You and Noam Chomsky have opened my eyes and mind, and I thank you for it. Some days ago I did not have these thoughts in my mind, but now you have opened doors for me, I have even gone so far to consider go to college and study international studies because I think that is incredibly important, and after that maybe study entrepreneurship and take us of what you have taught me.
@@johnking7008 Marx is great. Sometimes he gets complicated and gets involved in word struggle in his writing as OCD person, repeating same thing, still when u escape that particular paragraph u catch up with him. I always think while reading marx that he was over attentive to things, particularly in capital
this is an important discussion, which must be shared and shared hard to make sure more and more people really get a chance to think this through for themselves. I know that many people have already become aware of all this, but there are millions more who still have no idea. they need us to help point them down the path of questioning everything.
Understood! I agree! There is never any excuse for any of us to forsake our most basic human empathetic responses for personal profit. The key question is this: Who among us reverses this ethic, and who then must be held responsible? Who profits from misery? Should we at least not strongly suppress them? Should we win through more sensible, more rational arguments? Yes! Yes, we should!!!
I like the general idea, but what's missing is how to get capital in the hands of labour -- how to ensure, ceteris paribus, that man gets to enjoy the fruits of his labour. For this, recommended is the stuff by Hilaire Beloc and G.K. Chesteron on "distributism". Generally, it seems we need a new approach to property, based in homesteading and responsible stewardship -- if you don't use it and don't take care of it, it's not yours.
Workers could pool their resources. There is always more work than hours in the day when starting a business, so they could pay themselves a meager wage and work really hard. If they are successful, they'll have a track record to show to a bank, so that they can get a loan or they can convince new employees to come work and invest in their enterprise. They might be able to attract investors and donations.
nonchalantd Yeah, timebanks and stuff seem cool. Where direct trades are unfeasible, helpers could, for example, be paid a percentage share of future profits. It seems that when all the currency which could be creative capital is tied up within the system helping no one (but keeping the central bankers still in a job!) that people need to start getting creative about their trades. Barter got a bad reputation when the bankers where doing a reasonable job, but now the pariahs are in charge, I think people need to start thinking outside of the box. I don't like the crypto currencies as yet (as I understand them, they're no cleaner than CB issue), but I do like the idea of self-issued credit.
Doc, don't ever delete this 2 hour Palo Alto lecture. This is your best for clarity of Rick Wolff ideas, problems and solutions, New Deal, Mondragon Co-ops, hating my job, inequality, blaming Gov instead of CEO's. I show my students this.
blame the money and the 1%. they own all institutions and skew the message the way they want it. most americans are too lazy to research beyond these convenient sound bytes and accept this bs at face value.
If someone deserves a Nobel Prize for contributions made to the public understanding of Economics it would be Richard Wolff. So they give us Milton Friedman who couldn't have found his own butt, if it had a bell on it.
Are you kidding? Does Milton Friedman even compare to this propagandist clown? You know... there is a reason Nobel prizes are given to certain people and not others.
***** My poor man, if you think this is propaganda then you must certainly think pigs fly. Sadly it is the pervasive ignorance of sooooo many people like you that makes it difficult to get anything done democratically in this country. One so quick to attack the person usually lacks the understanding to attack the issue. The information Dr. Wolff shares is not his opinion, its a clear and concise recitation of facts followed by suggestions on how to make life better for everyone, not just a few. Please either take the time to educate yourself on the WHOLE American economic picture and at least offer an intelligent argument to the points Dr. Wolff raises. Or simply shut up. Based on your post I am left to wonder what you did to merit the title of doctor before your name.
John M I am a Dr because I have a PhD, from MIT, in Nuclear Physics. Thanks. But that isn't why I'm right. I can tell a communist propagandist from a mile away, because I'm coming from Eastern Europe. Where have you learned about communism, in NY? Ask someone who has seen communism or socialism. You naive, unthankful American lefties, you enjoy the liberty and prosperity of capitalism, and from its comfort you spit on it. Instead of praising what your country uniquely has achieved, you want to be like the Europeans or the Chinese or the Russians or the Cubans, that screwed their countries so badly that they had to flee and come to the US to live free. It's preposterous for you to tell me to educate myself. I've been there. Where have you been?
***** Thank you for your response. Smelling a "communist from a mile away" is quite the American quote. No I did not learn about communism in New York, I initially learned about communism, Marxism and socialism at California State University in 1995 from an economics professor. My education is in sociology but I have only a masters. I know capitalism quite well, perhaps even better than you if you have not lived it your whole life, but none of this is the point. My point is you level accusations on a person who is providing facts (not supposition) and offers a solution. If you do not agree with the solution then, by all means, argue your point. To go all "McCarthy" on Dr. Wolff is an ad hominem. In scholarly circles it is a logical fallacy, something I would not expect from someone with a PhD even in nuclear physics.
John M What animates the paranoid antigovernment fringe has never had much to do with "economics". This is a demonology with roots that can be traced back to Puritanism. The recurrent motif of valiant moralists waging a desperate battle with a dark conspiracy threatening to feminize and corrupt the real America is typically a rallying cry. Whatever will arouse in group loyalty is recast as part of a moral crusade to screw some other group perceived to represent a competing set of interests. The most common character profiles are the, Obsessive, Hysterical and Narcissistic but these have been seen to overlap in the Authoritarian personality which research indicates has a decidedly right-wing bent. Groups now espousing the roll back of New Deal programs have rarely been able to promote a program that constructively addresses social ills, so these recurrent hysterias have had to depend on attacking the most severely marginalized. At the end of the Weimar era in Germany the most often cited enemy invoked was "a highly organized international conspiracy of Jewish bankers". The public history of political hysteria in the US, remains obsessively focused on an internal enemy and the succession of scapegoats it identifies goes something like this; Catholicism, Witchcraft, race pollution, Communism,and finally "statism". Status anxiety seems to be common to political extremism but the character types mentioned above, can be distinguished by the scapegoat they choose to identify as the "other".
May you be blessed with best of health and inner peace. You are simply GREAT to awaken the masses on a global scale. Fondest love, Mia from Copenhagen, Scandinavia
Richard D. Wolff (born April 1, 1942) is an American heterodox economist, well known for his work on Marxian economics, economic methodology, and class analysis. He is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University in New York. Wolff has also taught economics at Yale University, City University of New York, University of Utah, University of Paris I (Sorbonne), and The Brecht Forum in New York City. In 2010, Wolff published Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It, also released as a DVD. He released three new books in 2012: Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism, with David Barsamian (San Francisco: City Lights Books), Contending Economic Theories: Neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian, with Stephen Resnick (Cambridge, MA, and London: MIT University Press), and Democracy at Work (Chicago: Haymarket Books). Wolff hosts the weekly hour-long radio program Economic Update on WBAI, 99.5 FM, New York City (Pacifica Radio) and is featured regularly in television, print, and internet media. The New York Times Magazine has named him "America's most prominent Marxist economist."[5]
He does not content in Austrian economics from Ludwig von Mises. Ludwig has killed Marxism intellectually decades ago. Maxism is dead. And Marxian followers are economic zombies.
Of course Spain has a history of workers' control: "There was no unemployment, and the price of living was still extremely low; you saw very few conspicuously destitute people, and no beggars except the gypsies. Above all, there was a belief in the revolution and the future, a feeling of having suddenly emerged into an era of equality and freedom. Human beings were trying to behave as human beings and not as cogs in the capitalist machine." George Orwell - Homage to Catalonia page 6.
Eye Witness: Brilliant eye opening exposé. I am wandering if probably the main reason for emerging socialist countries not to empower the workers community, was based on the need to militarize the state, to prevent the CAPITALIST MILITARY AGGRESSION, translated into “Regime changes”-still going on; so in terms of priorities, to become able to deter the capitalist military aggression, may we sustain that the empowerment of the workers HAD to be postponed?
I never learned any of these truths in grammar school, high school, or even college. I only learned it by being exploited and brutalized in the so-called job market. I wonder if that was done on purpose.
@@snipview8363 Except as discussed before, you are wrong. www.peoplesworld.org/article/which-has-failed-capitalism-or-socialism/ And funny, but every state that went socialist, was a failed capitalist state, with few exceptions. And the 'failed socialist states were attacked, blockades and interfered with. You know about the US's history of backing coups, right?
I have a feeling for a lot of people who made negative comments... didn't watch all of it... and didn't want to listen in the first place. Try not to lump him up into something that isn't worthy of your attention because it is different than what you have previously learned. You don't have to accept what he is saying, but listen; so you can argue against it if you would like, but this is a conversation topic that is important to have. You can't just refute it to be "Communist garbage" because its not what we have currently in America. Go back 70 years and America would be "Communist Garbage" according to your definition. This is more of a Democratic proposition. So be all Murica' as you want, but understand that the system you're really supporting is an extended income inequality that you will always be stepped on and you are supporting and thanking those who are shoving you into the mud for their own personal gain.
Ranshin Majere When he lies about something that anyone reading the news KNOWS is a lie, yes we stop watching. Why continue? Especially when evades the major cause of the recession he claims to know how to prevent.
This really hit home with me. I struggle with the thought of working solely for the money-however much it is. I understand the concept, but fundamentally disagree with it. I legitimately cannot understand people go somewhere and do things A, B and C because at the end of the month they get paid. It would rip all the joy out of me. Like, why would I do work I don't enjoy 9/10 hours and have 1 hour of fun? Isn't life about feeling nice about things? I fall back on the thought of feeling better about myself once my transition from male to female is complete. But at some point, I'll need to be honest about what and how I feel. Fortunately, socialist policies in my country help find a suitable job for me. Who knows, maybe I'll go into politics and start making a difference there, since nothing I've tried uptil now really captivates me.
Dude, come on. Are you fucking serious? You think that this shit just falls out of the sky? Communism doesn't produce wealth. The "socialist policies" that you say provide you with some super slack job, given that you admitted you don't want to work for a living like everyone else. There is no such thing as a free lunch, and if wealth is not being created that lunch is going to get smaller and shittier by the day - this is what socialism will bring you. You may not like work; but someone somewhere is working really hard and being taxed at an exorbitant rate so that you can get your dick cut off and have a slack-ass job. No one owes you a damn thing. You're such a narcissist that you believe other people should not reap the rewards of their innovation, hard work, and savvy practices; but somehow you have the right to the fruits of the labor of others? WTF? My head exploded reading this shit.
