imperialism of the English language has added to this burden in recent times.
Otherwise, most of the Indians hate English. It's equally painful for us to speak in this bloody language, leaving our own languages. Still, what we say you are able to understand. But I'm certain that if you try to speak in our language, that will sound horrible. Come out of the illusion of superiority.
From now on, think twice before putting forward such an illogical argument.
That is how you should speak English. You Americans mispronounce everything.
I'm a life-long English speaker & I understand them just fine. Your inability in this realm is a "you" problem. And whether your problem was previously-imposed by others or continually-selected by yourself, your comment isn't the flex that you think it is. Congratulations... 🥳
...you're a moron, just like the wealthy-class masters designed you to be with their corrupt RW-politics. 😒
You LITERALLY don't have to watch.
You LITERALLY didn't NEED to comment.
You LITERALLY could have kept you ineptness & ignorance to yourself.
But you, like so many other working-class dupes, have been brainwashed into thinking that your ignorance is a badge-of-honor to be proudly displayed in public.
And the brainwashing, coupled with your ignorance, brought you to think that your comment was worth posting in public.
The corrupt, wealthy-class authoritarians LOVE working-class dupes like you, because your ignorance is how they maintain their authoritarian RW-politics of enslavement over the working-class.
Again, congratulations. 🙄
Sorry couldn't suffer through the introduction
What followed was worse..S.O.S.
Why? Care to explain?
Sounds like a "you" problem.
You probably meant; "wasn't capable of comprehending the English-dialect".
Instead of pie in the sky ideas. We should discuss proposal that introduce change like campaign finance reform. And stronger regulation of corporations. Or nationalization of certain services
They aren’t pie in the sky and it takes the people to expel the idiots in DC
It would take a revolution by the mass population of any capitalist country to rise up and call for a general strike until those demands are met. In the world today where the entire Collective West has been captured by Neoliberalism with it's side effects of racism, hyper individualism, zero sum gain mentality, and consumerism. Also with the rise of Right Wing Fundamentalism, it would be very difficult to move in that direction.
@@bradleyp3655We have to do it
Or maybe the constitutional republic intended and how it was destroyed along with capitalism.
Your rhetoric in the first sentence makes it seem as though you believe that socialist-ideas are "pie in the sky" ideas. But then you say we should do three things that are much more in line with the ideas of socialists. You've made it seem like your understanding of "pie in the sky" ideas have been misguided by "cranium in the rectum".
Socialists would vote for campaign finance reform, regulation of corporations, AND nationalization of certain services. Those three things may not be the end-goal of socialists, but any reasonable, logical, and competent socialist would vote for those things.
Maybe you didn't do a good job of writing what you meant.
Or maybe I misunderstood.
🩵🩵🩵 vote blue everyone
I'll be voting to Jill Stein, the only anti genocide candidate
Blue OR Red will implode the market and economy. There's no escape
@@robertfelts8773Netenyahu, who is currently committing genocide, wants Trump for a reason.
@@robertfelts8773 I just can't vote for her. She's a grifter like Trump. She's taken downward the former Green Party, she' destroyed the Green Party. She's a narcist and needs to leave that party. She only shows up during when an election comes around.
We have morals. Can't vote for massacre funders. 💚
All I hear from that moderator is "herka derka derka"
For those that want to expand your mind, rather than listen to the same mantra without question, research various schools of thought....
ua-cam.com/video/17krz_X883I/v-deo.htmlsi=MzHAW4pPUY4rUEma