Thank you for this Dr Wolf. My name is Hero Vincent. I helped build occupy. To be alive 10 years later and see the impact we made is so humbling and fulfilling. Thank you.
Thank you again Professor Wolff for your COURAGE to Speak about the REALITY of Capitalism and the need to continue the struggle to bring DEMOCRACY to the WORKPLACE and empower the 99% whose influence is MARGINALIZED by both the Political Process and the Economic Organization of Society.
I remember when I first read about the movement (I'm outside america), I said to myself: "this can only happen in america. this is why it is a great country." I was completely numb (& dumb) to politics and economics back then but the spirit of it hit me powerfully. Then it's crashed and I remember the deep sense of loss I felt. Didn't realize how relevant and important that idea and fighting spirit is till these years. I still see the spirit here and there in some americans such as professor Wolff but its vicious imperial aggression, the overwhelming corruption in the political system, the deeply indoctrinated, gullible majority of its population have completely wiped out my awe and admiration for America. Now I see it in China. Same exciting hope for humanity. what's amazing about it is that it comes from the government. Common wealth. Wow. The spirit lies deeply in every one of us I believe, except those with vest interests and except the turkeys that got propagandized into promoting Thanksgiving.
The forces of oppression and poverty have been working on this for decades under our nose and in plain site. Most of us never saw it coming. Now that it too late any efforts for positive change will stomped out under the all consuming thumb of corporate elitism.
The crash occurred during Bush's second term. Obama was backed, financed and elected because he promised his donors that he would give them a second huge bailout, wouldn't prosecute them for their crimes and would fill his cabinet with Wall Street bankers...all of which he ended up doing.
Personally I think when people have their power taken from them and the consequences. It is because of abuse of trust. Trust in government. Leaders. Whatever. It is not really their best interests being served. By the end results
I was very disappointed that no one was held accountable for the crash. And I have been told that WS went right back doing the same thing that led to the crash. It's about 100 year anniversary of 1929. Crash and big war back then, looks like we may have the history repeating. But this time humanity may cease to exist after a war with China and Russia. Scary times.
@@Haijwsyz51846 I even think we are in scarier times than in the Cuba crisis in regards to upcoming big wars. You can't trust those who govern us, nowhere, and the economic obstacles, as well as the social ones what following them, bring more pain to the people. And I thought I would witness the world will become a better place after the end of the cold war. We had many chances in the past but didn't use them, on the contrary, war is a normal outcome in politics and social disparity is growing.
Occupy Wallst gave me hope when I had none. The only way to a semi-decent life for someone like me was to grind in school, failure meant doing dishes/telemarketing for the rest of my life, if I was lucky! This despite vast surpluses due to robotics and agriculture. I was a slave, living off my parents to go to school, and too stressed to do well. In Canada, bitter hunger has gone up every year and investors buy up all the houses. They got us by the home and the pantry. No major political party except the NDP up north wants to address this, or even talk about : they don't dare cross the Pharaohs who bankroll them. Meanwhile, more and more Canadians starve, and I know it's the same down south. This system is tottering. The petro economy is fading quick : 20% of electricity generation in the US is now renewables, and rising quick. Canada, as usual, lags behind, but even here solar panels are now economical in most of the country. This changes a lot, but if our minds stay hardened, we'll never do better. Who makes these solar panels? China. The elites see the world as balanced : the old vs the new. They dearly want a new cold war to prop up their decaying palaces. China needs food, we need solar panels. It works. We need to hammer the swords into ploughs and accept that kindness and openness are the way forward. These panels will power a new world, where local production and global thinking are the mot du jour. Solar panels, a 3D printer and a global community and suddenly a lot of problem get solved for A LOT of people. It's hard to fathom, but there are now 7 billion people out there, all of them trying to live happily. A believe the Hippies of yore had part of the answer : we must love one another. Meditation can help shed the viciousness of the monkey mind we come into as children. The other half is how we related to one another, and Capitalism makes savage competition and then oppressive monopoly the law of the land. We can't let this continue. Occupy Wallstreet did amazing things in this regard, dismissed all too easily by the cowed and broken. We must change, or the drones the swooped around Iraq and Afghanistan will soon swirl around our homes, much like WW1 was Europe doing to Europeans what they'd done to the rest of the world for centuries.
@@marygard4608 We are constantly bombarded with American corporate propaganda because of the intertwined nature of our economies, our cultures and the media. Far too much of it is absorbed here as being factual and truthful when it is far from being so honest and benign. Having good government has been somewhat taken for granted in Canada, but things have gradually gotten worse as the American corporate capitalist model has gained more and more influence and control in our daily lives. This is happening everywhere, world-wide. Looking back over the last several decades we can see how often America's many mistakes are later being repeated here in Canada.
@@marygard4608 40% of the population here has about 1% of the wealth. Canada is deeply unequal. The prison system isn't as engulfing as in the States tho. If we were really that democratic, the wealth would be more evenly spread... I could go into what I see as the reasons for this, but I don't see that deeply into our society, my mind clouded by emotion. No one brings you food if you're starving, but if you walk on some rich guy's lawn, the police show up pretty quick. The 60% with half a sandwich worth of wealth keep the system going however. A car, a house that goes up in price every year, and 70% of the pop votes conservative or center (liberal). As I get older, I find I would rather be surrounded by kind people than smart, cruel people however. As luck would have it, the kindess people are usually smart too. Anyway, have a good one, and take it easy.
I really didn't understand at the time when occupy started what they hoped to accomplish by urban camping, but now I understand they changed the conversation. Now at least it has the narrative changing. Unfortunately it takes decades and I don't have that much time left, so I reckon I'll be doing my own urban camping if I ever want to retire.
You were not meant to understand because the corporate (capitalist) media did not report on it so you would understand. It was portrayed as radical and extremist.
It was partially in response to the 2008-9 collapse of the real estate market, driven by speculation. To bring attention to the fact that millions of families were evicted from homes they couldn't afford the adjustable-rate payments for.
no, they "tried" to change the conversation but the MSM drowned out actual debate with noise and distractions until the energy fizzled out. THAT is the power of pervasive social media. get people tired of going in circles they will get back into line
Thanks for giving me a new vocabulary. I have known all my life that something was wrong with our way of doing things but I could never figure out exactly what it was. It wasn’t until the Occupy Wall-street movement that I got it. Thanks.
The destruction of language and meaning comes first...once that has been accomplished, one can use any word, for any purpose, say nothing and rouse the rabble to whatever ends one desires as they will hear what they want to hear and keep coming back for more, while new words are added and the truth of what happened and is happening becomes further obscured and indecipherable and history repeats in the same manner for the same reasons and no one is the wiser for it. It's the gift that keeps on giving...
Occupy wall street was the beginning so now we as Americans, workers need to move much further in the direction of worker owned cooperatives and unions.
Today's headlines, some Democratic congress persons will try to prevent taxes being raised too much on our 1%. Democrats, the other side of the same coin, bought and paid for. Presently we do not have a left party, only two right parties, moving us farther and farther to the right.
That's exactly what we have now. It's nothing else, it has been nothing else and is doomed to be nothing else until and unless humanity changes and says enough of that. We've been worshiping Monarchs for millennia...all we need to do is stop it.
I did not hear this myself, I read someone post it, but they attributed it to George Carlin. "The American Dream. You have to be asleep to believe it." Or, as I say, ask the fifty thousand homeless Elvis Pressleys in Hollywood.
@kevin barker I will never submit or allow myself to be fooled by a system that has thrown me in severe poverty to where I keep losing more day by day because it's expensive to be broke and with the climate crisis it's so much worse. Almost all of RUclips ends up screaming on about "let's not be synical and be hopeful for incrementalism by voting"..It's truly enraging to expect so many who have suffered greatly to think anyone going into Washington DC will do anything more than just give us empty promises while ramping up the economic warfare,the propaganda from both right-wing parties(fuckers definitely aren't on the left if they preach for apartheid and war),let the banks steal the rest of the housing market,and send border patrol in Rio Grande to brutalize immigrants. The police in America have always been there to protect the property of the rich and that's what they'll continue to do. I don't expect anything to change as long as we continue to have faith in our non-functional government which at this point is pretty much non-functional. If we want to try to scare the rich in the way your thinking of we better really think about who we'll have to face. The military would bury us and they could do that at any moment really. We can deny it all we want. The worship of the 1%,the deliberate insults through spending. Our decline will be the most horrific if we don't effectively take these assholes out of power along with all the puppets that serve them. We know what a country ruled by a military dictatorship looks like. Just imagine how America will be in the next decade. Nothing will be left to salvage which is why we have to build a strong movement now,fight the propaganda with the truth,and stay away from the idea that incrementalism will do shit for us when we need fundamental change.
@kevin barker I'm aware of that but plenty are also capable of being manipulated by the media. Do our police depts care about shooting people everyday?We can't underestimate the capability of the military and the police just like we shouldn't overestimate the capability. I get the fact that a society doesn't go out with a bang. It's a slow process.