A person buys a commodity such as corn, waits several months with many others holding until the price is higher. Then with luck make a good profit, from which they live well. That means the producing society owes them. What is the speculators contribution ? They have caused a price rise and then expect reward from working society. It is purely parasitic.
Mr Wolff, you are probably the best Marxist talker in the west, I think your great. Tariq Ali is the next best, while Chris Coleman is the worlds loveliest Marxist when he's upset. I know you Richard are unofficially a party leader, I wont say which one, just that it's not a major one. I can see you love the worker, and her democracy! you need to consider the question of Lenin's concept of "one man management" as fluidity of co-incidence of interests in a democratic workplace. the most basic reason for having a single manager with worker participation in factory decision making mechanisms is to divorce management from the possibility of collating class interest as though bourgeois! I need you to use more traditional categories inherent in Marxism-Leninism and you are sparse on your quotes from the classics! of-course, you must start in objection to falsehood: study kardelj in order to smash kardelj, and you will build a party worthy of your potential! you certainly are not a charlatan like our former friend Meister Unruhe! xx
Bawerk also didn’t predict that nearly all the innovation came out of the state sector rather than the private markets. Take every component in your iPhone - if you go through then you’ll find the early hard and innovative work was always from the non-profit state, not from profit based sector: GPS, the silicon chip design (even Intel 4040 was for traffic lights funded by the state), the Von Neumann computer design (university salary funded), the modern programming languages (all minor variants of Algol 69, state funded), the inportant internet protcols (http, https, etc), the first web browser, touch screen technology.. or modern passenger planes being minor variants of state funded bombers.. all the really difficult early risky work where the real innovation was, came out out of the state sector, which didn’t require a profit mandate, and then handed over to the private sector for relatively trivial, far less innovative and risk, incremental and profitable work.
Sounds much like capitalism to me. There can be no sensible or fruitful conversation so long as you keep referring to any who criticise capitalism as "Marxist ". You can read Marx( good luck) and criticise his conclusions, and arguments in a coherent way, or shut up, because anything else is just senseless babble. You know there is a large public as, or more ignorant than yourself to whom the mention of the word Marxism is enough to make up their tiny ignorant minds.
I explained to you why the USSR wasn't socialism but still you keep clinging to ideology with completely empty rethoric unrelated to anything I said. How hard is it to understand that Marxism isn't about ideology, but about the actual real socio-economic conditions that govern society? Do I have to explain to you why a man in a cow suit is not a real cow? You're really not saying anything meaningful, so buh-bye. Keep on clinging.
Nobody supports "stealing" . They support humanity , and democracy. The concentration of wealth and power into a few hands blocks this. I would like to see the 1% producing wealth without the work of the 99%, or the civilisation and infrastructure provided. Their myopic, vane view of their own efforts overlooks so much. A doctor may save your life, and it is his job. You don´t owe the labour of the rest of your life to her/him. Although in a commercial system many will. I forgot that.
Just a last remark then. I think you should stop using the term Marxist. If a person is, then they understand markets, and economy well. Marxism is one analysis, and critic of the system you support. It is an academic work. But you don´t have to be Marxist to be critical. It is simply misleading to label any critic as Marxist.It is an obvious attempt to write off in the eyes of the ill informed who have been fed a version of a bogey man by propaganda, it is not wise to fend of critic this way.
We limit free choice all the time. You can´t kill your business competitor for example. We sacrifice freedom all the time for civilisation to work. Some find it hard to grasp, that their freedom can often be gained through the loss of others freedom. If you have your prisons overflowing, as In the US, many homeless in a society etc.Whatever system you have, whatever you feel the rights and wrongs are, if there are too many "losers" while others have so much it is a recipe for chaos eventually.
The way Prof. Wolff talks about how meritocracy is largely a farce in this country was a real eye-opener for me. Though it seems to make sense at its core, I get the impression that many proponents of meritocracy seem to ignore the factors that contribute to the development of merit, largely due to how much money they have at their disposal in order to acquire the best resources, whereas those less wealthy don't have the resources to develop to their fullest potential.
I've always found the label 'democracy' to be an off-handed, impersonal term that doesn't relay to people the true nature of their situation, or the power of their social lives. The 'proper' term to use when speaking to people about their situation and the power of their social lives - is SOCIETY. The debate that's been going on for the past 300 years is the role of the INDIVIDUAL vs SOCIETY. I think it's clear that the 'nomadic individual' and the 'nomadic lifestyle' mentality represented by the 'individual' has disappeared with the Stone Age due to its inferiority and ineffectiveness as it faced the 'social lifestyle' that people all over the world evolved into. With the evolution of Society, people gained greater personal expression by being exposed to the talents, skills, and many various expressions of other people. Society organized itself creatively to bring a much fuller expansive and expressive lifestyle than any nomadic individual ever was capable of dreaming or imagining. For reasons I must only let people answer for themselves, today's Society has lost its sense of purpose and the reason for its existence, and has permitted the nomadic individual to wander around its midst exploiting Society for the nomad's individualistic and personal profit. The Nomad-Individual viewed the resources of the world as their OWN. Society viewed, and should view, the resources of the world as belonging to everyone to use to create benefit for everyone. The basis of Society is the natural recognition of the social importance of each other. The basis of the Nomad-Individual is the selfish recognition of one's own profit. These 2 mentalities are OPPOSED to each other in purpose and expression. It's time to put the Nomad-Individual mentality back where it belongs - the Stone Age.
SUNNMANN139 Michael Price - 'Why should we listen to him if he's lying?' You CAN'T be serious with a statement like that. Are you denying that his MAIN POINT about Capitalism - that it rapes Society of its social power to create wealth and diverts it into individual gain - is incorrect? A LIE? Really? REALLY? I think you better listen to his MAIN POINT again because it apparently by-passed the space between your ears. He's also incorrect in thinking that our national government 'borrows' its operating cash from others, but that's minor flaw - just like his SS assessment that has you diverted, inverted, and distracted from his MAIN POINT. So, if you want ANY standing in this comment section, address his MAIN POINT with valid arguments - or shut your mouth.
SUNNMANN139 "The debate that's been going on for the past 300 years is the role of the INDIVIDUAL vs SOCIETY." No the debate that's been going on is the role of the individual versus GOVERNMENT. All those who claim to be for "society" and yet propose pushing down the individual, which society is made up of, are deluded or lying. "I think it's clear that the 'nomadic individual' and the 'nomadic lifestyle' mentality represented by the 'individual' has disappeared " Nomads are no particularly individualistic. Individualism isn't related to nomadism. "Stone Age due to its inferiority and ineffectiveness as it faced the 'social lifestyle' that people all over the world evolved into." Exactly when do you think people weren't living a "social lifestyle"? But in any case individualism has flourished becuase was very effective compared to the alternatives. "Society organized itself creatively to bring a much fuller expansive and expressive lifestyle than any nomadic individual ever was capable of dreaming or imagining." And what has that got to do with individualism? Especially considering the most expansive and expressive lifestyles came from embracing individualism. Fundamentally the anti-individualist position is a throwback, people trying to reestablish the stultifying, ignorance that justified obediance to the elite. But the dam is breaking, people are realising the the elite knows less than it says it does, and that their own view of their own benefit is the most accurate. " today's Society has lost its sense of purpose " Considering how often that sense of purpose was the oppression of the other, that's a good thing. Why should society have a "sense of purpose"? Why should purpose be defined at the societal level? "and has permitted the nomadic individual to wander around its midst exploiting Society for the nomad's individualistic and personal profit." You keep using that word 'nomad', I don't think it means what you think it means. "The Nomad-Individual viewed the resources of the world as their OWN." The indivdualist does not necessarily or even usually view the resources of the Earth as their own. There are some moral nihilist individualists, but they are a minority. It is collectivists that view the resources of the Earth as their collective property, which they can do with as they will, provided it helps 'society'. "Society viewed, and should view, the resources of the world as belonging to everyone to use to create benefit for everyone." Why? You didn't create, add value to or discover the resources of the world, why should you get a share of everything? What does "belonging to everyone" mean? If I share ownership with 7 billion people that;s functionally the same as owning nothing. "The basis of the Nomad-Individual is the selfish recognition of one's own profit." The basis of individualism is the "selfish" recognition that a person is not merely a tool for other people, but a person in their own right. "It's time to put the Nomad-Individual mentality back where it belongs - the Stone Age." WIthout individualists that's where you'd still be. And you'd rather be there than know you owe everything good to those you oppose.
I'm assuming you're american. If so, brah, where are these socialists you're talking about? don't tell me you're one of those americans that thinks obama is a socialist! if so, please go learn what socialism means.
Worker co-ops would be an excellent idea. They are doing it in Spain and it has worked very well. I remember seeing a documentary on a worker co-op in Indiana which is working very well also
I worked for an employee-owned company one time and the company was sold to a corporation. How do employees take over existing corporations? I guess this idea only applies to new businesses.
greece had no problems till it opened up its bond market to american hedge funds Who short sold them while big banks bought those assets up for pennies on the dollar
More like how a book on alchemy would not make sense to a chemist, or a book on astrology to an astronomer. Much like trying to justify how all matter is made up of four elements, or how labor is alienated in four ways. But you're on the right track.
I think spending several minutes over how things have been taking place in Germany is very important. Notice who is engaged in critical thinking and does not have problems with taboo economic questions. The US? NO. Germany? Yes. The intellectual disarray within the US in the form of shunning key economic debates does not bode well for its future. Instead, someone like Germany is well ahead of the curve.
On the whole a very inspiring talk. I had the audio over a game of Empire Earth. I beat the Assyrian Empire after a hard fought campaign, now I will make a comment. Actually I wont. I spent 10 minutes typing and then deleted it. I will watch the video again and make a post later. But this guy makes some serious points.
