I own a small business - just me - and I manufacture very niche computer electronics. These things use microchips and other parts, all of which are imported from China. There are no american alternatives to these parts, nothing the same is made here. I pay the tariffs. The Chinese don't. I do. Tariffs are a tax on domestic consumers and not anything else. They serve no other purpose. If they want free trade so badly why is the US Harmonized Tariff Schedule zillions of pages with squillions of subjected goods to tariffs. True free trade would mean everything just comes in duty free...though we know it's all BS...ALL OF IT.
Apparently the answer lies in the capitalist economic structure of the state? Uncle! In capitalism, you will pay - pay - and pay for everything until the day you die. Especially when the dominant imperialist has a market competitor. Again, all the costs will fall on the shoulders of idiots who support the capitalist system. And not on those who float on top.
Exactlyn they sure don't understand. One of my suppliers was working on splitting the difference with me. Then the BS postage on our side & then the ships!! on the other hand EMS occasionally dhl very efficient and my suppliers loyal and fair. The American alternatives were horrifying 4 me. Any small owner with merchandise and logistics knows this is systematically to destroy US I swear it's like they don't believe me!
The free trade is dead. According to my knowledge, those companies in other countries except U.S., especially in China, are willing to find a way to replace any supplier from U.S. at a relatively higher cost. because the the transactions with supplier from U.S. might be sanctioned by U.S. government in future.
I got a question for Wolff, I heard it from a Venezuelan refugee in Bolivia who worked full time taking care of her disabled daughter. She said about the very rare medicine her daughter needs being sanctioned by the US that "I understand that your president hates mine, but why are they trying to kill my daughter?" There is a genocidal element to these policies. It is horrific and intentional. Luckily Bolivia is cheap and has a local industry for that medicine.
That is truth, Venezuela, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, all these country, Yemen, Sanction, the medicine that they need doesn’t get to them and that’s because of the United States is sanction because of that and that is truth. It’s no lie.
Ah, sanctions! In sactioned Yugoslavia, in 1990's, i celebrated my 18th birthday by having nothing to eat and by being hungry. Not only that sactions don't hurt people at the top, it benefits them, a lot. They can smuggle in sanctioned goods, and sell them to their own people, at higher price. Smuggling works like a charm when you operate the customs service.
FOUR complementary aspects to this: *1)* Foreign businesses belonging to the sanctioning countries get nationalized by the sanctioned countries. *2)* Whatever resources the sanctioning countries export to the sanctioned countries, get replaced by other internal or external sources. *3)* Sanctioned countries associate with one another to trade. *4)* They set up alternative banking and payment systems so sanctions lose their impact over time. Think BRICS countries trading outside the SWIFT international payment system.
You forgot one final point. More developed countries like Russia and China are able to employ "import substitution" to completely make the sanctions irrelevant. Also, the impact on American businesses that forgo the lost market opportunities are never mentioned but is a real cost to the American people.
unfortunately the lost market could be permanent and this makes America worst off in the long run as it force China to built their own supply chain instead of the convenient and cheaper option of buying ready make machinery and software. Now the local companies were being subsidies to invest R&D into making semiconductor machineries and materials which otherwise would be very difficult to justify spending monies. Without the sanction they would not have gotten so much subsidies to speed up development and production improvement. American simply wants to copy the same tactics they use in the past without any backup plan in case the sanction backfire
Sanctions on Russia had a positive effect for Russia because it forced them to develop their own economy. Since they are hit by the "Curse of Natural Resources" they until 2014 were not forced to develop their production sector. Now they are stronger than ever. Thank you, USA!
I live in Russia and this is NOT what is happening. What's really happening is Russia trades throough proxies like Turkey now. Which means same stuff, but at higher cost for the people. The end.
Sanctions has an impact on poor countries. In the case of Russia, they have no impact because, 1. Russia started their own financial system back in 2008, 2. It has more options to redirect its trade with other countries (China, India, Middle East, Africa, Latin/south America). The sanctions mostly impact Europe and our own economy. Worse, Many countries are reducing their investment in the US and worse, it open the eyes of other countries to stay away from US dollars. On the long term, the sanctions hurt more the US and EU than Russia.
@@dorienberteletti2129 It is dumb and stupid of EU leaders to forfeit Russia gas and buy it from India at 40% more. Beside, sanctions hurt more EU people and not the Russian people.
It is hard to sanction country that was not fully integrated into global economy because it was denied of integration by tons of reasons by the West. In other words, Russia had to support around of 80% of all important for self-sustaining products while waiting approval to join the global economy in full.