@kevin barker This also isn't 1929. We have plenty more issues to worry about. Like what we're going to do to try to adapt to climate change and deal with resources becoming more scarce as the rich take even more away from the majority. Everything is on the line and we let 40+years of letting the Capitalist elite class rob Everything and make our government non-functional. We have alot to face. We always let's the worst issues stagnate until it's too late while people Protesting for human rights results in beatings from the police or death. We need the whole country to make fundamental change otherwise the left is too weak to deal with the present obstacles. Medicare4all is considered radical and any socialist views are oppressed.
I was disappointed that Wolff did not spend more examining why Occupy Movement could be sustained and then evolve into a larger movement. Today there is no Left except The Left Behind and a whole bunch of lefty podcasts complaining about everything including each other.
At the back of my mind I worry for you, Prof Noam Chomsky, Prof Joseph Stiglitz and others who dare to speak their minds. I respect and honor you but I shudder when I think of Julian Assange.
that would require the people that create and enforce the policies of our government/society to actually create and enfore policies that benefits the people instead of the select few.
Bangor!!! I remember going to that Occupy when I was in college there at the time. It was the first time I ever heard of the idea of a UBI in that really crowded room.
"The workplace is the starkest example of no-democracy that I can think of." - You must've forgotten about prisons. Prisons are the dead-zone of US democracy
Technically, you're correct. But work is something most everyone experiences. And I'm all for prison reform, but should prisoners govern themselves? I think not. I think they should be allowed to vote from prison.
Somebody needs to watch _My Dinner with Andre._ Prisons are the epitome of our democracy; we all collectively agree to the prison system, we even grant the power of profit unto it. What could be more democratic? The only real difference between an _employee_ and a _prisoner_ is that one gets to "choose" through employment which prison they get to be imprisoned in.
Let's get this straight... The new poor can't tolerant it anymore. When the new poor wasn't poor, they loved the system that would eventually consume them. So now we have the 'pull yourself up by your own bootstraps' crowd realizing(too late) that you can't pull yourself up with your own bootstraps when you have no bootstraps.
Poor have no guns! And some mother will sell her baby for money! So, some ppl will do anything to other ppl so they don't have to fear! We are doomd as race! Soon we will ALL cry together!
I remember that the Police State crushed the Occupy Movement. That's what gets forgotten as soon as it happens because it's too unlike what the USA is supposed to be.
It was the people that were on Medicare that crushed the occupy movement. I remember being with my grandfather watching news on t.v. I explained to him that they are fight for us. He said all they were doing was causing trouble.
@@FirstnameLastname-tw6yt Nonsense, they have no direct political power...they were just believing corporate media propaganda that was part of Wall Street's massive campaign to shut down the protests against them as quickly as possible.
@@ProleDaddy How are you going to win when the people your fighting for are against you. You have to start a group of 2 people that live in your city. Then build it to a 100. Once you do that then you focus on winning hearts and minds have an election within your 100 group. Vote for a person within your 100 group that you would vote for major. Then add another 100 to your group have another group election. This time the vote is on the vice major. Keep adding people too your group till you get to 1000 then officialy run for mayor. When you win mayor then that candidate can move on to House of Representatives or indorse someone within your group.
Wolf says it lead to Bernie and the Squad, but I don't think so, the conditions that created occupy lead to Bernie and the Squad, but occupy itself was effectively a failure in my view. It was crushed and that showed the left will be crushed.
One thing to remember was there was another depression in the US in 1920 and 1873. Recessions occurred every few years from 1800-1940s en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recessions_in_the_United_States
And those were studied carefully by Kondratiev, who saw even larger patterns formalized the understanding of boom/bust generated by technological advancemments. Nowadays these cycles are faster and mostly specific industry based, but it's still relevant. It would be interesting to know what would his take on 2008 be.
@kevin barker The big one was used to blot out teaching that economic crisis occurred so regularly and indeed depressions we’re frequent, but per your remark farm subsidy (+the fed) are gov controls to tame crisis. However, they don’t remove other weaknesses. 1 Disposable income is business opportunity. Its absence economic ruin. 2 The money syndrome (Das Geld Syndrome in its original German). In short, usury (interest) and inflation are used to manage the velocity of money and the money supply, but his system is also unstable (inflation is built in either from interest itself or from excess money in circulation, and it is subject to deflationary spirals, this requiring a base of inflation). It is also a system that tends to concentrate wealth. Wörgl stamp script and Bractaeten in the 13th and 14th century Germany did not suffer these problems and in the latter case provided an era of immense stability + prosperity.
Question for Rick Wolff or anyone for that matter is: Companies are investing and adopting AI and automation to address more and more intellectual tasks (writing, research, customer service, analysis, surgery, etc) how much effect will this have on worker leverage? Unlike the industrial revolution, I suspect this AI / Automation revolution's (may have short term gains for job growth / creation) but over all the RATIO of job creation to job elimination will ultimately be far less than 1 to 1.
Curious about why no pro capitalist, and few socialist talk about hoarding and its impact on how well a capitalist economic system runs. If Capitalism is an engine, and grease / oil is the money /liquidity to keep it running smoothly... why is it okay that rich keep taking money out of the system (parking the wealth/ money on the sidelines), eventually they'll run out of the substance needed to keep the system running no?
We live in a bona fide Feudal society. Most people cannot see it, many deny it, and the richest and most powerful promote it. At the ripe age of 72 I nevertheless feel like the young lad who shouts from the crowd that "The Emperor is Naked"!
"Let's go occupy, occupy, Com'On let's go occupy-ah-ah-ah-ehy, let's go into occupy; let me hear your body talk, your body talk, let me hear body talk-oh"
Senator Sanders tries his best, but the system has ground down his imagination. He's no Eugene Debs; this is not an insult, just an evaluation. We need to imagine greater changes than a kinder capitalism; it needs to be common to experiment with things like not using money at all. Radically changing our relationships and mode of production.
@@woodytobiasjr8265 It's pretty easy to sit on the sidelines and criticize people who fail rather than try yourself. Bernie is not a god or an icon, so we can support him even if he's flawed, but the socialist movement is beyond him. Not Me, Us.
Bernie is from the same generation as Wolff and has the same blind spots. they have no understanding of cutting edge technology or practical management of large organizations. unless the US could rally behind UBI (wealth redistribution, eliminate Fed Reserve manipulation), high speed rail (lower cost of mobility), and techno-democratic reform (media restructuring), small minded goals like raising min-wage to $15 aren't worth anything worker place co-ops can't compete against corporations because traditional democracy doesn't scale as well nor is it as nimble in decision-making. apply technology so collective decisions could be massively scalable and efficient, then you have an actual chance of fixing the entire system
@@dirrdevil tell me, exactly, what Bernie did for anyone or anything. He didn't further any socialist agenda, he stood in it's way. He was nothing more than a sheep herder for the Democrats.
@@woodytobiasjr8265 Nonsense, Bernie has been fighting for the working class his whole life. As one of his campaign managers said, Bernie is used to leading from behind, he does not know who to lead from the front. He is well versed in being practical to achieve what he can, rather than blaze out as a radical. And when he failed to garner enough votes to beat Joe or Hillary, he had to face reality. Now he is too old really and we need new leaders who can get elected. Squad is not doing it.
To add to Prof's point, capitalism is not evil. It's just a tool. In fact, a very good tool at building the economy. But a tool can build or destroy depending on the wielder. As with any tool, if there is no restriction and limit on its usage, nothing good will come out of it. So do not hate capitalism, but set rules and regulations to restrict it and put it to good use for the betterment of all human kind.
Well yeah, that goes without saying & he's made that point elsewhere. So the crux of the problem is the we have one party that represents, for all intents & purposes exclusively, the view that unfettered & unregulated Capitalism is good for everybody, while the other party is split depending on their view of the economy. It's plainly obvious to me which approach does not work. Bigger companies controlling more of the market has only benefited those few on top, everybody else...not so much. For me it's all summed up with the current $750B military budget while Congress wrangles over a $350B per year (for 10 years) proposal for infrastructure.with some saying that's "too much money" to spend. Priorities.
I really like bees. They are one of the most cooperative types of animals there is and they not only cooperate with each other, they develop a mutualism with the plants they eat, pollinating them. They are also not submissive to the queen, who is not a ruler, she works her entire life laying eggs. And bees have individuality. They go around the environment exploring the places alone and then dance to tell the others what they saw and then they collectively decide whether to go there or not. It is Kropotkin's mutual help in action. Large predators such as lions and wolves that aristocrats love to place in their heraldry go extinct in a few tens of thousands of years as they develop a fragile relationship with the environment. Bees first appeared over 60 million years ago and all flowering plants spread across the planet at the same time. This animal that should be honored and not the lions and other beasts that the nobles and the rich love to display in their symbology. And on top of that, together they can defeat the bears. Society's bees appear in every bear market to question the predatory capitalism that breaks every decade.