Town and Country article about Resource Generation should read and discuss these ideas instead of losing all their funds to political protests that are forgotten in a few years. Please view these videos and discuss them with your friends; and discuss these suggestions 1. All elections can be tampered, especially close elections: quickly replace all voting machines with paper receipts used in millions of stores around the world (instead of different machines and processes in every zip code). 2. Every Fortune 500 Company should have to pay their lowest level employees (including all 'contractors' or 'temps') at one tenth the pay of the highest paid CEO. 3. Every human should automatically get a life time membership to a quality "chain" gym (in every state) that is open 24 hours and has a full bathroom to shower, toilet, brush teeth, change, do a load of laundry at the same time, or while taking a gym class, like gentle yoga or Tae Kwon Do (which should replace football as the national sport). This would save every city and county budget millions in power hosing the sidewalks because of no access to toilets. 4. Every city and town should have hundreds of parking spots set aside for secure over night parking, similar to the most expensive RV Parks for the Super Rich. Each parking lot could be named after a 'famous' valued, local person who has passed away (in order to keep the parking lot cheerful and 'high status' not a 'human dumping ground'). 5. Every 'Section 8' building or home should be renamed because 'Section 8' is a military term which translates into 'worthless person.' For example: 'Doris Day Memorial Dog Park Building' or 'Steve Allen Memorial Jazz Piano School'; every day a famous person dies and can have a high rise 'Section 8 Apartment' named after him or her, or their favorite pet (in order to reduce time wasting arguments over the name of a building). 6. These buildings should be designed by the trustworthy Richard Gage of 'Architects and Engineers for 9 ll Truth' (he voted for Ronald Reagan, this is about safety, not political parties, which flip flop over the decades) and 'Firefighters for 9 ll Truth.' All First Responders (including veterinarians and vet techs) deserve to live for free in these buildings, along with their extended family and circle of friends. This would help make every neighborhood safer to walk through and drive through for EVERYBODY. 7. The new organization 'Not One More Vet' trying to end the epidemic of veterinarians taking their own life, deserve a cancellation of all student debt. This should be copied to all military veterans. This should be copied to all students. 8. Never Forget Building 7 'Solving 9 ll Ends the War' by Christopher Bollyn (related to Ann Bollyn, King Henry the Vlll's ex wife) see his speech in Portland, Oregon, standing in front of a famous painting of dogs playing poker. He has close Jewish relatives and friends in Israel. He lived there for about three years, working as a lifeguard on a Kibbutz. 9. See the documentary about Brazil by the company called Rebbl (tea drink made out of Brazil nuts, etc.) slow verses fast capitalism for a healthier world. 10. See the cheerful, uplifting documentary 'Pump' about how to create 30 million middle class jobs, reduce deaths in car fires, kitchen fires, reduce asthma, heartattacks, reduce wild fires every year by turning farm and yard waste into 'Alcohol is a Gas!' by David Blume (buy his equipment at his official website, not the competition trying to put him out of business). Every church in every zip code could create cleaner, greener jobs for their members with owning their own ethanol gas station, as the couple named Near, does in the documentary, 'Pump.' This is much more living the bible than working at a casino, promoting gambling addiction. 11. Consider naming your baby girl Greta, as the UK has tried to bring back the name Nigel from going out into history. This will help promote daily clubs called 'Greta Goes Camping and Thanksgiving (CAT)' to promote teaching and learning a wide variety of 'green' skills, living off the grid, gourmet cooking and baking, promoting entrepreneur skills in young people instead of getting hit by bullets during high school football games (ten days ago at De Anza HS in Richmond, California, Church sidewalk, bus stop, horse trail, pristine creek with tons of 'new' trash every night, including house paint cans, stuck in tree branches for decades near Sheldon Elementary School on may road. G'day
granny franny That's because you're really stupid. That's why you couldn't make a logical response to any of my arguments but merely gave snark. And not good snark either.
X-Files. The real Mission Impossible. Humanity needs to fill a giant black hole in space called ignorance (greed) with light (love)...so that it's darkness (misery, murder, mass shootings, suicides, war, etc.) goes away and it's heavy gravitational pull stops sucking the joy out of life. Then life can become a celebration with joy spilling out of the smiles of everyone. Like Love (god) intended for life to be in the first place. We face some major obstacles though. 1) Light and truth (love) cause vampires (greed) great pain and suffering. That's why the words democratic society (socialism), "care for all" and "green new deal" cause the clueless counting corpses such misery. 2) Vampires (greed) are blind and cannot see the ignorance of transforming heaven (peace) into hell (war). The capitalist counting corpses are also blind and cannot see the ignorance of transforming this paradise planet lifeboat into a polluted pig pen. 3) The evangelical monsters are desperate to control a darkship called the Whitehouse. Because working in the dark to suck the joy out of life and destroy the planet is the only way that the loveless, lifeless parasites can survive and thrive. Unlike earthling poets, artists, musicians, mystics, human beings and creators of joy...the clueless counting corpses can't create harmony (real intelligence) because vampires (greed) are far worse than stupid. The loveless, lifeless parasites are ignorant (dead).
There always has been Capitalism there will always be Capitalism, it is the inherent nature of man......DESIRE. That desire can be for things, life style, or power. While many of his observations may be accurate like the success of Germany, his analysis of why is greatly flawed. He totally ignores culture, there is a reason Germany almost conquered most of Europe on it's own. What works in Germany does not necessarily mean it will work in another country.
Capitalism is collapsing under its own weight. Sooner or later, it is GOING to fail. If you're not familiar with the cooperative business model, I would encourage you to check it out. Richard Wolff did a video lecture on UA-cam about the Spanish town of Mondragon. The Mondragon cooperative business model has a lot to offer.
There is no cure for capitalism, nobody has been ever able to replace it in 100 years. We have to take advantage of capitalism and protect the workers with laws, like F.D. Roosevelt did. Churchill would have said: ¨capitalism is not perfect, but we know nothing better.¨
you also don't understand child labour and how this was a part of history until the industrial revolution - people stopped sending people up chimneys as soon as they could afford not to. They tried to ban child labour in Bangladesh and predictably all these children went into prostitution .... do you think all the bad workers in the world live in Bangladesh? no! they don't have a developed enough economy.
TheProgressiveParent Why did Moms start working instead of raising the kids? Because Dad doesn’t make enough to live on. Why do kids begin to work instead of playing or going to school? Because Mom and Dad’s combined incomes are not enough to sustain the family. Make it so that Dad alone earns enough to support the family, kids go back to school and Mom takes care of them when there isn’t School.
The Cooperative Movement began in 1870 in the town l was born in, Rochdale, England, it's time we had these values back, with a basic minimum income and a maximum income, but guess what? they're not going tk let you.
Dear Mr. Richard D. Wolff, Can you please explain to us why everyone who votes, big brother and the folks who hired them know how we vote and who it is we voted for? The same holds true with any change to charter or equivalent. I do not like my vote entitled to big brother eyes only and their bosses even though with old system they can watch your move and after leaving take top first then layer underneath to record how you vote. I think when Islam voted they made sure to show painted finger (on international television before flatscreen tv and other flatscreen tech became the norm for spying on us) of secret ballot. Reassurances when it may not be secret under democracy for Islam. I've wanted to vote in USPS Union nationally but you mail in vote, hello? My father was a high ranking officer in the domestic spy corp here and he always practiced at home and as self business owner what it is your trying to explain on being fair under our system which isn't. We the people have our work cut out for us, don't we? What voting system can be fair for all including any vote on any level when we may become one world whole for international candidates, we need positive assurances our vote is counted without knowledge of manipulators. How can this be achieved? Thank you. Sincerely, Don Suiters
Finally, someone who is expressing in a highly intelligent way- the way we all feel. It's the same now as low paid labor in factories- the factories just look different. and we have to pay for college first to have the privilege of financing the rich peoples lives! We're in big trouble- so time to start doing something. VOTE against corrupt politicians and put someone who is for us.
Richard's ideas are somewhat Utopian, a likely result of his career being all academic. Most first-world countries have some combination of capitalism & socialism that works, but should be improved. If the co-op business model was so successful, why hasn't it flourished here? He's correct, though, that German & other European social contracts would be much more equitable for us, likely requiring changing business practices that economically shift influence away from large corporations.
Obviously he's been a professor for most of his adult life, and of course he probably had to work his way up through university before becoming a professor. What's your point?
"They might create a job but not necessarily here, that might be good for them but not for us" Erm, yes it is..... people in those countries can produce good cheaper raising the standards of living here what is more American bucks go over to those countries which raises the standard of living there too
Persephone good question, it's a myth that trade deficits are bad in the long run and I'll explain why. American Dollars can only be spent on American goods, and therefore as the countries abroad develop we will see more and more of those dollars flying back to America to buy American goods.
Heaven would be a place where everyone has the freedom and desire to be harmless. For on earth, the majority have the freedom and desire to enrich themselves upon the misery of those who have less education, less wealth or less whiteness of skin. For the upper-half of society has always hoarded all the land, wealth and political power. For good is life, evil is death and the purpose of earth is to reach the ultimate conclusion of sin, which is global warming and the extinction of all life. REAL ISSUE Do those in heaven truly have a freewill to be all they can be and out of gratitude act in harmony with the will of God, with their only motivation to instill in others a grateful response? Or is the existence of gratitude pure fiction, the doing of something for no reward so void of logic and reason as to be the height of all evil? For planet earth was created to be a paradise for ingrates, an intelligence dictatorship where by competition we enrich ourselves upon the misery of those less intelligent, worship those more intelligent and hoard all the glory and power of wealth that our brains and sex appeal can muster.
americans, Money is like a high, soon you need more, real reason for wanting it is getting attntion n love, gratitude, thats why homeless are despised as losers in a system they dont understand or like beause is wrong only ppl who like this systemem are Money junkies n ppl who never worked a day in their lifes but still are adored for giving nothing, this greed is killing us, is killing all the beauty in this world animals, rivers, florests, all resources are tied to Money and expansion of mankind ppl are asking more n more for the Money and demanding the destruction of wildlife, insanity is taking over, trump dosent care about anybody hes obcessed with himself and what others think of him he would destroy rain florest to build a golf n hotel if it made him Money, like he did in scotland destroying eco system voting for rich n ppl who are addicted to Money to run a country is crazy
Some of his premises are wrong or overtly simplistic Capitalism (in America) existed from 1790 to roughly 1890 *Some might argue 1790 to 1850's others 1790 to 1940's Capitalism has certain tenets - Decentralised Currency - Gold / Commodities are not pegged by Gov't - Slavery was allowable - Gov't is "small" and low interfering in nearly all markets Free-market Theory actually comes from Mutualism or L-Anarchism.....a capitalistic gov't is a "near" free-market....but it still allowed for slavery What we have today is Corporatism (wedding between gov't / politics / corporations) What we need is MORE Anarchy and Less Gov't
I like what he says but he's a little thin on data points. I would've liked him to point out to something tangible that makes his case (not the prognosis that capitalism is bad - but that Marxism is *better*) He often used China's accelerating GDP growth and real wages, but as described by the Solow model, this is because China is still a developing economy. Once it reaches a certain stage, it will plateau. On the topic of Co-ops, he only give an example of one Spanish organisation as such, but I don't think there's any data that supports the hypotheses that coops would beat a typical firm with shareholders.