@@yamatohime2035 Russian economy is doing well, much better than western economy. As always, sanctions affect a country on a short term, but they help it in a long term. Cuba, Iran and many others, adapted, found away to counter the sanctions, and in the case of Russia, it had 15 years to created its own financial system to bypass western financial and trade system. Today, the Brics are in near to create a new and powerful financial and trade system that will destroys and replace western one. With the birth of new trade currency (a reserve currency backed by gold and tangible assets), the dollar and Euro will collapse and western economy will start their down hill path to give place to a New World Order that will control vital resources and worldwide trade market. The last 600 years of the history of passed empire have confirmed that what we are witnessing today is nothing than the collapse of western empire and the birth of another (the Brics).
The reason for sanctions are at least mostly(if not all) to punish leaders who care about their people ignoring the interest of western corporate interest. All of the human right, freedom, and democracy are no more than a pretext. Example : saudi, china(before trump), today vietnam, colombian dictators, some african dictators, even a former dictator in my country were so good in the eyes of the US as long as the US corporate interest are protected.
You could turn the question around and ask, would it be ok if China punish the American people if the US govt does something bad according to he opinion of the Chinese govt?
Thank you Prof Wolff , and yup sanctions do not affect the governments or the rich class it is always the other class ( the poor ) . So bad cause most of the time are children involved . ✌🏻🙏👏👋🏻😁❤️.
The typical "poor" US citizen has the power to choose not to live a planet-wrecking lifestyle with planet-wrecking rates of consumption, and to instead pay the reparations they owe as beneficiaries of imperialism, but they instead demonstrate with their lifestyles, and often with their words, that their backs are turned to the global victims of the imperialism they benefit from and to the needs of a healthy planet. The world should sanction and totally embargo the US.
@@ReparationsForImperialism You didn't watch the video. We can tell by your comment, which ignores the fact that the poor and working class will be hurt the most.
@@ReparationsForImperialism LOL! And you decided that nonsense all on your own? Now all you have to do is make the US pay up. Well, good luck with that! LOL!
We have no beef with long suffering Russian, Iranian, Cuban or North Korean people. Lift the sanctions, give humanity aid where needed and negotiate in good faith
Could you please explain what sanctions have done to the people of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. How many thousands of people are killed as a result of sanctions and not just in the countries I mentioned, but Syria, Iraq, Afganistán. Also how much money this countries loss in trade and because of banking sanctions. Thank you I really think sanctions on countries of the Global South are brutal for everybody. Thank you for your program
Good video, another bad effect of sanctions are, they cause undesired migration, like in the case of Cuba and Venezuela, people from both countries are flooding into the USA, Colombia and many other nearby countries, thus causing societal pressure on the resources of those countries.
Much appreciated perspective that the professor proffers for the disingenuous intentions of US sanctions. So to buttress his assertion that sanctions don't hurt the higher ups in society but rather they do negatively impact the poorest most severely. Isn't it also likely that sanctions are simply another US instrument intended to engender mass unrest and suffering to facilitate regime change.
Excellent explanation. As an Iranian, I got hit by US sanctions. I personally never chanted "'death to America ". The worst effects of sanctions is making it difficult and almost impossible to the citizens to buying foreign drugs. I was witnessing a guy who struggled blood blood cancer and told me there is no chemotherapy drug in country. Most of people got so poor that can't go elsewhere for their treatment. in my opinion this is the most painful effect of sanctions . But i want to draw your attention to those people who live in neither side. Assume you are someone who runs a startup in Europe. When US sanctions another country like Iran, you are not able to do business with Iranians and hence you will loose a big market. So sanctions also affect others who live in third countries by depriving them from the market in the sanctioned countries.
The only reason sanctions imposed by the US are good for domestic political consumption is Americans don't understand the extent to which they are hurt by those sanctions. China produces some good technology, both consumer and business, we in the US can no longer get, and most of us don't know we can't get it and what we're deprived. Sanctioning Russia has increased energy prices for all of us here, though Europeans have been particularly hard hit.
The argument that sanctions are not working is only valid if you accept that their stated purpose is their real purpose which it mostly isn't. For example: The purpose of sanctioning China can not be to try to get them to stop oppressing Uyghurs because, as I can tell you as a person who actually lives in China, the idea that they are doing that is just a great big American Lie. To understand US sanctions you have to consider their effect on the 9 out of 10 countries that aren't being sanctioned. You only have to look at the way that the EU effectively sanctioned themselves over Ukraine in a way that was absolutely against the interests of their own people to see the lengths that the 9 out of 10 will go to in avoiding becoming one of the 1 out of 10. If you are obsessed with world domination, you make examples of the few to keep the many in line.