Hives are known to experience "drift", where bees change colonies. This can happen to both workers (female bees) as well as drones (male bees), moreso with the latter. This happens for a number of reasons. Bees have a range of two miles and do much of their extracolonial travel visually, using landmarks, so it's often speculated that they become lost or confused and end up someplace else. They are often exhausted from their travels, so we can speculate that they may just collapse to another hive in an act of self preservation, unusual for a "superorganism" that relies on strict cooperation! So let's talk about socializing. It's well known that a honeybee can make an "offering" to the guards at the entrance of another hive, by regurgitating nectar from their crop, thus bribing the guards who would normally stop other bees. They are then tagged with the scent profile of that hive - like a lot of the pheromone properties in the hive, this part is loosely understood. Often, honeybees going from one hive to another are robbing. This happens when there's enough honey for another colony's scouts to smell. The attacking colony will send scouts who attempt to overwhelm the guards and rob out the honey stores of the other hive. This usually happens when the robbed colony is weakened, either from queenlessness or disease. Drifting, however, is different, and represents an interesting behavior among bees. Some people believe it's a vector for disease, which it probably is, but the below study indicates that it's probably not that big of a factor. I think it's just a species preservation behavior. Think human travelers moving from town to town and getting in good with the guards at the gate before being let in. We do it because it just makes sense. Why not invite in some extra hands (or in the case of bees, extra claws)? An interesting note besides socialization: the Cape honeybee (Apis mellifera capensis) is a subspecies from far southern Africa, originating in a specific coastal region. They have a special faculty, thelytoky, which allows them to lay an egg that is essentially a clone of themselves. This allows them to perform much more effective supercedures (queen raising ) than, say, the european honeybees, who need to raise a queen from an egg already deposited in the hive if there's an emergency or they lose a queen. European honeybees can only produce unfertilized drones, meaning a colony of the european bees without a Queen or eggs will perish. Well this Cape honeybee, should it infiltrate another hive, such as those of African honeybees (apis mellifera scutelleta), can wreak havoc by laying clones of itself. Those clones hatch and then make clones of themselves. In short order, they overcome the latent genetics in the hive. This has been a menace for many beekeepers in Africa, because Cape honeybees are ill suited to life outside the Cape region.
@@jgalt308 Bees are not perfect, I guess. Neither are people. I prefer to look at them in the cooperative description of the original post where they enhance nature rather than the details provided by yourself. I'd like people to be that way too. When we cooperate with one another rather like a big family of man then civilization advances. When men and women only pursue selfish aims, I believe cultures wither. But thanks for sharing your many entries.
@@daniellarson3068 No problem...the thing is "humans" have never co-operated in the manner you would like...for the motivations are "selfish" in terms of reproduction, and being in "control" provides advantages toward that goal. Also, human interaction works according to game theory, where your choices are cooperate or cheat. The choices here are dependent on the probabilities of being successful, versus the certainty of consequences, as well as the circumstances motivating the choices. Clearly cheating takes far less effort...and punishment is hardly certain...and when the cheating takes place by those who have control...that there will be any consequences is highly improbable.
Sorry for posting 2 earlier digressive comments as they are not granularly specific to the occupy. I am kinda new to posting and as I am a Wolff fan I just wanted to get off my chest in a pro-human /socialist forum.
The Wall Street bankers backing financed and put him into office to do their bidding. The occupy movement was specifically targeted at them...bringing unwanted attention to their self-serving activities. The corporate media, both political parties and Obama got their orders to put an end to the protests ASAP and that's just what they did.
There was a period of decades where being a socialist or a communist was like being a worshipper of Satan. To go from that, to a situation where more people my generation support the idea of socialism (whatever that means to them) over capitalism, in the matter of one decade or less - that is revolutionary. Think about it: there is no knowledge of socialism in our public institutions besides how we demean it. I never learned about socialism in school. And because of one movement, and then Bernie which Occupy inspired, we got to the majority of my generation supporting socialism over capitalism. I get so pissed when people on the Left say Occupy wasn’t a big deal. Were they high as fuck back then? Are they high as fuck now? I was in High School, growing up in a conservative area, and there were conservative family members who were saying shit like, “socialism is not all bad. I support a mixed economy.”
Things have changed since 2008. The Fed has learned to manipulate data so that even if things are really bad, it doesn't appear in stats. The Fed has manipulated and pumped so much money into the financial markets that people don't how bad things really are. All they see is a DJI at 35,500. They have manipulated inflation numbers so much that people don't think inflation is rising quickly. They have manipulated unemployment numbers, too. People are feeling serious economic pain but the stats don't refelect that. The 1% changed the game by manipulating data, much more than before. So a person could be facing terrible economic times because capitalism is failing, but the numbers don't reflect ANY of that. Therefore, most Americans don't think capitalism is failing. If people don't have control of the real data and stats, they can't prove that hings are getting really bad, and the 1% realizes this.
From 1980's through the 90's economic influences crippled Farmers. Our food source, and then corporate investors bought up all the farmers turning them into giant corporate farm's. Had we the people kept control over our food sources we would not be at the mercy of the suffering the employer class perpetrates, should further suffering be instigated for Profit.
The way I look at it. When I refer to what indigenous people have gone through in many nations. Islands . By huge corporations they have very few traits to admire. Thus many of us choose to invest in those with some sort of social costs integrity. We need to think more carefully about what we use. Consume. Learn . The environment is coming back to bite in the backside bigly because of the damage by corporations for a start. Ralph Nader a man way before his time. And the likes of me growing up . Made to be so unaware . Proff Wolff another trying to inform for the big "wake up". Call.
A lecture coming from someone who has never held a real job. . . . moving directly from completing his studies directly into the Utopian career of reaping the rewards of higher education. . . . that, funded by Capitalism. One would love to get a look at his investment portfolio for any ties to the money changers.
But that is the "anointed vision" of socialism...but humans are neither "eusocial" nor insects, and in such a world, there would be no place for Wolff.
it was a beautiful thing. There were young progressives and libertarians in the middle of the street. Not to scream fake political rhetoric about morality We were out there discussing and talking and most importantly we listened to each other about monetary policy. There were progressives convincing libertarians that we owe it to our fellow Americans to protect and offer a social safety net All while libertarians were making a convincing case for a nation flat tax to progressives People were receptive to ideas and changing things But we were young And history shows given enough times the young will become just as jaded and stubborn as the fools that dumped this failure of a world on us. Maybe we can get some of our mojo back before it's too late
Now use the same logical analysis for forced medical treatments, using a job/mobility as leverage...this is a slippery slope in a country that has previously forced sterilization, human testing, Eugenics...to think any of these could not happen again is wishful thinking and extremely short sighted...
Most importantly, an innovative concept were designed to keeping the working class & unskilled pay packets as low as defined, is counterproductive, and unacceptable. Even, with substantial rise in pay, if introduced, could be means tested by the law here as related to threshold of income for accessing full benefits from the state. A new system is a group of interrelated components working together effectively towards a common goal carefully defined ✍️
I'm against minimum wage, the person in an enterprise who earns the most should be capped at not more than 100 times more than the lowest paid person in the enterprise. That would help level the playing field.
Being against the minimum wage is just stupid. Who's to say you can't employ a wage ratio between all employees with a minimum wage as well. Besides, 100x is an insane number. What worker is doing 100x the work of someone else?
@@ivandafoe5451 Actually gold is still lawful money and has an official price...but none of you can read which is why you've had an illegitimate government for 88 years, and find yourselves without rights.
But there is a basic misunderstanding here. In capitalism the workplace can never be democratic for the simple fact that the worker does not enter a company as part of it that performs a specific task (a job), but as a seller of a commodity, its workforce. In the legal relationship underlying an employment contract, the worker and the employer do not oppose each other as different but equally necessary parts of a company organization (management-execution), but as sellers and buyers of a commodity (the workforce): they are opposite poles of a sale. It follows that the basis of their relationship is not of an organizational nature and has nothing to do with either the workplace or the work tools. Theirs is a simple monetary relationship in which one sells and the other buys labor force.
You seem to think that your stated version of the corporate workplace is somehow "misunderstood" that people are simply "commodities"and should regard themselves as such and no more...you are entirely wrong, it's just the opposite. Workers are quite rightly no longer interested in "selling" themselves in this pseudo-slave-labor way. No one should accept this ridiculously arbitrary constriction on their personhood and what they bring to any working relationship. People are NOT just commodities, despite the capitalists apparent desire to conveniently commodify everything and everyone with such facile excuses and rationales. Anyone (including you) who tries to force this inhumane nonsensical idea on society must be completely rejected as having no pretensions of a valid argument.