@Dirk Knight I've studied economics around many years ago, and yes I remember all of the classical models demonstrating why the incentives to maximise profits necessitate efficiency. Absence of the profit motive would be inefficiency, and thereby increased cost being either absorbed by the producer or the consumer (in the case of inelastic demand, and public utilities spring to mind here). Current economic systems are of course flawed, but I don't see the alternatives as any better.
This is compelling, and I agree that neither party in the US is on the side of the people. However, this thinking leaves me feeling futile. Perhaps because of FDR & the new deal, corporate America isn't going to allow any kind of change like this. They have invested a great deal in convincing us that words like collectivism, and concepts like a level playing field are evil, and many voters buy it. Beyond that, we accept as a given without question a system through which we sell our legislation to the highest bidder. We call it lobbying.
I like the speaker but I am afraid he’s a tad delusional - No doubt the 1% or even 10% take too big a piece of the pie - and something does have to be done and now - We’;ll see?
Investing money in a new business is a risky proposition. If you open a store and it flops, the workers lose their jobs but the capitalist is out at least tens of thousands of dollars. All the inventory, all the advertising, the utilities, etc... It takes money to make money, but having money doesn't guarantee money. Try having an intellectual discussion instead of completely dismissing the obvious risks of investing.
Capitalism is a bad word. We fought communism and now we must fight capitalism. Vote for Bernie Sanders and democratic socialism. The society is more important than the greedy individual.
+BOB OVER The "greedy individual"? As opposed to you who is only concerned with the public good? You're using bullshit ad homs because you don't have a case and you know it.
The wage inequality is insane, but I want to know how much the risk entrepreneurs take is worth. Dr. Wolff never speaks about the risk capitalists take, only how they exploit the workers. Otherwise very interesting.
The state capitalism of the USSR had nothing to do with Marxism. Marxism is merely a way of looking at society, history, the economy, etc. and a movement that advocates for workers' control of their own labour (and the means of production). Lenin may have been influenced by Marx, but what he achieved had in the end nothing to do with the solution envisioned by socialists. If private capitalists at the head of a company are replaced by state commissars the mode of production is still capitalism.
I'm not trying to shock you, and would be fine with you wandering off. If you want a good criticism of modern socio-political systems, I'd recommend James Burnham's Managerial Revolution (written way back in 1943). Dr. Willard Enteman also has a good criticism of the bipolar capitalist/socialist model in his book, Managerialism. If you really care about such things, look them up. Bye.
I've heard such an apologia too. "I am not a Marxist..." but then an unwavering defense of Marxism and only marxism, with disdain for everyone else. Especially Republicans, Tea Partyists, libertarians, etc. What was your term? "Free mousketeer?" You say you're "looking for truth." Bull. You're attacking the critic of Marxism, and only the critic of Marxism. Well I'm not a "mousketeer," rendering your entire critique of me, again, baseless and irrelevant. So there.
"It's called technological progress" But social and human retrograde. It´s(capitalism) just a immature fear driven way to run the world. When you accuse people of, "Its like talking Wahabist Muslims " You should take a look at your own servile drivel. Certainly Capitalism creates energy through fear, leading to greed: Yes its moving us fast, but toward a civilasatory cliff. Your faith is touching. The topic is "Cure for Capitalism," today, not problems with a the Soviet block system yesterday.
Bolshevik Russia implemented socialist principles in the establishment of collectivist farms. These "reforms" ruined Soviet agriculture for decades. The Maoist Chinese did the same thing, with similar results. So also the Khmer Rouge. So also the ZANU-PF. Chile instead implemented free market reforms under Pinochet, which despite a dictatorship prospered economically. The PRC under Deng implemented similar free market reforms, with even greater results. You've been ridiculous and rude. See ya.
I know what you mean.Yes, poor people , or in private saps. etc;-- I would see this from two ends. First mechanisation; they are now rebuilding robotic production in the West getting labour costs down to equivalent $3.50 an hour, which competes with developing industrial lands costs.Of course profit goes to a few. Second population is indeed too great, to sustain this high level of production/consumption. The answer less people, and a system that distributes wealth better.How to get there :-)?
In a free market, such as exists in Hong Kong for example, capitalists finance businesses that provide opportunities for workers. Thus a female Chinese peasant can escape farm work for the more lucrative pay of an urban business.Thus why living standards steadily improve in such societies. By contrast, in Marxist societies, prosperity is closely tied to how much or how little these governments shake down the capitalists for cash. For example, the situation in North Korea is especially bad.
No. Market fluidity. Steady growth or steady decline, with time for the the economic actors to adjust to their changing roles. Thus why command economies crash and burn - they aren't sufficiently responsive to market forces, and tend to become heavily politicized and nepotistic over time. I've heard about this "going after traitors" thing before. Didn't you lot do the same thing to the kulaks, then claimed it "wasn't really communism" or some such? And yet, here we are again.
Finance and market fluidity. An increase in corn demand means that producers need to increase their production of corn. If the speculator buys corn cheaply, that means someone wanted to sell corn right away and needed the money immediately - else the producer would have sat on the corn supply himself. It's the same sort of contribution to the market that a banker makes by lending out money. Understandable that you wouldn't have any idea how a free market works. Few socialists do.
I don't agree with wolfs solution as it stands but its fairly obvious for any system of capitalism to work it needs to incorporate a huge amount of kaynsianism/social democracy I am happy to call socialism as distinct from communism, its empiricaly proven that social democracy works to give the best lifestyle to the greatest number of people and all the right have to counter this is mass propergander form the socialy liberal economicaly conservative mainstream media
Twice you have punched the same button: ad hominem, questioning my character, projecting bad! bad! motives. The truth to you means nothing. Just silence the critics and reality will change via whatever you believe. It's the same as stance of OWS: carefully omit *any* factual recommendations as those could be controversial. Just whine, whine and whine, the more emotional and the less brainy a whine is the better. There are truthful but honest critics and there are whining children.
Yours is not sarcasm, but ignorance: the knowledge is not secret at all. In fact, all those things are areas of active research for people who aren't shouting maniacs media and other maniacs love so much. Those can even be leftwing economists, e.g. "ECONOMIC CULTURE WARS" by Krugman. But, as Steven Hawking put it, every additional math formula in your text halves the number of remaining readers: empirics is tedious, hard and boring. Being a poseur like you feels better.
It does not really matter since the most capable of getting money, private or public, will help themselves to it in the first place. The teary eyed social workers will not tell you a little "detail" that most money (smth like $6 out of $7) sent to welfare ends up as costs of operating bureaucracy. It's business to them, and the poor and dumb will stay poor and dumb. In social democratic Norway, even though the poor and those on welfare are supported, they're increasingly detested.
That's a silly theory given that empirical data shows individual income is about the most strongly determined by IQ and IQ is highly heritable (0.82 correlation with IQ of parents). Sure dumb children inherit much of the wealth of the smart parents. That's not to say that meritocracy is there: meritocracy is a nice ideal that can't really be attained in this world. Having experienced both Soviet system and capitalism I have to say it works somewhat better in capitalism.
![Global Capitalism: On Labor - A May Day 2024 Special [May 1st, 2024]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/p2w7q_ssCZc/mqdefault.jpg)
You and Noam Chomsky have opened my eyes and mind, and I thank you for it. Some days ago I did not have these thoughts in my mind, but now you have opened doors for me, I have even gone so far to consider go to college and study international studies because I think that is incredibly important, and after that maybe study entrepreneurship and take us of what you have taught me.
Dr. Wolf explains Marx better than Marx.
@@johnking7008 Marx is great. Sometimes he gets complicated and gets involved in word struggle in his writing as OCD person, repeating same thing, still when u escape that particular paragraph u catch up with him. I always think while reading marx that he was over attentive to things, particularly in capital
@@shubhamwrThe dude was a lazy slob and a moron 😂
this is an important discussion, which must be shared and shared hard to make sure more and more people really get a chance to think this through for themselves. I know that many people have already become aware of all this, but there are millions more who still have no idea. they need us to help point them down the path of questioning everything.
Great comment.
Understood! I agree! There is never any excuse for any of us to forsake our most basic human empathetic responses for personal profit. The key question is this: Who among us reverses this ethic, and who then must be held responsible? Who profits from misery? Should we at least not strongly suppress them? Should we win through more sensible, more rational arguments? Yes! Yes, we should!!!
All money should have expiration date. Forcing all money to be reinvested in the economy.
Palo Alto is definitely not a cure for Capitalism.
I like the general idea, but what's missing is how to get capital in the hands of labour -- how to ensure, ceteris paribus, that man gets to enjoy the fruits of his labour. For this, recommended is the stuff by Hilaire Beloc and G.K. Chesteron on "distributism".
Generally, it seems we need a new approach to property, based in homesteading and responsible stewardship -- if you don't use it and don't take care of it, it's not yours.