How exactly do the governments and ruling classes pass on the effect of sanctions on to ordinary people is it an active things they do or is it just done by the not taking action to alleviate the problems caused by the sanctions
It is important that countries do not use a service that is used for economics that could be deflected towards others that can do little about the situation.
The idea of regime changes should no longer be tolerated. So the world should reflect these regime changes on the perpetrators, ie mostly the Americans.
Oh, there are lots of things that could be done. I even made a little list: 1. Criminalize the corruption of the mentally-ill addicts in the wealthy-class. 2. Tax the mentally-ill addicts in the wealthy-class out of existence. 3. Rehabilitate the mentally-ill addicts in the wealthy-class by allowing them to participate in the meaningful, life-changing labor that is required to produce life-sustaining necessities. Eliminate the wealthy-class, and you eliminate the inequality and wars they perpetuate. Eliminate the wealthy-class, and you eliminate the main source of the world's problems. But -- just as the rhyming-nature of history will never stop telling the truths of the future -- the mentally-ill addicts in the wealthy-class will never willingly give up their addictions. And, thus, the class-war continues.
The US sanctions certain countries, not the countries that the US can benefit from. Sanctions can actually have the opposite effect. I lived in one of the most sanctioned countries - the old South Africa. When the US impose sanctions, the government used it to an advantage. They called it "local content". So everything was to be locally sourced. Which created millions of jobs. For example, cotton was planted, it was made into fabric, and then into clothes. From start to finish everything was manufactured locally. Jobs were so easily available. You'd never hear of unemployment. The economy boomed. Our currency was worth More than US dollar. Ironically, all the foriegn companies then moved here. Sanctions will work only if a country makes itself dependant on the US or any other country. Sanctions made no difference to Russia now. Their economy is actually thriving.
You're also creating a climate of fear to invest in Chinese companies on the US stock exchange, using a looming threat of somehow blocking out the Chinese companies.
I saw the late secretary of state madame Albright boast of how Americans sanctions had killed 500'000 iraqi children, where is she now?....her carcass is dead like those Iraqi children, at the end we'll all die, do great things in the world and leave it a better place.
These sorts of sanctions serve local collaborators in neocolonialism, fascist and capitalist elites who are happy to see their vulnerable populations suffer. The US offers solidarity to local bourgeoisie in the global south via sanctions when the class struggle there intensifies. This is why anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist solidarity is priority 1 for the left.
mr Wolff , with all due respect , I like your attributes to the people , but you forgot one thing to mention , namely how sanctions do hurt the people of the country which apply these sanctions , it hurts their own people , import/export , production, employment and their businesses , big and small etc. ( ample examples )
I don't think Prof. Wolff would deny that. It's governments and oligarchs playing power games, with no respect for the "victim" country's poorer population, or their own, and only worried if strong interest groups in their own protest (say, agrobusiness).
But that formal declaration of war could also be illegal. Only the UN has the legal authority to declare sanctions. No country may legally declare war unless another country attacks them first.
Zimbabwe was hit with sanctions decades ago, people have never revolted against the ruling party. People are poorer and the ruling party is still on power & much richer by the reason of corruption
Tariffs are not sanctions but a tax imposed on certain goods imported from a particular country! They aim at protecting the imposing country (e.g USA) from an aggressive trade policy of the exporter (e.g China) who deliberately undervalues his currency in order to boost his exports and restricts his imports at the expense of his trading partners (e.g USA). The imposition of sanctions is an aggressive trade policy while the imposition of tariffs is defensive!
I'm so happy I made productive decisions about my finances that changed my life forever,hoping to retire next year... Investment should always be on any creative man's heart for success in life.
I agree with you and believe that the secret to financial stability is having the right investment ideas to enable you earn more money, I don't know who agrees with me but either way I recommend real estate or crypto and stocks.
Yeah!! It would be more beneficial and yield more profit if you actually trade on cryptocurrency, I've been trading since the dip, I've made so much profit trading.
trading is easier with proper guidance, especially from a professional, Newbies who are not aware of how crypto truly works and wish to make profits from it, I would advise to invest with a professional like Fergus waylen, It helps secure and minimize the possibilities of losses.
Last winter, the energy prices in europe caused a lot of energy poverty. Usa just wants to sell its expensive gas. To buy heating oil, it was like 5000 euros per household for a year and governments had to subsidise the gas prices to hide the effect.