@@ivandafoe5451 People as workers are commodities not because they consider themselves as commodities, but because they receive a wage, which refers to a monetary relationship between those who pay a wage to obtain work in exchange and those who receive a wage by offering work in exchange, exactly as in the purchase and sale of any other commodity where the buyer of the commodity pays money and the seller of the commodity receives money. This relationship does not derive from "a ridiculously arbitrary restriction on the personality of the workers", but from the separation of the worker from his means of labor, which indeed oppose him as the property of others, that is, as the capital of the capitalist. The capitalist who pays a wage does not buy neither the worker nor his labor power, but only the use of his labor power for a certain period of time (e.g. 8 hours a day) during which he becomes the owner and, as an owner, it is his full right to dispose of this manpower as he pleases, just as the buyer of any other commodity acquires the full right to dispose of the commodity he buys. And here every ambition for democracy in the workplace is shattered. On the other hand, precisely because the worker does not sell himself or his labor power but only the use of that labor power for a certain period of time, he continues to be the owner of his labor power and, as the owner , it is his full right to oppose an excessive use by the capitalist that compromises its efficiency and, therefore, prevents it from being able to resell its use even the next day. And here arises an opposition between two equally legitimate rights, and, right against right, it is force that decides.
Trouble is-- some workers are malingerer and some are goldbrickers-- thinking that others will do the work anyway-- so they get fired or told to get lost-- what is wrong with that?
@kevin barker Of course there also bosses who are malingerers and goldbrickers--- and when the business goes belly up they blame the capitalists for not injecting more funds!!
"Those that aspire to power and money above the natural desire to help and understand their fellow humans...." There is no evidence available to support your claim that a "natural desire" exists for the latter, as opposed to the former. The idea that altruism and co-operation are fundamental to humans is a "mythology" whose origin rests with the circumstantial necessity of these traits when small groups of hunter/gatherers found themselves in competition for resources with "other" groups. Within this paradigm, this necessity provided a balance with the other "natural desire" to seek advantage for the purposes of "reproduction" and genetic transmission, as one's position within the "dominant hierarchy" improved. With the advent of fixed agriculture and the rise of "civilization", the cohesion of the smaller groups, such as it was, was broken, with respect to both "altruism and co-operation" while the advantages to those who achieved dominance were enhanced, since these groups became larger and inequality increased. If your claim was correct regarding this natural desire to help and understand "our fellow humans", then what currently exists would not be possible.......for how could the "few" have ever dominated the "many", when the conditions of the former were so much better than those of the latter. ( and never better than now in terms of inequality. ) Consider the difficulty of "organizing" the "have nots" ( an overwhelming majority of the world's population ) against the continued exploitation they are forced to endure at the hands of the "haves". It takes very little effort to "divide" these various factions and set them against one another, and in many cases this "division" is both incited and maintained by these various factions, without assistance from above? I submit to you, that both of these " desires" are "natural", and that given the difficulty of sustaining those which require "group cohesion" when group size becomes "unmanageable", that seeking "individual advantage" becomes the more pragmatic and accessible choice, even though one's probability of achieving it diminishes when more competitors are added. I further submit to you, that to continue to espouse "altruism and co-operation" as "natural traits" is neither consistent with the evidence, nor true in any but the most limited sense, and it's serves no "useful" purpose to continue this "mythology". Therefor, given that of all the mechanisms that exist in "civilization" are structured to "support" those in control of them, that "altruism and co-operation" must be viewed as "traits" that must be positively "chosen" and not assumed to be naturally inherent would seem to be a more "productive" path. After all this "mythology" has also been co-opted by religions, and "aspiring governments", as well as political movements, and none of it has made the slightest bit of difference........so while the "facts" may be hard to accept. mythologies serve no useful purpose other than providing temporary and delusional comfort which is "powerless" in the face of objective reality. RESPONSE: "True, but the rest of us are just as sick for allowing it." I don't think that, that is the reasonable way to view the underlying mechanism which has produced the present result. As explained, while the eusocial traits of altruism and co-operation are present, the benefit and reward for them must be supported by tangible results. As civilization emerged, both thebenefits and rewards began to diminish, and even institutions that continued to promotethem, siphoned off a considerable portion for themselves, before distributing what was left. One does not see the Vatican, suffering for want of "anything" and has always promoted it own interests first, and always displayed a "rentier" mentality, throughout it's hierarchy over the centuries. while describing what is both "morally correct" despite whatever "vows" it professes to hold itself to. Any system, which professes to standards of behavior, as its purpose and claim to legitimacy, yet whose actions contradict that standard and fail to deliver the "goods", will discourage such behavior, for those who are intelligent enough to penetrate the deception. For those who persist, in spite of this, the next step is to inflict "punishment" for this persistence. In such an environment, which has never rewarded such behavior, that people choose not to engage in it, does not deserve to be labeled sick.....for it would not be a "sane" choice. After all, all aspects of eusocial behavior, are directed at survival and reproduction.....and if a certain set of behaviors diminish the probability of success for both of these things, it is not reasonable to expect that the common behavior of all who are subject to it, to collectively ignore the feedback, the system has made self evident, should one choose to engage in it?????
@kevin barker Actually, that's what they don't want...after all, you might actually punch up and hit the right target. Mostly though they know you won't, and you don't have a clue how to organize to do it correctly so that everyone KNOWS who the target is.
Your grasp of history and human development is no better than your grasp of economics. You're just trying to rationalize your indoctrinated Libertarian BS. If you chose to believe such crap, that's your right...but spare us the dim-witted evangelical pretensions that you know what you are talking about...you don't.
The "willfully ignorant, functionally illiterate, unevolved talking hominids" think that two "fact free" morons agreeing means something. They do love labels though and think they can read minds.
Thank you for this Dr Wolf. My name is Hero Vincent. I helped build occupy. To be alive 10 years later and see the impact we made is so humbling and fulfilling. Thank you.
The pitty is 10 years ago socialism was still being whispered rather than being discussed to educate a major movement of the time.
Thank you again Professor Wolff for your COURAGE to Speak about the REALITY of Capitalism and the need to continue the struggle to bring DEMOCRACY to the WORKPLACE and empower the 99% whose influence is MARGINALIZED by both the Political Process and the Economic Organization of Society.
I remember when I first read about the movement (I'm outside america), I said to myself: "this can only happen in america. this is why it is a great country." I was completely numb (& dumb) to politics and economics back then but the spirit of it hit me powerfully. Then it's crashed and I remember the deep sense of loss I felt. Didn't realize how relevant and important that idea and fighting spirit is till these years. I still see the spirit here and there in some americans such as professor Wolff but its vicious imperial aggression, the overwhelming corruption in the political system, the deeply indoctrinated, gullible majority of its population have completely wiped out my awe and admiration for America. Now I see it in China. Same exciting hope for humanity. what's amazing about it is that it comes from the government. Common wealth. Wow. The spirit lies deeply in every one of us I believe, except those with vest interests and except the turkeys that got propagandized into promoting Thanksgiving.
The forces of oppression and poverty have been working on this for decades under our nose and in plain site. Most of us never saw it coming. Now that it too late any efforts for positive change will stomped out under the all consuming thumb of corporate elitism.
The crash occurred during Bush's second term.
Obama was backed, financed and elected because he promised his donors that he would give them a second huge bailout, wouldn't prosecute them for their crimes and would fill his cabinet with Wall Street bankers...all of which he ended up doing.
Personally I think when people have their power taken from them and the consequences. It is because of abuse of trust. Trust in government. Leaders. Whatever. It is not really their best interests being served. By the end results
I was very disappointed that no one was held accountable for the crash. And I have been told that WS went right back doing the same thing that led to the crash. It's about 100 year anniversary of 1929. Crash and big war back then, looks like we may have the history repeating. But this time humanity may cease to exist after a war with China and Russia. Scary times.
@@Haijwsyz51846 I even think we are in scarier times than in the Cuba crisis in regards to upcoming big wars. You can't trust those who govern us, nowhere, and the economic obstacles, as well as the social ones what following them, bring more pain to the people. And I thought I would witness the world will become a better place after the end of the cold war. We had many chances in the past but didn't use them, on the contrary, war is a normal outcome in politics and social disparity is growing.
Occupy Wallst gave me hope when I had none. The only way to a semi-decent life for someone like me was to grind in school, failure meant doing dishes/telemarketing for the rest of my life, if I was lucky! This despite vast surpluses due to robotics and agriculture. I was a slave, living off my parents to go to school, and too stressed to do well. In Canada, bitter hunger has gone up every year and investors buy up all the houses. They got us by the home and the pantry. No major political party except the NDP up north wants to address this, or even talk about : they don't dare cross the Pharaohs who bankroll them. Meanwhile, more and more Canadians starve, and I know it's the same down south.
This system is tottering. The petro economy is fading quick : 20% of electricity generation in the US is now renewables, and rising quick. Canada, as usual, lags behind, but even here solar panels are now economical in most of the country. This changes a lot, but if our minds stay hardened, we'll never do better. Who makes these solar panels? China. The elites see the world as balanced : the old vs the new. They dearly want a new cold war to prop up their decaying palaces.
China needs food, we need solar panels. It works. We need to hammer the swords into ploughs and accept that kindness and openness are the way forward. These panels will power a new world, where local production and global thinking are the mot du jour. Solar panels, a 3D printer and a global community and suddenly a lot of problem get solved for A LOT of people. It's hard to fathom, but there are now 7 billion people out there, all of them trying to live happily.