Workers could pool their resources. There is always more work than hours in the day when starting a business, so they could pay themselves a meager wage and work really hard. If they are successful, they'll have a track record to show to a bank, so that they can get a loan or they can convince new employees to come work and invest in their enterprise. They might be able to attract investors and donations.
nonchalantd Yeah, timebanks and stuff seem cool. Where direct trades are unfeasible, helpers could, for example, be paid a percentage share of future profits. It seems that when all the currency which could be creative capital is tied up within the system helping no one (but keeping the central bankers still in a job!) that people need to start getting creative about their trades. Barter got a bad reputation when the bankers where doing a reasonable job, but now the pariahs are in charge, I think people need to start thinking outside of the box. I don't like the crypto currencies as yet (as I understand them, they're no cleaner than CB issue), but I do like the idea of self-issued credit.
M8 u've got B.LLS! Thankyou.
NO, I'm speaking about the U.S. Our safety nets are quite weak Compared to other Industrialized Countries.
Socialism is a religion.
Doc, don't ever delete this 2 hour Palo Alto lecture. This is your best for clarity of Rick Wolff ideas, problems and solutions, New Deal, Mondragon Co-ops, hating my job, inequality, blaming Gov instead of CEO's. I show my students this.
Completely agree, can't believe I haven't seen this one yet...
It’s so discouraging just how many Americans will never understand this because of the failure of our education and political system
blame the money and the 1%. they own all institutions and skew the message the way they want it. most americans are too lazy to research beyond these convenient sound bytes and accept this bs at face value.
If someone deserves a Nobel Prize for contributions made to the public understanding of Economics it would be Richard Wolff. So they give us Milton Friedman who couldn't have found his own butt, if it had a bell on it.
Are you kidding? Does Milton Friedman even compare to this propagandist clown? You know... there is a reason Nobel prizes are given to certain people and not others.
***** My poor man, if you think this is propaganda then you must certainly think pigs fly. Sadly it is the pervasive ignorance of sooooo many people like you that makes it difficult to get anything done democratically in this country. One so quick to attack the person usually lacks the understanding to attack the issue. The information Dr. Wolff shares is not his opinion, its a clear and concise recitation of facts followed by suggestions on how to make life better for everyone, not just a few.
Please either take the time to educate yourself on the WHOLE American economic picture and at least offer an intelligent argument to the points Dr. Wolff raises. Or simply shut up. Based on your post I am left to wonder what you did to merit the title of doctor before your name.
John M I am a Dr because I have a PhD, from MIT, in Nuclear Physics. Thanks. But that isn't why I'm right. I can tell a communist propagandist from a mile away, because I'm coming from Eastern Europe. Where have you learned about communism, in NY? Ask someone who has seen communism or socialism. You naive, unthankful American lefties, you enjoy the liberty and prosperity of capitalism, and from its comfort you spit on it. Instead of praising what your country uniquely has achieved, you want to be like the Europeans or the Chinese or the Russians or the Cubans, that screwed their countries so badly that they had to flee and come to the US to live free. It's preposterous for you to tell me to educate myself. I've been there. Where have you been?
***** Thank you for your response. Smelling a "communist from a mile away" is quite the American quote. No I did not learn about communism in New York, I initially learned about communism, Marxism and socialism at California State University in 1995 from an economics professor. My education is in sociology but I have only a masters. I know capitalism quite well, perhaps even better than you if you have not lived it your whole life, but none of this is the point. My point is you level accusations on a person who is providing facts (not supposition) and offers a solution. If you do not agree with the solution then, by all means, argue your point. To go all "McCarthy" on Dr. Wolff is an ad hominem. In scholarly circles it is a logical fallacy, something I would not expect from someone with a PhD even in nuclear physics.
John M What animates the paranoid antigovernment fringe has never had much to do with "economics". This is a demonology with roots that can be traced back to Puritanism. The recurrent motif of valiant moralists waging a desperate battle with a dark conspiracy threatening to feminize and corrupt the real America is typically a rallying cry. Whatever will arouse in group loyalty is recast as part of a moral crusade to screw some other group perceived to represent a competing set of interests. The most common character profiles are the, Obsessive, Hysterical and Narcissistic but these have been seen to overlap in the Authoritarian personality which research indicates has a decidedly right-wing bent. Groups now espousing the roll back of New Deal programs have rarely been able to promote a program that constructively addresses social ills, so these recurrent hysterias have had to depend on attacking the most severely marginalized. At the end of the Weimar era in Germany the most often cited enemy invoked was "a highly organized international conspiracy of Jewish bankers". The public history of political hysteria in the US, remains obsessively focused on an internal enemy and the succession of scapegoats it identifies goes something like this; Catholicism, Witchcraft, race pollution, Communism,and finally "statism". Status anxiety seems to be common to political extremism but the character types mentioned above, can be distinguished by the scapegoat they choose to identify as the "other".
May you be blessed with best of health and inner peace.
You are simply GREAT to awaken the masses on a global scale.
Fondest love, Mia from Copenhagen, Scandinavia
Richard D. Wolff (born April 1, 1942) is an American heterodox economist, well known for his work on Marxian economics, economic methodology, and class analysis. He is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University in New York. Wolff has also taught economics at Yale University, City University of New York, University of Utah, University of Paris I (Sorbonne), and The Brecht Forum in New York City. In 2010, Wolff published Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It, also released as a DVD. He released three new books in 2012: Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism, with David Barsamian (San Francisco: City Lights Books), Contending Economic Theories: Neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian, with Stephen Resnick (Cambridge, MA, and London: MIT University Press), and Democracy at Work (Chicago: Haymarket Books).
Wolff hosts the weekly hour-long radio program Economic Update on WBAI, 99.5 FM, New York City (Pacifica Radio) and is featured regularly in television, print, and internet media. The New York Times Magazine has named him "America's most prominent Marxist economist."[5]
He does not content in Austrian economics from Ludwig von Mises. Ludwig has killed Marxism intellectually decades ago. Maxism is dead. And Marxian followers are economic zombies.
@@realitykicksin8755 Except no.
And Wolff has taken on Mises.
the only aries i have ever liked
@@BenRoberts12
Um...it's a little more complicated than that. Your overly simplistic conclusion sounds more like an excuse to do nothing.
You deserve a Nobel prize for your humanity, knowledge in Economics and righteousness. Long live Professor R D Wolff!
Of course Spain has a history of workers' control: "There was no unemployment, and the price of living was still extremely low; you saw very few conspicuously destitute people, and no beggars except the gypsies. Above all, there was a belief in the revolution and the future, a feeling of having suddenly emerged into an era of equality and freedom. Human beings were trying to behave as human beings and not as cogs in the capitalist machine." George Orwell - Homage to Catalonia page 6.
This is a very encouraging video! Thank you for giving us wise ideas!
Thank you for opposing the status quo!
brilliant should be required viewing in high school and college
This should have billions of views.
Eye Witness:
Brilliant eye opening exposé. I am wandering if probably the main reason for emerging socialist countries not to empower the workers community, was based on the need to militarize the state, to prevent the CAPITALIST MILITARY AGGRESSION, translated into “Regime changes”-still going on; so in terms of priorities, to become able to deter the capitalist military aggression, may we sustain that the empowerment of the workers HAD to be postponed?
I never learned any of these truths in grammar school, high school, or even college. I only learned it by being exploited and brutalized in the so-called job market. I wonder if that was done on purpose.
Richard Wolff for President! The New Left Party.
For now, it should suffice that Bernie nominate him for Secretary of the Treasury.
Eric Anderson
, sure, never mind his Socialism failed 50 times in a row, and was saved each time by Capitalism. LOL!!!!!!!
Seriously. Richard Wolff really needs to consider running. We need** this change.
@@Edwardtonnn oh but he did run! He destroyed Russia, China, Cuba, Venezuela, the entire Eastern Europe and 50 more unfortunate countries. LOL!!!!!!
@@snipview8363 Except as discussed before, you are wrong.
www.peoplesworld.org/article/which-has-failed-capitalism-or-socialism/
And funny, but every state that went socialist, was a failed capitalist state, with few exceptions.
And the 'failed socialist states were attacked, blockades and interfered with.
You know about the US's history of backing coups, right?
Richard Wolff is a treasure.
Thank you for speaking against capitalism
I have a feeling for a lot of people who made negative comments... didn't watch all of it... and didn't want to listen in the first place. Try not to lump him up into something that isn't worthy of your attention because it is different than what you have previously learned. You don't have to accept what he is saying, but listen; so you can argue against it if you would like, but this is a conversation topic that is important to have. You can't just refute it to be "Communist garbage" because its not what we have currently in America. Go back 70 years and America would be "Communist Garbage" according to your definition. This is more of a Democratic proposition. So be all Murica' as you want, but understand that the system you're really supporting is an extended income inequality that you will always be stepped on and you are supporting and thanking those who are shoving you into the mud for their own personal gain.
Ranshin Majere When he lies about something that anyone reading the news KNOWS is a lie, yes we stop watching. Why continue? Especially when evades the major cause of the recession he claims to know how to prevent.
Well Professor Wolff the economic crisis that you speak of, came to and end when Donald J Trump was elected President! LOL@U
This really hit home with me. I struggle with the thought of working solely for the money-however much it is. I understand the concept, but fundamentally disagree with it. I legitimately cannot understand people go somewhere and do things A, B and C because at the end of the month they get paid. It would rip all the joy out of me. Like, why would I do work I don't enjoy 9/10 hours and have 1 hour of fun? Isn't life about feeling nice about things?
I fall back on the thought of feeling better about myself once my transition from male to female is complete. But at some point, I'll need to be honest about what and how I feel. Fortunately, socialist policies in my country help find a suitable job for me. Who knows, maybe I'll go into politics and start making a difference there, since nothing I've tried uptil now really captivates me.
Dude, come on. Are you fucking serious? You think that this shit just falls out of the sky? Communism doesn't produce wealth. The "socialist policies" that you say provide you with some super slack job, given that you admitted you don't want to work for a living like everyone else.
There is no such thing as a free lunch, and if wealth is not being created that lunch is going to get smaller and shittier by the day - this is what socialism will bring you.
You may not like work; but someone somewhere is working really hard and being taxed at an exorbitant rate so that you can get your dick cut off and have a slack-ass job. No one owes you a damn thing. You're such a narcissist that you believe other people should not reap the rewards of their innovation, hard work, and savvy practices; but somehow you have the right to the fruits of the labor of others? WTF? My head exploded reading this shit.