Great breakdown of the ineffectiveness of sanctions. I think we’re also seeing an additional level of suffering of the santioners societies. in regard the the western block sanctions on Russia. We in the west have suffered more under these sanctions than anyone in Russia. High interest rates, high cost of living and high inflation. Biden and the EU leaders might have just sanctioned their nations into a rapid slide into irrelevance and collapse. The rapid dedollarisation, brought on by us sanctions and the demonstration of the west as a untrustworthy trading partner also means the sanctions will have a massive impact on the wests importance for a long time to come.
Agree whole-hearted with you, Prof Wolff. It's the result of the present political system. high-sounding rhetoric wins votes. And political leaders are short-sighted to make another term than to do the society long term good.
What are some examples of the ways the people in positions of power choose to "offload" the damage of the sanctions onto the working class? I know there must be many but my brain isn't functioning today....
Sanction isn't design for the leadership class, that just a misdirection. It's design too disrupt the masses so that it may create chaos and the overthrow that government with NED money and agents.
Dear professor, all what you said is true ... and let me say once more: wars are always paid by the people in the street and those with means will increase their means. But I think there is something quite important that you didn't mention, in fact 2 things : First, sanctions will most probably be answered with counter-sanctions and second, what I experience now ... a country that is sanctioned will seek to get independent from what is 'taken away' from them. And, in my humble opinion, thát solution will make the sanctioned country more independent, but on top, possibly the solution they build might in time also become a replacement that others might be willing to use. And thus it might take away the business from the one that came up with the sanctions ... with all its consequences.
Well said. ! (Similar to sanctions on South Africa. Now twenty years after "free elections" all metrics show a dismal outlook on all groups of indigent people!
... "sanction" is just another name what used to be called "excommunication". You considered "sanction" from the "utilitarian" (does it work or not?) viewpoint. Should also consider "sanction" from the legal, international law, fairness / natural justice ... and ethical/moral point of views.
The interesting case is that opposite actually works better. When Russia had tons of cheap money from NATO countries, liberal ideas were popular among population. However, to achieve liberalization of that... Another 20-30 years of free money should have been imposed on Russia. That didn't happened.
Please do not Sanction me is synonymous with fabled Brer Rabbit begging "Puhleeeze, don't throw me into that briar patch!" ; both parties are in Cspitalistic Cahoots, I tell you!
Not bad, but he misses / confuses a key point. Country leaders do not necessarily off load sanctions on their poor people. Leaders generally have money and they can handle sanctions and the poor can't, and therefore suffer. There is no off loading as he implies. In layman terms, if a country leader has $ 1000 in the bank and he is sanctioned so that he looses $300 he still has $700. The poor peons? who only had $300 get wiped out. There was no off loading, just the poor can't handle the hard times as well. Last year many or most of Europeans had to pay double for their gas and electric. Did not hurt Russia, but having to pay double for your heat and electric sure hurts and created a heat or eat condition for the countries doing the sanctioning.
Except don't conflate tariffs with sanctions. Tariffs level the pricing of goods so people can choose a product based upon its quality, workmanship and style, and not just its cheap price. Once the tariffs make prices equivalent then there is no advantage to making ANYTHING in China, so the jobs DO flow back to America. Any questions Professor?
To Prof Wolff please look into the sanctions put by US and Europe to the small country on the Horn of Africa Eritrea with four to five million population that came out of thirty years war for independence they put sanctions again and again but they failed. By the way their hand out was rejected by the people and the government of Eritrea The reason I put this comment for you you only mentioned the bigger countries were put on sanctions Just for your information Thank you
Sanctions were an important part of what brought down apartheid. Once the US sanctions were enforced, only Israel and to a lesser extent the UK continued to deal with the racist regime in South Africa. And their impact was huge. Unashamedly pro-apartheid president Botha began negotiations with the ANC leadership including the still incarcerated Nelson Mandela in the mid '80's right after the US sanctions were imposed. The liberation movements in South Africa considered the negative effects of sanctions on the working class a sacrifice worth making to forward their struggle. 9:219:21
Apartheid was itself a regime that had kept most of South Africans living in infra-human conditions for many decades. That system was bound to fall regardless of sanctions. All such systems end up fading into the dust heaps of History sooner or later.
South Africa sanctions were legally approved by the UN. That is not the same as US unilateral sanctions, imposed to enforce colonialism and hegemony, which are illegal and immoral.