A believe the Hippies of yore had part of the answer : we must love one another. Meditation can help shed the viciousness of the monkey mind we come into as children. The other half is how we related to one another, and Capitalism makes savage competition and then oppressive monopoly the law of the land. We can't let this continue. Occupy Wallstreet did amazing things in this regard, dismissed all too easily by the cowed and broken. We must change, or the drones the swooped around Iraq and Afghanistan will soon swirl around our homes, much like WW1 was Europe doing to Europeans what they'd done to the rest of the world for centuries.
I had no idea. We in the USA look to Canada as a model of government of and for the people.
@@marygard4608 We are constantly bombarded with American corporate propaganda because of the intertwined nature of our economies, our cultures and the media. Far too much of it is absorbed here as being factual and truthful when it is far from being so honest and benign.
Having good government has been somewhat taken for granted in Canada, but things have gradually gotten worse as the American corporate capitalist model has gained more and more influence and control in our daily lives. This is happening everywhere, world-wide.
Looking back over the last several decades we can see how often America's many mistakes are later being repeated here in Canada.
@@marygard4608 40% of the population here has about 1% of the wealth. Canada is deeply unequal. The prison system isn't as engulfing as in the States tho. If we were really that democratic, the wealth would be more evenly spread... I could go into what I see as the reasons for this, but I don't see that deeply into our society, my mind clouded by emotion.
No one brings you food if you're starving, but if you walk on some rich guy's lawn, the police show up pretty quick. The 60% with half a sandwich worth of wealth keep the system going however. A car, a house that goes up in price every year, and 70% of the pop votes conservative or center (liberal).
As I get older, I find I would rather be surrounded by kind people than smart, cruel people however. As luck would have it, the kindess people are usually smart too.
Anyway, have a good one, and take it easy.
@@RobotTed You too, Ted. Don't let the bastards wear you down.
@@jimbodriver1015 Dr. Wolff might say the planet has never been more unsafe.
I really didn't understand at the time when occupy started what they hoped to accomplish by urban camping, but now I understand they changed the conversation. Now at least it has the narrative changing. Unfortunately it takes decades and I don't have that much time left, so I reckon I'll be doing my own urban camping if I ever want to retire.
You were not meant to understand because the corporate (capitalist) media did not report on it so you would understand. It was portrayed as radical and extremist.
It was partially in response to the 2008-9 collapse of the real estate market, driven by speculation. To bring attention to the fact that millions of families were evicted from homes they couldn't afford the adjustable-rate payments for.
@@timothyhawkins3627 yet the same devaluing of all our efforts by speculating on virtually everything we toil for continues.
@@abqmalenurse apparently.
no, they "tried" to change the conversation but the MSM drowned out actual debate with noise and distractions until the energy fizzled out. THAT is the power of pervasive social media. get people tired of going in circles they will get back into line
Thanks again, Dr. Wolff, for your therapeutic discussion and prescription.
Thanks for giving me a new vocabulary. I have known all my life that something was wrong with our way of doing things but I could never figure out exactly what it was. It wasn’t until the Occupy Wall-street movement that I got it. Thanks.
The destruction of language and meaning comes first...once that has been accomplished,
one can use any word, for any purpose, say nothing and rouse the rabble to whatever ends
one desires as they will hear what they want to hear and keep coming back for more,
while new words are added and the truth of what happened and is happening becomes
further obscured and indecipherable and history repeats in the same manner for the
same reasons and no one is the wiser for it.
It's the gift that keeps on giving...
We love you Dr. Wolff!
We so. For sure.
I believe that this movement is spiritual rather economics. I greatly enjoy your input.
Such a great video. Thank you Prof Wolff for keeping it real. ⭐️
Occupy wall street was the beginning so now we as Americans, workers need to move much further in the direction of worker owned cooperatives and unions.
Today's headlines, some Democratic congress persons will try to prevent taxes being raised too much on our 1%. Democrats, the other side of the same coin, bought and paid for. Presently we do not have a left party, only two right parties, moving us farther and farther to the right.
You can always revolt and take back power! As you said yourself they are just 1% so hang em! The french did it ones.
@@The.world.has.gone.crazy... And I can hear it already: But we didn't know things were so bad or we would have done something about it.
I went to one occupy demonstration outside the Municipal Compleix in a conrcervatve area.I was surprized of the positive responces!
I like that you mentioned neofeudalism at the end there.
That's exactly what we have now. It's nothing else, it has been nothing else and is doomed to be nothing else until and unless humanity changes and says enough of that. We've been worshiping Monarchs for millennia...all we need to do is stop it.
I did not hear this myself, I read someone post it, but they attributed it to George Carlin. "The American Dream. You have to be asleep to believe it." Or, as I say, ask the fifty thousand homeless Elvis Pressleys in Hollywood.
I admire what you do. Lots of love and respect to you and your team Prof Wolff.
Thank you Dr. Wolff!!
Thanks Dr. Wolff for clearing out the foggy air of capitalism affecting the workplace.
We shall overcome; to direct the wealth of our world for the benifit and progress of all people
@kevin barker That's what the 1% want. To be quiet and submissive while they rob us of every resource.
@kevin barker I will never submit or allow myself to be fooled by a system that has thrown me in severe poverty to where I keep losing more day by day because it's expensive to be broke and with the climate crisis it's so much worse. Almost all of RUclips ends up screaming on about "let's not be synical and be hopeful for incrementalism by voting"..It's truly enraging to expect so many who have suffered greatly to think anyone going into Washington DC will do anything more than just give us empty promises while ramping up the economic warfare,the propaganda from both right-wing parties(fuckers definitely aren't on the left if they preach for apartheid and war),let the banks steal the rest of the housing market,and send border patrol in Rio Grande to brutalize immigrants. The police in America have always been there to protect the property of the rich and that's what they'll continue to do. I don't expect anything to change as long as we continue to have faith in our non-functional government which at this point is pretty much non-functional. If we want to try to scare the rich in the way your thinking of we better really think about who we'll have to face. The military would bury us and they could do that at any moment really. We can deny it all we want. The worship of the 1%,the deliberate insults through spending. Our decline will be the most horrific if we don't effectively take these assholes out of power along with all the puppets that serve them. We know what a country ruled by a military dictatorship looks like. Just imagine how America will be in the next decade. Nothing will be left to salvage which is why we have to build a strong movement now,fight the propaganda with the truth,and stay away from the idea that incrementalism will do shit for us when we need fundamental change.
@kevin barker I'm aware of that but plenty are also capable of being manipulated by the media. Do our police depts care about shooting people everyday?We can't underestimate the capability of the military and the police just like we shouldn't overestimate the capability. I get the fact that a society doesn't go out with a bang. It's a slow process.
@kevin barker This also isn't 1929. We have plenty more issues to worry about. Like what we're going to do to try to adapt to climate change and deal with resources becoming more scarce as the rich take even more away from the majority. Everything is on the line and we let 40+years of letting the Capitalist elite class rob Everything and make our government non-functional. We have alot to face. We always let's the worst issues stagnate until it's too late while people Protesting for human rights results in beatings from the police or death. We need the whole country to make fundamental change otherwise the left is too weak to deal with the present obstacles. Medicare4all is considered radical and any socialist views are oppressed.
Thank you Professor. Always good lectures
I am so thankful for all your efforts snd grateful for wisdom🙏🏽🙌🏽!
I was disappointed that Wolff did not spend more examining why Occupy Movement could be sustained and then evolve into a larger movement. Today there is no Left except The Left Behind and a whole bunch of lefty podcasts complaining about everything including each other.
Actually, the Antifa terrorist are as active as ever, they just don't get the coverage from a Biden Administration managed press.
At the back of my mind I worry for you, Prof Noam Chomsky, Prof Joseph Stiglitz and others who dare to speak their minds. I respect and honor you but I shudder when I think of Julian Assange.
Thank You , , ,
Strange how history repeats when lessons aren’t carried forward
that would require the people that create and enforce the policies of our government/society to actually create and enfore policies that benefits the people instead of the select few.
Prof. Wolff is hopelessly both optimistic and nostalgic for a couple decades in the last century.
Great closing
Solidarity Forever
I was just talking about The Grapes Of Wrath to two men in relation to what is happening now. It is a great book and timeless.
Very good podcast Prof. Wolf keep up the good work.
Extra snarky today
I love it
Thank you for your work!
Bangor!!! I remember going to that Occupy when I was in college there at the time. It was the first time I ever heard of the idea of a UBI in that really crowded room.
"The workplace is the starkest example of no-democracy that I can think of." - You must've forgotten about prisons. Prisons are the dead-zone of US democracy
Technically, you're correct. But work is something most everyone experiences. And I'm all for prison reform, but should prisoners govern themselves? I think not. I think they should be allowed to vote from prison.