Okay, I reread that, and I'm starting to think this is just an elaborate troll job.
A person buys a commodity such as corn, waits several months with many others holding until the price is higher. Then with luck make a good profit, from which they live well. That means the producing society owes them. What is the speculators contribution ? They have caused a price rise and then expect reward from working society. It is purely parasitic.
How do we do that- take a loan? From who? A bank? Just the start up. Can't do that myself. Maybe $1 from every potential employee- maybe 20 people?
I always learn something listening to Prof. Wolff. Thank you.
The Q&A is worth sticking around for; short questions, long answers.
Mr Wolff, you are probably the best Marxist talker in the west, I think your great. Tariq Ali is the next best, while Chris Coleman is the worlds loveliest Marxist when he's upset. I know you Richard are unofficially a party leader, I wont say which one, just that it's not a major one. I can see you love the worker, and her democracy! you need to consider the question of Lenin's concept of "one man management" as fluidity of co-incidence of interests in a democratic workplace. the most basic reason for having a single manager with worker participation in factory decision making mechanisms is to divorce management from the possibility of collating class interest as though bourgeois! I need you to use more traditional categories inherent in Marxism-Leninism and you are sparse on your quotes from the classics! of-course, you must start in objection to falsehood: study kardelj in order to smash kardelj, and you will build a party worthy of your potential! you certainly are not a charlatan like our former friend Meister Unruhe! xx
Bawerk also didn’t predict that nearly all the innovation came out of the state sector rather than the private markets. Take every component in your iPhone - if you go through then you’ll find the early hard and innovative work was always from the non-profit state, not from profit based sector: GPS, the silicon chip design (even Intel 4040 was for traffic lights funded by the state), the Von Neumann computer design (university salary funded), the modern programming languages (all minor variants of Algol 69, state funded), the inportant internet protcols (http, https, etc), the first web browser, touch screen technology.. or modern passenger planes being minor variants of state funded bombers.. all the really difficult early risky work where the real innovation was, came out out of the state sector, which didn’t require a profit mandate, and then handed over to the private sector for relatively trivial, far less innovative and risk, incremental and profitable work.
Excellent video! I listen to him on WBAI all the time. Shared!
The government can not help anyone without harming someone else.
Sounds much like capitalism to me. There can be no sensible or fruitful conversation so long as you keep referring to any who criticise capitalism as "Marxist ". You can read Marx( good luck) and criticise his conclusions, and arguments in a coherent way, or shut up, because anything else is just senseless babble. You know there is a large public as, or more ignorant than yourself to whom the mention of the word Marxism is enough to make up their tiny ignorant minds.
I explained to you why the USSR wasn't socialism but still you keep clinging to ideology with completely empty rethoric unrelated to anything I said. How hard is it to understand that Marxism isn't about ideology, but about the actual real socio-economic conditions that govern society? Do I have to explain to you why a man in a cow suit is not a real cow? You're really not saying anything meaningful, so buh-bye. Keep on clinging.
Nobody supports "stealing" . They support humanity , and democracy. The concentration of wealth and power into a few hands blocks this. I would like to see the 1% producing wealth without the work of the 99%, or the civilisation and infrastructure provided. Their myopic, vane view of their own efforts overlooks so much. A doctor may save your life, and it is his job. You don´t owe the labour of the rest of your life to her/him. Although in a commercial system many will. I forgot that.
Just a last remark then. I think you should stop using the term Marxist. If a person is, then they understand markets, and economy well. Marxism is one analysis, and critic of the system you support. It is an academic work. But you don´t have to be Marxist to be critical. It is simply misleading to label any critic as Marxist.It is an obvious attempt to write off in the eyes of the ill informed who have been fed a version of a bogey man by propaganda, it is not wise to fend of critic this way.
We limit free choice all the time. You can´t kill your business competitor for example. We sacrifice freedom all the time for civilisation to work. Some find it hard to grasp, that their freedom can often be gained through the loss of others freedom. If you have your prisons overflowing, as In the US, many homeless in a society etc.Whatever system you have, whatever you feel the rights and wrongs are, if there are too many "losers" while others have so much it is a recipe for chaos eventually.
The way Prof. Wolff talks about how meritocracy is largely a farce in this country was a real eye-opener for me. Though it seems to make sense at its core, I get the impression that many proponents of meritocracy seem to ignore the factors that contribute to the development of merit, largely due to how much money they have at their disposal in order to acquire the best resources, whereas those less wealthy don't have the resources to develop to their fullest potential.
I've always found the label 'democracy' to be an off-handed, impersonal term that doesn't relay to people the true nature of their situation, or the power of their social lives.
The 'proper' term to use when speaking to people about their situation and the power of their social lives - is SOCIETY.
The debate that's been going on for the past 300 years is the role of the INDIVIDUAL vs SOCIETY.
I think it's clear that the 'nomadic individual' and the 'nomadic lifestyle' mentality represented by the 'individual' has disappeared with the Stone Age due to its inferiority and ineffectiveness as it faced the 'social lifestyle' that people all over the world evolved into.
With the evolution of Society, people gained greater personal expression by being exposed to the talents, skills, and many various expressions of other people.
Society organized itself creatively to bring a much fuller expansive and expressive lifestyle than any nomadic individual ever was capable of dreaming or imagining.
For reasons I must only let people answer for themselves, today's Society has lost its sense of purpose and the reason for its existence, and has permitted the nomadic individual to wander around its midst exploiting Society for the nomad's individualistic and personal profit.
The Nomad-Individual viewed the resources of the world as their OWN.
Society viewed, and should view, the resources of the world as belonging to everyone to use to create benefit for everyone.
The basis of Society is the natural recognition of the social importance of each other.
The basis of the Nomad-Individual is the selfish recognition of one's own profit.
These 2 mentalities are OPPOSED to each other in purpose and expression.
It's time to put the Nomad-Individual mentality back where it belongs - the Stone Age.
SUNNMANN139 Michael Price - 'Why should we listen to him if he's lying?' You CAN'T be serious with a statement like that. Are you denying that his MAIN POINT about Capitalism - that it rapes Society of its social power to create wealth and diverts it into individual gain - is incorrect? A LIE? Really? REALLY? I think you better listen to his MAIN POINT again because it apparently by-passed the space between your ears.
He's also incorrect in thinking that our national government 'borrows' its operating cash from others, but that's minor flaw - just like his SS assessment that has you diverted, inverted, and distracted from his MAIN POINT.
So, if you want ANY standing in this comment section, address his MAIN POINT with valid arguments - or shut your mouth.
SUNNMANN139 "The debate that's been going on for the past 300 years is the role of the INDIVIDUAL vs SOCIETY."
No the debate that's been going on is the role of the individual versus GOVERNMENT. All those who claim to be for "society" and yet propose pushing down the individual, which society is made up of, are deluded or lying.
"I think it's clear that the 'nomadic individual' and the 'nomadic lifestyle' mentality represented by the 'individual' has disappeared "
Nomads are no particularly individualistic. Individualism isn't related to nomadism.
"Stone Age due to its inferiority and ineffectiveness as it faced the 'social lifestyle' that people all over the world evolved into."
Exactly when do you think people weren't living a "social lifestyle"? But in any case individualism has flourished becuase was very effective compared to the alternatives.
"Society organized itself creatively to bring a much fuller expansive and expressive lifestyle than any nomadic individual ever was capable of dreaming or imagining."
And what has that got to do with individualism? Especially considering the most expansive and expressive lifestyles came from embracing individualism. Fundamentally the anti-individualist position is a throwback, people trying to reestablish the stultifying, ignorance that justified obediance to the elite. But the dam is breaking, people are realising the the elite knows less than it says it does, and that their own view of their own benefit is the most accurate.
" today's Society has lost its sense of purpose "
Considering how often that sense of purpose was the oppression of the other, that's a good thing. Why should society have a "sense of purpose"? Why should purpose be defined at the societal level?
"and has permitted the nomadic individual to wander around its midst exploiting Society for the nomad's individualistic and personal profit."
You keep using that word 'nomad', I don't think it means what you think it means.
"The Nomad-Individual viewed the resources of the world as their OWN."
The indivdualist does not necessarily or even usually view the resources of the Earth as their own. There are some moral nihilist individualists, but they are a minority. It is collectivists that view the resources of the Earth as their collective property, which they can do with as they will, provided it helps 'society'.
"Society viewed, and should view, the resources of the world as belonging to everyone to use to create benefit for everyone."
Why? You didn't create, add value to or discover the resources of the world, why should you get a share of everything? What does "belonging to everyone" mean? If I share ownership with 7 billion people that;s functionally the same as owning nothing.
"The basis of the Nomad-Individual is the selfish recognition of one's own profit."
The basis of individualism is the "selfish" recognition that a person is not merely a tool for other people, but a person in their own right.
"It's time to put the Nomad-Individual mentality back where it belongs - the Stone Age."
WIthout individualists that's where you'd still be. And you'd rather be there than know you owe everything good to those you oppose.
Poor women, now they have to get a job instead of leeching off a workhorse provider and work like the rest of the cattle.
I'm assuming you're american. If so, brah, where are these socialists you're talking about? don't tell me you're one of those americans that thinks obama is a socialist! if so, please go learn what socialism means.
Worker co-ops would be an excellent idea. They are doing it in Spain and it has worked very well. I remember seeing a documentary on a worker co-op in Indiana which is working very well also
I worked for an employee-owned company one time and the company was sold to a corporation. How do employees take over existing corporations? I guess this idea only applies to new businesses.
greece had no problems till it opened up its bond market to american hedge funds
Who short sold them while big banks bought those assets up for pennies on the dollar
I couldn't get very far in the comments because of the sheer stupidity I was finding. Too bad. Could be some intelligent conversation.
What's on your mind?