@JEpronuke Sanctions alot in S. Africa. Sanctions don't always work but they sometimes are all we have short of war. Nobody wants war! Sometimes we can't just do nothing because doing nothing is equivalent to approval. I just can't think Russia is doing the right thing agressively invading Ukraine. If Russia has good reason for invading Ukraine does the United States have your approval to invade Cuba or some other country where we previously had interests? Russia is being criminally aggressive and I just can't stand Putin.
US has sanctioned itself,to some estimates the U.S. has lost about two trillion dollars trade with Iran in the last 40 years.how many jobs could have created in the US if there was no sanctions on Iran .
the poor pay the price, not the wealthy they have millions and sanctions will not do not much of harm. the list are: the minorities (discriminated) and the poor.
Sanctions better than war , just do what we tell them to do and things will be allright . Don't build nuclear weapons , don't allow terrorist to threaten this country from there's, then all will be good , we can be friends
I own a small business - just me - and I manufacture very niche computer electronics. These things use microchips and other parts, all of which are imported from China. There are no american alternatives to these parts, nothing the same is made here. I pay the tariffs. The Chinese don't. I do. Tariffs are a tax on domestic consumers and not anything else. They serve no other purpose. If they want free trade so badly why is the US Harmonized Tariff Schedule zillions of pages with squillions of subjected goods to tariffs. True free trade would mean everything just comes in duty free...though we know it's all BS...ALL OF IT.
Apparently the answer lies in the capitalist economic structure of the state? Uncle! In capitalism, you will pay - pay - and pay for everything until the day you die. Especially when the dominant imperialist has a market competitor. Again, all the costs will fall on the shoulders of idiots who support the capitalist system. And not on those who float on top.
Exactlyn they sure don't understand. One of my suppliers was working on splitting the difference with me. Then the BS postage on our side & then the ships!! on the other hand EMS occasionally dhl very efficient and my suppliers loyal and fair. The American alternatives were horrifying 4 me. Any small owner with merchandise and logistics knows this is systematically to destroy US I swear it's like they don't believe me!
There's a vast difference between what _free trade_ is packaged and sold as and what it actually is. *Heads, I win. Tails, you lose.*
the red tape has become a throttling mechanic easily circumvented by the big companies to ensure that the small businesses can't compete
The free trade is dead. According to my knowledge, those companies in other countries except U.S., especially in China, are willing to find a way to replace any supplier from U.S. at a relatively higher cost. because the the transactions with supplier from U.S. might be sanctioned by U.S. government in future.
I got a question for Wolff, I heard it from a Venezuelan refugee in Bolivia who worked full time taking care of her disabled daughter. She said about the very rare medicine her daughter needs being sanctioned by the US that "I understand that your president hates mine, but why are they trying to kill my daughter?" There is a genocidal element to these policies. It is horrific and intentional. Luckily Bolivia is cheap and has a local industry for that medicine.
Many people in Venezuela have died there because of the sanction's effect on the Venezuelan local pharmaceutical industry and related imports.
Sanction on a country is as good as a genocide 😢
@@jsb354
Syria and Iran too..
@@Kuasarakyat2, and many more.
That is truth, Venezuela, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, all these country, Yemen, Sanction, the medicine that they need doesn’t get to them and that’s because of the United States is sanction because of that and that is truth. It’s no lie.
Free trade enthusiasts only love it as long as they are always on the winning side.
👍👏
Unless approved by the UN Security Council sanctions are illegal.
Not to mention an act of war.
Ah, sanctions! In sactioned Yugoslavia, in 1990's, i celebrated my 18th birthday by having nothing to eat and by being hungry. Not only that sactions don't hurt people at the top, it benefits them, a lot. They can smuggle in sanctioned goods, and sell them to their own people, at higher price. Smuggling works like a charm when you operate the customs service.
FOUR complementary aspects to this:
*1)* Foreign businesses belonging to the sanctioning countries get nationalized by the sanctioned countries.
*2)* Whatever resources the sanctioning countries export to the sanctioned countries, get replaced by other internal or external sources.
*3)* Sanctioned countries associate with one another to trade.
*4)* They set up alternative banking and payment systems so sanctions lose their impact over time. Think BRICS countries trading outside the SWIFT international payment system.
The best case scenario! Not so easy for Cuba, for instance. But we can hope, Russia!
Thanks!