Somebody needs to watch _My Dinner with Andre._ Prisons are the epitome of our democracy; we all collectively agree to the prison system, we even grant the power of profit unto it. What could be more democratic? The only real difference between an _employee_ and a _prisoner_ is that one gets to "choose" through employment which prison they get to be imprisoned in.
@@dirrdevil Look at the implicit admission in his statement, he had to look to prisons to find something with less freedom than capitalism.
@@rocketsurgeon5758 also prisoners get an hour lunch ?
Prisons are the commodification of humanity. Human warehousing we pay for whether we agree or not.
Great discussion. As always.
Yeah, petitioning the "source of your grievances" expecting them to be the "solution" is so intelligent, isn't it???
Money, not morality, is the principle of commercial nations. -Thomas Jefferson
Let's get this straight... The new poor can't tolerant it anymore. When the new poor wasn't poor, they loved the system that would eventually consume them.
So now we have the 'pull yourself up by your own bootstraps' crowd realizing(too late) that you can't pull yourself up with your own bootstraps when you have no bootstraps.
Poor have no guns! And some mother will sell her baby for money! So, some ppl will do anything to other ppl so they don't have to fear! We are doomd as race! Soon we will ALL cry together!
I remember that the Police State crushed the Occupy Movement. That's what gets forgotten as soon as it happens because it's too unlike what the USA is supposed to be.
It was the people that were on Medicare that crushed the occupy movement. I remember being with my grandfather watching news on t.v. I explained to him that they are fight for us. He said all they were doing was causing trouble.
@@FirstnameLastname-tw6yt Nonsense, they have no direct political power...they were just believing corporate media propaganda that was part of Wall Street's massive campaign to shut down the protests against them as quickly as possible.
@@ivandafoe5451 The parents of Baby Boomers and baby boomers vote.
@@FirstnameLastname-tw6yt and the capitalist electoral system will never give us democracy. It will surely circumvent it in any and all ways.
@@ProleDaddy How are you going to win when the people your fighting for are against you. You have to start a group of 2 people that live in your city. Then build it to a 100. Once you do that then you focus on winning hearts and minds have an election within your 100 group. Vote for a person within your 100 group that you would vote for major. Then add another 100 to your group have another group election. This time the vote is on the vice major. Keep adding people too your group till you get to 1000 then officialy run for mayor. When you win mayor then that candidate can move on to House of Representatives or indorse someone within your group.
Every now and then I look at the snapshots I took at Zuccotti Park during its occupation. So what was accomplished and how have things really changed?
I suppose the occupation wasn't the cause of that.
Wolf says it lead to Bernie and the Squad, but I don't think so, the conditions that created occupy lead to Bernie and the Squad, but occupy itself was effectively a failure in my view. It was crushed and that showed the left will be crushed.
The goat does it again! Keep going prof Wolff! 🐺
One thing to remember was there was another depression in the US in 1920 and 1873. Recessions occurred every few years from 1800-1940s
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recessions_in_the_United_States
And those were studied carefully by Kondratiev, who saw even larger patterns formalized the understanding of boom/bust generated by technological advancemments. Nowadays these cycles are faster and mostly specific industry based, but it's still relevant. It would be interesting to know what would his take on 2008 be.
@kevin barker The big one was used to blot out teaching that economic crisis occurred so regularly and indeed depressions we’re frequent, but per your remark farm subsidy (+the fed) are gov controls to tame crisis. However, they don’t remove other weaknesses.
1 Disposable income is business opportunity. Its absence economic ruin.
2 The money syndrome (Das Geld Syndrome in its original German). In short, usury (interest) and inflation are used to manage the velocity of money and the money supply, but his system is also unstable (inflation is built in either from interest itself or from excess money in circulation, and it is subject to deflationary spirals, this requiring a base of inflation). It is also a system that tends to concentrate wealth. Wörgl stamp script and Bractaeten in the 13th and 14th century Germany did not suffer these problems and in the latter case provided an era of immense stability + prosperity.
Question for Rick Wolff or anyone for that matter is: Companies are investing and adopting AI and automation to address more and more intellectual tasks (writing, research, customer service, analysis, surgery, etc) how much effect will this have on worker leverage?
Unlike the industrial revolution, I suspect this AI / Automation revolution's (may have short term gains for job growth / creation) but over all the RATIO of job creation to job elimination will ultimately be far less than 1 to 1.
Sadly replying to my own post
Conclusion, worker leverage is on the clock... tick-tock tick-tock
*Waves hand*
You will feed the algorithm
Curious about why no pro capitalist, and few socialist talk about hoarding and its impact on how well a capitalist economic system runs. If Capitalism is an engine, and grease / oil is the money /liquidity to keep it running smoothly... why is it okay that rich keep taking money out of the system (parking the wealth/ money on the sidelines), eventually they'll run out of the substance needed to keep the system running no?
@18:33 - 18:37 I adore Professor Wolff’s delivery! 😂😆🤣
That was great 😆
Ten years later nothing changed!
18:30 omg 😂😂😂😂
I noticed that as well. LOLOLOL 😂
We live in a bona fide Feudal society. Most people cannot see it, many deny it, and the richest and most powerful promote it. At the ripe age of 72 I nevertheless feel like the young lad who shouts from the crowd that "The Emperor is Naked"!
Shouldn't that be the emperor is still the emperor???
"Let's go occupy, occupy, Com'On let's go occupy-ah-ah-ah-ehy, let's go into occupy; let me hear your body talk, your body talk, let me hear body talk-oh"
Senator Sanders tries his best, but the system has ground down his imagination. He's no Eugene Debs; this is not an insult, just an evaluation. We need to imagine greater changes than a kinder capitalism; it needs to be common to experiment with things like not using money at all. Radically changing our relationships and mode of production.
Sanders is and was a sellout, he's always been that, he never intended to be anything else.
@@woodytobiasjr8265 It's pretty easy to sit on the sidelines and criticize people who fail rather than try yourself. Bernie is not a god or an icon, so we can support him even if he's flawed, but the socialist movement is beyond him. Not Me, Us.
Bernie is from the same generation as Wolff and has the same blind spots. they have no understanding of cutting edge technology or practical management of large organizations. unless the US could rally behind UBI (wealth redistribution, eliminate Fed Reserve manipulation), high speed rail (lower cost of mobility), and techno-democratic reform (media restructuring), small minded goals like raising min-wage to $15 aren't worth anything
worker place co-ops can't compete against corporations because traditional democracy doesn't scale as well nor is it as nimble in decision-making. apply technology so collective decisions could be massively scalable and efficient, then you have an actual chance of fixing the entire system
@@dirrdevil tell me, exactly, what Bernie did for anyone or anything. He didn't further any socialist agenda, he stood in it's way. He was nothing more than a sheep herder for the Democrats.
@@woodytobiasjr8265 Nonsense, Bernie has been fighting for the working class his whole life. As one of his campaign managers said, Bernie is used to leading from behind, he does not know who to lead from the front. He is well versed in being practical to achieve what he can, rather than blaze out as a radical.
And when he failed to garner enough votes to beat Joe or Hillary, he had to face reality.
Now he is too old really and we need new leaders who can get elected. Squad is not doing it.
To add to Prof's point, capitalism is not evil. It's just a tool. In fact, a very good tool at building the economy. But a tool can build or destroy depending on the wielder. As with any tool, if there is no restriction and limit on its usage, nothing good will come out of it. So do not hate capitalism, but set rules and regulations to restrict it and put it to good use for the betterment of all human kind.
Corporate rule, corporate ownership and control by corporate capitalists is the evil...one that threatens us all at this point in history.
Well yeah, that goes without saying & he's made that point elsewhere. So the crux of the problem is the we have one party that represents, for all intents & purposes exclusively, the view that unfettered & unregulated Capitalism is good for everybody, while the other party is split depending on their view of the economy.
It's plainly obvious to me which approach does not work. Bigger companies controlling more of the market has only benefited those few on top, everybody else...not so much.
For me it's all summed up with the current $750B military budget while Congress wrangles over a $350B per year (for 10 years) proposal for infrastructure.with some saying that's "too much money" to spend. Priorities.
I really like bees. They are one of the most cooperative types of animals there is and they not only cooperate with each other, they develop a mutualism with the plants they eat, pollinating them. They are also not submissive to the queen, who is not a ruler, she works her entire life laying eggs. And bees have individuality. They go around the environment exploring the places alone and then dance to tell the others what they saw and then they collectively decide whether to go there or not. It is Kropotkin's mutual help in action. Large predators such as lions and wolves that aristocrats love to place in their heraldry go extinct in a few tens of thousands of years as they develop a fragile relationship with the environment. Bees first appeared over 60 million years ago and all flowering plants spread across the planet at the same time. This animal that should be honored and not the lions and other beasts that the nobles and the rich love to display in their symbology. And on top of that, together they can defeat the bears. Society's bees appear in every bear market to question the predatory capitalism that breaks every decade.
Well written
Hives are known to experience "drift", where bees change colonies. This can happen to both workers (female bees) as well as drones (male bees), moreso with the latter.