More like how a book on alchemy would not make sense to a chemist, or a book on astrology to an astronomer. Much like trying to justify how all matter is made up of four elements, or how labor is alienated in four ways. But you're on the right track.
you should expect tons of mindless replies about how wonderful the capitalist system is and how it has brought tons of people up from powverty
I think spending several minutes over how things have been taking place in Germany is very important. Notice who is engaged in critical thinking and does not have problems with taboo economic questions. The US? NO. Germany? Yes. The intellectual disarray within the US in the form of shunning key economic debates does not bode well for its future. Instead, someone like Germany is well ahead of the curve.
On the whole a very inspiring talk. I had the audio over a game of Empire Earth. I beat the Assyrian Empire after a hard fought campaign, now I will make a comment. Actually I wont. I spent 10 minutes typing and then deleted it. I will watch the video again and make a post later. But this guy makes some serious points.
TheCarin12 Were you ever going to make that post?
Town and Country article about Resource Generation should read and discuss these ideas instead of losing all their funds to political protests that are forgotten in a few years. Please view these videos and discuss them with your friends; and discuss these suggestions 1. All elections can be tampered, especially close elections: quickly replace all voting machines with paper receipts used in millions of stores around the world (instead of different machines and processes in every zip code). 2. Every Fortune 500 Company should have to pay their lowest level employees (including all 'contractors' or 'temps') at one tenth the pay of the highest paid CEO. 3. Every human should automatically get a life time membership to a quality "chain" gym (in every state) that is open 24 hours and has a full bathroom to shower, toilet, brush teeth, change, do a load of laundry at the same time, or while taking a gym class, like gentle yoga or Tae Kwon Do (which should replace football as the national sport). This would save every city and county budget millions in power hosing the sidewalks because of no access to toilets. 4. Every city and town should have hundreds of parking spots set aside for secure over night parking, similar to the most expensive RV Parks for the Super Rich. Each parking lot could be named after a 'famous' valued, local person who has passed away (in order to keep the parking lot cheerful and 'high status' not a 'human dumping ground'). 5. Every 'Section 8' building or home should be renamed because 'Section 8' is a military term which translates into 'worthless person.' For example: 'Doris Day Memorial Dog Park Building' or 'Steve Allen Memorial Jazz Piano School'; every day a famous person dies and can have a high rise 'Section 8 Apartment' named after him or her, or their favorite pet (in order to reduce time wasting arguments over the name of a building). 6. These buildings should be designed by the trustworthy Richard Gage of 'Architects and Engineers for 9 ll Truth' (he voted for Ronald Reagan, this is about safety, not political parties, which flip flop over the decades) and 'Firefighters for 9 ll Truth.' All First Responders (including veterinarians and vet techs) deserve to live for free in these buildings, along with their extended family and circle of friends. This would help make every neighborhood safer to walk through and drive through for EVERYBODY. 7. The new organization 'Not One More Vet' trying to end the epidemic of veterinarians taking their own life, deserve a cancellation of all student debt. This should be copied to all military veterans. This should be copied to all students. 8. Never Forget Building 7 'Solving 9 ll Ends the War' by Christopher Bollyn (related to Ann Bollyn, King Henry the Vlll's ex wife) see his speech in Portland, Oregon, standing in front of a famous painting of dogs playing poker. He has close Jewish relatives and friends in Israel. He lived there for about three years, working as a lifeguard on a Kibbutz. 9. See the documentary about Brazil by the company called Rebbl (tea drink made out of Brazil nuts, etc.) slow verses fast capitalism for a healthier world. 10. See the cheerful, uplifting documentary 'Pump' about how to create 30 million middle class jobs, reduce deaths in car fires, kitchen fires, reduce asthma, heartattacks, reduce wild fires every year by turning farm and yard waste into 'Alcohol is a Gas!' by David Blume (buy his equipment at his official website, not the competition trying to put him out of business). Every church in every zip code could create cleaner, greener jobs for their members with owning their own ethanol gas station, as the couple named Near, does in the documentary, 'Pump.' This is much more living the bible than working at a casino, promoting gambling addiction. 11. Consider naming your baby girl Greta, as the UK has tried to bring back the name Nigel from going out into history. This will help promote daily clubs called 'Greta Goes Camping and Thanksgiving (CAT)' to promote teaching and learning a wide variety of 'green' skills, living off the grid, gourmet cooking and baking, promoting entrepreneur skills in young people instead of getting hit by bullets during high school football games (ten days ago at De Anza HS in Richmond, California, Church sidewalk, bus stop, horse trail, pristine creek with tons of 'new' trash every night, including house paint cans, stuck in tree branches for decades near Sheldon Elementary School on may road. G'day
Oh dear, the only problem I see with work cooperatives is some cooperative would have to include Michael Price
granny franny That's because you're really stupid. That's why you couldn't make a logical response to any of my arguments but merely gave snark. And not good snark either.
X-Files. The real Mission Impossible.
Humanity needs to fill a giant black hole in space called ignorance (greed) with light (love)...so that it's darkness (misery, murder, mass shootings, suicides, war, etc.) goes away and it's heavy gravitational pull stops sucking the joy out of life.
Then life can become a celebration with joy spilling out of the smiles of everyone. Like Love (god) intended for life to be in the first place.
We face some major obstacles though.
1) Light and truth (love) cause vampires (greed) great pain and suffering. That's why the words democratic society (socialism), "care for all" and "green new deal" cause the clueless counting corpses such misery.
2) Vampires (greed) are blind and cannot see the ignorance of transforming heaven (peace) into hell (war). The capitalist counting corpses are also blind and cannot see the ignorance of transforming this paradise planet lifeboat into a polluted pig pen.
3) The evangelical monsters are desperate to control a darkship called the Whitehouse. Because working in the dark to suck the joy out of life and destroy the planet is the only way that the loveless, lifeless parasites can survive and thrive.
Unlike earthling poets, artists, musicians, mystics, human beings and creators of joy...the clueless counting corpses can't create harmony (real intelligence) because vampires (greed) are far worse than stupid. The loveless, lifeless parasites are ignorant (dead).
This is old but still relevant… especially since 2016 election
There always has been Capitalism there will always be Capitalism, it is the inherent nature of man......DESIRE. That desire can be for things, life style, or power.
While many of his observations may be accurate like the success of Germany, his analysis of why is greatly flawed. He totally ignores culture, there is a reason Germany almost conquered most of Europe on it's own. What works in Germany does not necessarily mean it will work in another country.
Capitalism is collapsing under its own weight. Sooner or later, it is GOING to fail. If you're not familiar with the cooperative business model, I would encourage you to check it out. Richard Wolff did a video lecture on UA-cam about the Spanish town of Mondragon. The Mondragon cooperative business model has a lot to offer.
There is no cure for capitalism, nobody has been ever able to replace it in 100 years. We have to take advantage of capitalism and protect the workers with laws, like F.D. Roosevelt did. Churchill would have said: ¨capitalism is not perfect, but we know nothing better.¨
Everyone that calls himself /herself American -Should and I repeat should listen to this comentary.Well done I'm sold!!!!
you also don't understand child labour and how this was a part of history until the industrial revolution - people stopped sending people up chimneys as soon as they could afford not to. They tried to ban child labour in Bangladesh and predictably all these children went into prostitution .... do you think all the bad workers in the world live in Bangladesh? no! they don't have a developed enough economy.
TheProgressiveParent Why did Moms start working instead of raising the kids? Because Dad doesn’t make enough to live on. Why do kids begin to work instead of playing or going to school? Because Mom and Dad’s combined incomes are not enough to sustain the family. Make it so that Dad alone earns enough to support the family, kids go back to school and Mom takes care of them when there isn’t School.
The Cooperative Movement began in 1870 in the town l was born in, Rochdale, England, it's time we had these values back, with a basic minimum income and a maximum income, but guess what? they're not going tk let you.
Dear Mr. Richard D. Wolff,
Can you please explain to us why everyone who votes, big brother and the folks who hired them know how we vote and who it is we voted for? The same holds true with any change to charter or equivalent. I do not like my vote entitled to big brother eyes only and their bosses even though with old system they can watch your move and after leaving take top first then layer underneath to record how you vote. I think when Islam voted they made sure to show painted finger (on international television before flatscreen tv and other flatscreen tech became the norm for spying on us) of secret ballot. Reassurances when it may not be secret under democracy for Islam. I've wanted to vote in USPS Union nationally but you mail in vote, hello? My father was a high ranking officer in the domestic spy corp here and he always practiced at home and as self business owner what it is your trying to explain on being fair under our system which isn't. We the people have our work cut out for us, don't we? What voting system can be fair for all including any vote on any level when we may become one world whole for international candidates, we need positive assurances our vote is counted without knowledge of manipulators. How can this be achieved? Thank you.
Sincerely,
Don Suiters
Finally, someone who is expressing in a highly intelligent way- the way we all feel. It's the same now as low paid labor in factories- the factories just look different. and we have to pay for college first to have the privilege of financing the rich peoples lives! We're in big trouble- so time to start doing something. VOTE against corrupt politicians and put someone who is for us.
Richard's ideas are somewhat Utopian, a likely result of his career being all academic. Most first-world countries have some combination of capitalism & socialism that works, but should be improved. If the co-op business model was so successful, why hasn't it flourished here? He's correct, though, that German & other European social contracts would be much more equitable for us, likely requiring changing business practices that economically shift influence away from large corporations.
Obviously he's been a professor for most of his adult life, and of course he probably had to work his way up through university before becoming a professor. What's your point?
"They might create a job but not necessarily here, that might be good for them but not for us"
Erm, yes it is..... people in those countries can produce good cheaper raising the standards of living here
what is more American bucks go over to those countries which raises the standard of living there too
And what happens when our money leaves the continent? We have a trade deficit in the long run.
Persephone good question, it's a myth that trade deficits are bad in the long run and I'll explain why. American Dollars can only be spent on American goods, and therefore as the countries abroad develop we will see more and more of those dollars flying back to America to buy American goods.
Heaven would be a place where everyone has the freedom and desire to be harmless. For on earth, the majority have the freedom and desire to enrich themselves upon the misery of those who have less education, less wealth or less whiteness of skin. For the upper-half of society has always hoarded all the land, wealth and political power.
For good is life, evil is death and the purpose of earth is to reach the ultimate conclusion of sin, which is global warming and the extinction of all life.