This happens for a number of reasons. Bees have a range of two miles and do much of their extracolonial travel visually, using landmarks, so it's often speculated that they become lost or confused and end up someplace else. They are often exhausted from their travels, so we can speculate that they may just collapse to another hive in an act of self preservation, unusual for a "superorganism" that relies on strict cooperation!
So let's talk about socializing. It's well known that a honeybee can make an "offering" to the guards at the entrance of another hive, by regurgitating nectar from their crop, thus bribing the guards who would normally stop other bees. They are then tagged with the scent profile of that hive - like a lot of the pheromone properties in the hive, this part is loosely understood.
Often, honeybees going from one hive to another are robbing. This happens when there's enough honey for another colony's scouts to smell. The attacking colony will send scouts who attempt to overwhelm the guards and rob out the honey stores of the other hive. This usually happens when the robbed colony is weakened, either from queenlessness or disease.
Drifting, however, is different, and represents an interesting behavior among bees. Some people believe it's a vector for disease, which it probably is, but the below study indicates that it's probably not that big of a factor. I think it's just a species preservation behavior. Think human travelers moving from town to town and getting in good with the guards at the gate before being let in. We do it because it just makes sense. Why not invite in some extra hands (or in the case of bees, extra claws)?
An interesting note besides socialization: the Cape honeybee (Apis mellifera capensis) is a subspecies from far southern Africa, originating in a specific coastal region. They have a special faculty, thelytoky, which allows them to lay an egg that is essentially a clone of themselves. This allows them to perform much more effective supercedures (queen raising ) than, say, the european honeybees, who need to raise a queen from an egg already deposited in the hive if there's an emergency or they lose a queen. European honeybees can only produce unfertilized drones, meaning a colony of the european bees without a Queen or eggs will perish.
Well this Cape honeybee, should it infiltrate another hive, such as those of African honeybees (apis mellifera scutelleta), can wreak havoc by laying clones of itself. Those clones hatch and then make clones of themselves. In short order, they overcome the latent genetics in the hive. This has been a menace for many beekeepers in Africa, because Cape honeybees are ill suited to life outside the Cape region.
@@jgalt308 Bees are not perfect, I guess. Neither are people. I prefer to look at them in the cooperative description of the original post where they enhance nature rather than the details provided by yourself. I'd like people to be that way too. When we cooperate with one another rather like a big family of man then civilization advances. When men and women only pursue selfish aims, I believe cultures wither. But thanks for sharing your many entries.
@@daniellarson3068 No problem...the thing is "humans" have never co-operated in the
manner you would like...for the motivations are "selfish" in terms of reproduction,
and being in "control" provides advantages toward that goal.
Also, human interaction works according to game theory, where your choices are
cooperate or cheat. The choices here are dependent on the probabilities of being successful,
versus the certainty of consequences, as well as the circumstances motivating the choices.
Clearly cheating takes far less effort...and punishment is hardly certain...and when the cheating takes place
by those who have control...that there will be any consequences is highly improbable.
@@jgalt308 Good response. Good Reminder. At the end of my life when they tell my tale I want them to say I was a man of honor. I'll try not to cheat.
WOLF MAN AH AHHHHHHHHHH WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I was just thinking about this.
Sorry for posting 2 earlier digressive comments as they are not granularly specific to the occupy. I am kinda new to posting and as I am a Wolff fan I just wanted to get off my chest in a pro-human /socialist forum.
Hidden kings (& queens?), nice. So, like in "The DaVinci Code"?
It was a huge disappointment that Obama shut down Occupy. That movement could have been used for much needed reform but it was stopped cold.
The Wall Street bankers backing financed and put him into office to do their bidding. The occupy movement was specifically targeted at them...bringing unwanted attention to their self-serving activities. The corporate media, both political parties and Obama got their orders to put an end to the protests ASAP and that's just what they did.
Much like money, manure left in a pile rots and stinks, spread it around evenly and things begin to grow. Economic horticulture 101.
"Money is like manure. You have to spread it around or it smells." - J. Paul Getty
@@DrSanity7777777 👍👏👏👏❤️
There has been a 20 year war on millennials. We haven’t forgot!
lol
Yes, you have. You have the attention span of a gnat.
@kevin barker good, good let the hate flow through you, that is the way of the totalitarian side
@kevin barker fits you well; with your wishing death on others
🍅🍅🍅
Only fire clean everything
There was a period of decades where being a socialist or a communist was like being a worshipper of Satan.
To go from that, to a situation where more people my generation support the idea of socialism (whatever that means to them) over capitalism, in the matter of one decade or less - that is revolutionary.
Think about it: there is no knowledge of socialism in our public institutions besides how we demean it. I never learned about socialism in school. And because of one movement, and then Bernie which Occupy inspired, we got to the majority of my generation supporting socialism over capitalism.
I get so pissed when people on the Left say Occupy wasn’t a big deal. Were they high as fuck back then? Are they high as fuck now? I was in High School, growing up in a conservative area, and there were conservative family members who were saying shit like, “socialism is not all bad. I support a mixed economy.”
I wish there was a way to share this content on Instagram.
then dont use it, dont use any social media
Can we get Bezos to fork over his elixir of life to Professor Wolff? Who is the more deserving after all?
The Rosa Luxembourg Foundation does a disservice to her memory.
Indeed
In USA, you cannot go against where the money is...
We can and we have to try.
Things have changed since 2008. The Fed has learned to manipulate data so that even if things are really bad, it doesn't appear in stats. The Fed has manipulated and pumped so much money into the financial markets that people don't how bad things really are. All they see is a DJI at 35,500. They have manipulated inflation numbers so much that people don't think inflation is rising quickly. They have manipulated unemployment numbers, too. People are feeling serious economic pain but the stats don't refelect that. The 1% changed the game by manipulating data, much more than before. So a person could be facing terrible economic times because capitalism is failing, but the numbers don't reflect ANY of that. Therefore, most Americans don't think capitalism is failing. If people don't have control of the real data and stats, they can't prove that hings are getting really bad, and the 1% realizes this.
The division of labor and surplus of goods under capitalism causes economic crash.
Who are those 11 naughty people who gave thumbs down? Infiltrated Trump supporters, I guess.
Did occupy wallstreet accomplish anything though? Things seem as bad as ever.
From 1980's through the 90's economic influences crippled Farmers. Our food source, and then corporate investors bought up all the farmers turning them into giant corporate farm's. Had we the people kept control over our food sources we would not be at the mercy of the suffering the employer class perpetrates, should further suffering be instigated for Profit.
The way I look at it. When I refer to what indigenous people have gone through in many nations. Islands . By huge corporations they have very few traits to admire. Thus many of us choose to invest in those with some sort of social costs integrity. We need to think more carefully about what we use. Consume. Learn . The environment is coming back to bite in the backside bigly because of the damage by corporations for a start. Ralph Nader a man way before his time. And the likes of me growing up . Made to be so unaware . Proff Wolff another trying to inform for the big "wake up". Call.
The Soviet Union didn't suffer from the great depression, so it wasn't worldwide.
Just another day in the Gulag.
@@daniellarson3068 at least they had free healthcare, jobs and a purpose.
Folks should occupy the Eccles building this time.
would be great to hear Prof. Wolff talk more about how "progressive" obama handled it!
Go to his websites, he made all kinds of videos during Obama's tenure.
@20:45 he says qanon and scratches his ear. There's bound to be a some qanon-er who sees that and goes "HE KNOWS HE'S LYING"
I just re-watched Frontlines 4 part report on the lead up to this.
occupy wall street? how about liquidate wall street, Buy and hold GME and AMC
How frustrating that people in general never miss the water until the well runs dry...
wall street turned money Into air .
Ivermectin and India's recovery and middle countries of Africa.
A lecture coming from someone who has never held a real job. . . . moving directly from completing his studies directly into the Utopian career of reaping the rewards of higher education. . . . that, funded by Capitalism. One would love to get a look at his investment portfolio for any ties to the money changers.
the bee house
But that is the "anointed vision" of socialism...but humans are neither "eusocial" nor insects,
and in such a world, there would be no place for Wolff.
LULA ESTADISTA
John Carpenter kinda covered all this in "They Live", 2 the extent that people r 2 blame 4 a "system"
it was a beautiful thing.
There were young progressives and libertarians in the middle of the street.
Not to scream fake political rhetoric about morality
We were out there discussing and talking and most importantly we listened to each other about monetary policy.
There were progressives convincing libertarians that we owe it to our fellow Americans to protect and offer a social safety net
All while libertarians were making a convincing case for a nation flat tax to progressives
People were receptive to ideas and changing things
But we were young
And history shows given enough times the young will become just as jaded and stubborn as the fools that dumped this failure of a world on us.
Maybe we can get some of our mojo back before it's too late
UberCars
Now use the same logical analysis for forced medical treatments, using a job/mobility as leverage...this is a slippery slope in a country that has previously forced sterilization, human testing, Eugenics...to think any of these could not happen again is wishful thinking and extremely short sighted...