REAL ISSUE
Do those in heaven truly have a freewill to be all they can be and out of gratitude act in harmony with the will of God, with their only motivation to instill in others a grateful response?
Or is the existence of gratitude pure fiction, the doing of something for no reward so void of logic and reason as to be the height of all evil?
For planet earth was created to be a paradise for ingrates, an intelligence dictatorship where by competition we enrich ourselves upon the misery of those less intelligent, worship those more intelligent and hoard all the glory and power of wealth that our brains and sex appeal can muster.
americans, Money is like a high, soon you need more, real reason for wanting it is getting attntion n love, gratitude, thats why homeless are despised as losers in a system they dont understand or like beause is wrong only ppl who like this systemem are Money junkies n ppl who never worked a day in their lifes but still are adored for giving nothing, this greed is killing us, is killing all the beauty in this world animals, rivers, florests, all resources are tied to Money and expansion of mankind ppl are asking more n more for the Money and demanding the destruction of wildlife, insanity is taking over, trump dosent care about anybody hes obcessed with himself and what others think of him he would destroy rain florest to build a golf n hotel if it made him Money, like he did in scotland destroying eco system voting for rich n ppl who are addicted to Money to run a country is crazy
"The fuck" that's going on all around me. What the fuck are YOU talking about brah?
Are you seriously positing that capitalism is the only possible economic system ?
Some of his premises are wrong or overtly simplistic
Capitalism (in America) existed from 1790 to roughly 1890
*Some might argue 1790 to 1850's others 1790 to 1940's
Capitalism has certain tenets
- Decentralised Currency
- Gold / Commodities are not pegged by Gov't
- Slavery was allowable
- Gov't is "small" and low interfering in nearly all markets
Free-market Theory actually comes from Mutualism or L-Anarchism.....a capitalistic gov't is a "near" free-market....but it still allowed for slavery
What we have today is Corporatism (wedding between gov't / politics / corporations)
What we need is MORE Anarchy and Less Gov't
Nope. None of that is capitalism.
And the corporatism you describe is the inevitable end result of actual capitalism.
I assume that you mean Spain does not do well w/ socialism & co-ops intentionally. Is that correct? If so, why would they operate sub-optimally?
We used the band aides now we need the cure.
LOL, This guy is clueless. Can't believe anyone could spend more than 5 minutes listening to this crap.
I like what he says but he's a little thin on data points. I would've liked him to point out to something tangible that makes his case (not the prognosis that capitalism is bad - but that Marxism is *better*)
He often used China's accelerating GDP growth and real wages, but as described by the Solow model, this is because China is still a developing economy. Once it reaches a certain stage, it will plateau.
On the topic of Co-ops, he only give an example of one Spanish organisation as such, but I don't think there's any data that supports the hypotheses that coops would beat a typical firm with shareholders.
@Dirk Knight
I've studied economics around many years ago, and yes I remember all of the classical models demonstrating why the incentives to maximise profits necessitate efficiency.
Absence of the profit motive would be inefficiency, and thereby increased cost being either absorbed by the producer or the consumer (in the case of inelastic demand, and public utilities spring to mind here).
Current economic systems are of course flawed, but I don't see the alternatives as any better.
An object lesson in explaing global economics and making it relevant. 'A working class hero is something to be' J Lennon
Socialism alreary died in other countries
This is compelling, and I agree that neither party in the US is on the side of the people. However, this thinking leaves me feeling futile. Perhaps because of FDR & the new deal, corporate America isn't going to allow any kind of change like this. They have invested a great deal in convincing us that words like collectivism, and concepts like a level playing field are evil, and many voters buy it. Beyond that, we accept as a given without question a system through which we sell our legislation to the highest bidder. We call it lobbying.
***** Yes. You get it my friend. Most folks just assume that there are extremes and no other solutions.
Capitalism and religion... get rid of these two things and promote science, knowledge, and technology.
I like the speaker but I am afraid he’s a tad delusional - No doubt the 1% or even 10% take too big a piece of the pie - and something does have to be done and now - We’;ll see?
Investing money in a new business is a risky proposition. If you open a store and it flops, the workers lose their jobs but the capitalist is out at least tens of thousands of dollars. All the inventory, all the advertising, the utilities, etc...
It takes money to make money, but having money doesn't guarantee money.
Try having an intellectual discussion instead of completely dismissing the obvious risks of investing.
I agree Prof. Wolff. Let's democratize, our workplaces, our society, our world.
Capitalism is a bad word. We fought communism and now we must fight capitalism. Vote for Bernie Sanders and democratic socialism. The society is more important than the greedy individual.
+BOB OVER The "greedy individual"? As opposed to you who is only concerned with the public good? You're using bullshit ad homs because you don't have a case and you know it.
The wage inequality is insane, but I want to know how much the risk entrepreneurs take is worth.
Dr. Wolff never speaks about the risk capitalists take, only how they exploit the workers.
Otherwise very interesting.
The state capitalism of the USSR had nothing to do with Marxism. Marxism is merely a way of looking at society, history, the economy, etc. and a movement that advocates for workers' control of their own labour (and the means of production). Lenin may have been influenced by Marx, but what he achieved had in the end nothing to do with the solution envisioned by socialists. If private capitalists at the head of a company are replaced by state commissars the mode of production is still capitalism.
I'm not trying to shock you, and would be fine with you wandering off.
If you want a good criticism of modern socio-political systems, I'd recommend James Burnham's Managerial Revolution (written way back in 1943). Dr. Willard Enteman also has a good criticism of the bipolar capitalist/socialist model in his book, Managerialism. If you really care about such things, look them up.
Bye.
I've heard such an apologia too. "I am not a Marxist..." but then an unwavering defense of Marxism and only marxism, with disdain for everyone else. Especially Republicans, Tea Partyists, libertarians, etc.
What was your term? "Free mousketeer?"
You say you're "looking for truth." Bull. You're attacking the critic of Marxism, and only the critic of Marxism. Well I'm not a "mousketeer," rendering your entire critique of me, again, baseless and irrelevant. So there.
"It's called technological progress"
But social and human retrograde. It´s(capitalism) just a immature fear driven way to run the world. When you accuse people of, "Its like talking Wahabist Muslims " You should take a look at your own servile drivel. Certainly Capitalism creates energy through fear, leading to greed: Yes its moving us fast, but toward a civilasatory cliff. Your faith is touching. The topic is "Cure for Capitalism," today, not problems with a the Soviet block system yesterday.
Bolshevik Russia implemented socialist principles in the establishment of collectivist farms. These "reforms" ruined Soviet agriculture for decades. The Maoist Chinese did the same thing, with similar results. So also the Khmer Rouge. So also the ZANU-PF.
Chile instead implemented free market reforms under Pinochet, which despite a dictatorship prospered economically. The PRC under Deng implemented similar free market reforms, with even greater results.
You've been ridiculous and rude. See ya.
I know what you mean.Yes, poor people , or in private saps. etc;-- I would see this from two ends. First mechanisation; they are now rebuilding robotic production in the West getting labour costs down to equivalent $3.50 an hour, which competes with developing industrial lands costs.Of course profit goes to a few. Second population is indeed too great, to sustain this high level of production/consumption. The answer less people, and a system that distributes wealth better.How to get there :-)?
In a free market, such as exists in Hong Kong for example, capitalists finance businesses that provide opportunities for workers. Thus a female Chinese peasant can escape farm work for the more lucrative pay of an urban business.Thus why living standards steadily improve in such societies. By contrast, in Marxist societies, prosperity is closely tied to how much or how little these governments shake down the capitalists for cash. For example, the situation in North Korea is especially bad.
No. Market fluidity. Steady growth or steady decline, with time for the the economic actors to adjust to their changing roles. Thus why command economies crash and burn - they aren't sufficiently responsive to market forces, and tend to become heavily politicized and nepotistic over time.
I've heard about this "going after traitors" thing before. Didn't you lot do the same thing to the kulaks, then claimed it "wasn't really communism" or some such? And yet, here we are again.
Finance and market fluidity. An increase in corn demand means that producers need to increase their production of corn. If the speculator buys corn cheaply, that means someone wanted to sell corn right away and needed the money immediately - else the producer would have sat on the corn supply himself. It's the same sort of contribution to the market that a banker makes by lending out money.
Understandable that you wouldn't have any idea how a free market works. Few socialists do.
I don't agree with wolfs solution as it stands but its fairly obvious for any system of capitalism to work it needs to incorporate a huge amount of kaynsianism/social democracy I am happy to call socialism as distinct from communism, its empiricaly proven that social democracy works to give the best lifestyle to the greatest number of people and all the right have to counter this is mass propergander form the socialy liberal economicaly conservative mainstream media
Twice you have punched the same button: ad hominem, questioning my character, projecting bad! bad! motives. The truth to you means nothing. Just silence the critics and reality will change via whatever you believe. It's the same as stance of OWS: carefully omit *any* factual recommendations as those could be controversial. Just whine, whine and whine, the more emotional and the less brainy a whine is the better. There are truthful but honest critics and there are whining children.
Yours is not sarcasm, but ignorance: the knowledge is not secret at all. In fact, all those things are areas of active research for people who aren't shouting maniacs media and other maniacs love so much. Those can even be leftwing economists, e.g. "ECONOMIC CULTURE WARS" by Krugman.
But, as Steven Hawking put it, every additional math formula in your text halves the number of remaining readers: empirics is tedious, hard and boring. Being a poseur like you feels better.
It does not really matter since the most capable of getting money, private or public, will help themselves to it in the first place. The teary eyed social workers will not tell you a little "detail" that most money (smth like $6 out of $7) sent to welfare ends up as costs of operating bureaucracy. It's business to them, and the poor and dumb will stay poor and dumb. In social democratic Norway, even though the poor and those on welfare are supported, they're increasingly detested.
That's a silly theory given that empirical data shows individual income is about the most strongly determined by IQ and IQ is highly heritable (0.82 correlation with IQ of parents). Sure dumb children inherit much of the wealth of the smart parents.
That's not to say that meritocracy is there: meritocracy is a nice ideal that can't really be attained in this world. Having experienced both Soviet system and capitalism I have to say it works somewhat better in capitalism.