" j as in junk economics " and " money as debt " on youtube
Most importantly, an innovative concept were designed to keeping the working class & unskilled pay packets as low as defined, is counterproductive, and unacceptable.
Even, with substantial rise in pay, if introduced, could be means tested by the law here as related to threshold of income for accessing full benefits from the state.
A new system is a group of interrelated components working together effectively towards a common goal carefully defined ✍️
Despite all the economic and covid-19 crisis this is the right time to start up an investment you can easily make money from home without stress
Stocks are good but crypto is more profitable
I wanted to trade crypto but got confused by the fluctuations in price
I heard that his strategies are really good
Yeah
My first Investment with Mr David earned me profits of over $24,320 US dollars and ever since then he has Been delivering
He has really made a good name for himself
But if occupy had won, what would they do the morning after?
Celebrate, obviously.
Go home to their parents???
They did win...this was not a physical battle, it was an attempt to plant the seed of narrative change...which they achieved.
I'm against minimum wage, the person in an enterprise who earns the most should be capped at not more than 100 times more than the lowest paid person in the enterprise. That would help level the playing field.
Being against the minimum wage is just stupid. Who's to say you can't employ a wage ratio between all employees with a minimum wage as well. Besides, 100x is an insane number. What worker is doing 100x the work of someone else?
@kevin barker it's better than 500 times, which it is now, we can work towards a more fair number.
@@dirrdevil the average today is 500 times more, we can work towards a more fair number, all for that.
Occupy Frisco
(wait until Jan-Jun next yr 4 whiteflight suburbanforest privatizedutility-sparked firesmoke 2 clear)
WhoS street? Our streets!
things wouldnt be so bad if they didnt spent all our money on wars and bailing out wallstreet
Things wouldn't be so bad if the "money" was still money.
@@jgalt308 Money is whatever we agree to accept as legal tender. The gold standard with its innate limitations is gone for good...get over it.
@@ivandafoe5451 Actually gold is still lawful money and has an official price...but none
of you can read which is why you've had an illegitimate government for 88 years,
and find yourselves without rights.
But there is a basic misunderstanding here. In capitalism the workplace can never be democratic for the simple fact that the worker does not enter a company as part of it that performs a specific task (a job), but as a seller of a commodity, its workforce. In the legal relationship underlying an employment contract, the worker and the employer do not oppose each other as different but equally necessary parts of a company organization (management-execution), but as sellers and buyers of a commodity (the workforce): they are opposite poles of a sale. It follows that the basis of their relationship is not of an organizational nature and has nothing to do with either the workplace or the work tools. Theirs is a simple monetary relationship in which one sells and the other buys labor force.
You seem to think that your stated version of the corporate workplace is somehow "misunderstood" that people are simply "commodities"and should regard themselves as such and no more...you are entirely wrong, it's just the opposite. Workers are quite rightly no longer interested in "selling" themselves in this pseudo-slave-labor way.
No one should accept this ridiculously arbitrary constriction on their personhood and what they bring to any working relationship. People are NOT just commodities, despite the capitalists apparent desire to conveniently commodify everything and everyone with such facile excuses and rationales.
Anyone (including you) who tries to force this inhumane nonsensical idea on society must be completely rejected as having no pretensions of a valid argument.
@@ivandafoe5451 People as workers are commodities not because they consider themselves as commodities, but because they receive a wage, which refers to a monetary relationship between those who pay a wage to obtain work in exchange and those who receive a wage by offering work in exchange, exactly as in the purchase and sale of any other commodity where the buyer of the commodity pays money and the seller of the commodity receives money. This relationship does not derive from "a ridiculously arbitrary restriction on the personality of the workers", but from the separation of the worker from his means of labor, which indeed oppose him as the property of others, that is, as the capital of the capitalist. The capitalist who pays a wage does not buy neither the worker nor his labor power, but only the use of his labor power for a certain period of time (e.g. 8 hours a day) during which he becomes the owner and, as an owner, it is his full right to dispose of this manpower as he pleases, just as the buyer of any other commodity acquires the full right to dispose of the commodity he buys. And here every ambition for democracy in the workplace is shattered. On the other hand, precisely because the worker does not sell himself or his labor power but only the use of that labor power for a certain period of time, he continues to be the owner of his labor power and, as the owner , it is his full right to oppose an excessive use by the capitalist that compromises its efficiency and, therefore, prevents it from being able to resell its use even the next day. And here arises an opposition between two equally legitimate rights, and, right against right, it is force that decides.
Trouble is-- some workers are malingerer and some are goldbrickers-- thinking that others will do the work anyway-- so they get fired or told to get lost-- what is wrong with that?
@kevin barker Of course there also bosses who are malingerers and goldbrickers--- and when the business goes belly up they blame the capitalists for not injecting more funds!!
"Those that aspire to power and money above the natural desire to help and understand their fellow humans...."
There is no evidence available to support your claim that a "natural desire" exists for the latter, as opposed to the former. The idea that altruism and co-operation are fundamental to humans is a "mythology" whose origin rests with the circumstantial necessity of these traits when small groups of hunter/gatherers found themselves in competition for resources with "other" groups. Within this paradigm, this necessity provided a balance with the other "natural desire" to seek advantage for the purposes of "reproduction" and genetic transmission, as one's position within the "dominant hierarchy" improved.
With the advent of fixed agriculture and the rise of "civilization", the cohesion of the smaller groups, such as it was, was broken, with respect to both "altruism and co-operation" while the advantages to those who achieved dominance were enhanced, since these groups became larger and inequality increased.
If your claim was correct regarding this natural desire to help and understand "our fellow humans", then what currently exists would not be possible.......for how could the "few" have ever dominated the "many", when the conditions of the former were so much better than those of the latter. ( and never better than now in terms of inequality. )
Consider the difficulty of "organizing" the "have nots" ( an overwhelming majority of the world's population ) against the continued exploitation they are forced to endure at the hands of the "haves". It takes very little effort to "divide" these various factions and set them against one another, and in many cases this "division" is both incited and maintained by these various factions, without assistance from above?
I submit to you, that both of these " desires" are "natural", and that given the difficulty of sustaining those which require "group cohesion" when group size becomes "unmanageable", that seeking "individual advantage" becomes the more pragmatic and accessible choice, even though one's probability of achieving it diminishes when more competitors are added.
I further submit to you, that to continue to espouse "altruism and co-operation" as "natural traits" is neither consistent with the evidence, nor true in any but the most limited sense, and it's serves no "useful" purpose to continue this "mythology".
Therefor, given that of all the mechanisms that exist in "civilization" are structured to "support" those in control of them, that "altruism and co-operation" must be viewed as "traits" that must be positively "chosen" and not assumed to be naturally inherent would seem to be a more "productive" path. After all this "mythology" has also been co-opted by religions, and "aspiring governments", as well as political movements, and none of it has made the slightest bit of difference........so while the "facts" may be hard to accept. mythologies serve no useful purpose other than providing temporary and delusional comfort which is "powerless" in the face of objective reality.
RESPONSE: "True, but the rest of us are just as sick for allowing it."
I don't think that, that is the reasonable way to view the underlying mechanism which has produced the present result.
As explained, while the eusocial traits of altruism and co-operation are present, the benefit and reward for them must be supported by tangible results. As civilization emerged, both thebenefits and rewards began to diminish, and even institutions that continued to promotethem, siphoned off a considerable portion for themselves, before distributing what was left.
One does not see the Vatican, suffering for want of "anything" and has always promoted it own interests first, and always displayed a "rentier" mentality, throughout it's hierarchy over the centuries. while describing what is both "morally correct" despite whatever "vows" it professes to hold itself to.
Any system, which professes to standards of behavior, as its purpose and claim to legitimacy, yet whose actions contradict that standard and fail to deliver the "goods", will discourage such behavior, for those who are intelligent enough to penetrate the deception.
For those who persist, in spite of this, the next step is to inflict "punishment" for this persistence.
In such an environment, which has never rewarded such behavior, that people choose not to engage in it, does not deserve to be labeled sick.....for it would not be a "sane" choice.
After all, all aspects of eusocial behavior, are directed at survival and reproduction.....and if a certain set of behaviors diminish the probability of success for both of these things, it is not reasonable to expect that the common behavior of all who are subject to it, to collectively ignore the feedback, the system has made self evident, should one choose to engage in it?????
@kevin barker Actually, that's what they don't want...after all, you might actually punch up
and hit the right target. Mostly though they know you won't, and you don't have a clue how to
organize to do it correctly so that everyone KNOWS who the target is.
Your grasp of history and human development is no better than your grasp of economics. You're just trying to rationalize your indoctrinated Libertarian BS.
If you chose to believe such crap, that's your right...but spare us the dim-witted evangelical pretensions that you know what you are talking about...you don't.
The "willfully ignorant, functionally illiterate, unevolved talking hominids" think
that two "fact free" morons agreeing means something. They do love labels though
and think they can read minds.
Biden should tell the Fed to print $50 Trillion. Then we can all just stay home.