You forgot one final point. More developed countries like Russia and China are able to employ "import substitution" to completely make the sanctions irrelevant. Also, the impact on American businesses that forgo the lost market opportunities are never mentioned but is a real cost to the American people.
unfortunately the lost market could be permanent and this makes America worst off in the long run as it force China to built their own supply chain instead of the convenient and cheaper option of buying ready make machinery and software. Now the local companies were being subsidies to invest R&D into making semiconductor machineries and materials which otherwise would be very difficult to justify spending monies. Without the sanction they would not have gotten so much subsidies to speed up development and production improvement. American simply wants to copy the same tactics they use in the past without any backup plan in case the sanction backfire
Sanctions on Russia had a positive effect for Russia because it forced them to develop their own economy. Since they are hit by the "Curse of Natural Resources" they until 2014 were not forced to develop their production sector. Now they are stronger than ever. Thank you, USA!
Russian GDP down by_50%, federation is gone. Small countries to come out just like ussr split. 😂
I live in Russia and this is NOT what is happening. What's really happening is Russia trades throough proxies like Turkey now. Which means same stuff, but at higher cost for the people. The end.
@@FreaksSpeaksdid you watch the latest CNN report?
@@zaichushka no, why?
It seems as though the U.S. have a hard time learning from past mistakes.
Hvala.
Sanctions has an impact on poor countries. In the case of Russia, they have no impact because, 1. Russia started their own financial system back in 2008, 2. It has more options to redirect its trade with other countries (China, India, Middle East, Africa, Latin/south America). The sanctions mostly impact Europe and our own economy. Worse, Many countries are reducing their investment in the US and worse, it open the eyes of other countries to stay away from US dollars. On the long term, the sanctions hurt more the US and EU than Russia.
In another video Wolff explained how the sanctions were crippling Germany and much of Europe due to gas and oil shortages/sanctions.
@@dorienberteletti2129 It is dumb and stupid of EU leaders to forfeit Russia gas and buy it from India at 40% more. Beside, sanctions hurt more EU people and not the Russian people.
It is hard to sanction country that was not fully integrated into global economy because it was denied of integration by tons of reasons by the West. In other words, Russia had to support around of 80% of all important for self-sustaining products while waiting approval to join the global economy in full.
@@yamatohime2035 Russian economy is doing well, much better than western economy. As always, sanctions affect a country on a short term, but they help it in a long term. Cuba, Iran and many others, adapted, found away to counter the sanctions, and in the case of Russia, it had 15 years to created its own financial system to bypass western financial and trade system. Today, the Brics are in near to create a new and powerful financial and trade system that will destroys and replace western one. With the birth of new trade currency (a reserve currency backed by gold and tangible assets), the dollar and Euro will collapse and western economy will start their down hill path to give place to a New World Order that will control vital resources and worldwide trade market. The last 600 years of the history of passed empire have confirmed that what we are witnessing today is nothing than the collapse of western empire and the birth of another (the Brics).
The reason for sanctions are at least mostly(if not all) to punish leaders who care about their people ignoring the interest of western corporate interest.
All of the human right, freedom, and democracy are no more than a pretext.
Example : saudi, china(before trump), today vietnam, colombian dictators, some african dictators, even a former dictator in my country were so good in the eyes of the US as long as the US corporate interest are protected.
👍
You could turn the question around and ask, would it be ok if China punish the American people if the US govt does something bad according to he opinion of the Chinese govt?
Thank you Prof Wolff , and yup sanctions do not affect the governments or the rich class it is always the other class ( the poor ) . So bad cause most of the time are children involved . ✌🏻🙏👏👋🏻😁❤️.
But this time sanctions comes back to bite west
Exactly! Thank you Prof.
Sanctions only end up hurting regular people not the ones actually in power.
The typical "poor" US citizen has the power to choose not to live a planet-wrecking lifestyle with planet-wrecking rates of consumption, and to instead pay the reparations they owe as beneficiaries of imperialism, but they instead demonstrate with their lifestyles, and often with their words, that their backs are turned to the global victims of the imperialism they benefit from and to the needs of a healthy planet. The world should sanction and totally embargo the US.
@@ReparationsForImperialism You didn't watch the video. We can tell by your comment, which ignores the fact that the poor and working class will be hurt the most.
@@kevinschmidt2210 And YOU keep proving you can't read.
@@kevinschmidt2210 There is no such thing as "poor" in the US. Everyone in the US owes reparations for the imperialism they all benefit from.
@@ReparationsForImperialism LOL! And you decided that nonsense all on your own? Now all you have to do is make the US pay up.
Well, good luck with that! LOL!
I understand it sir very clear.Thanks with your thoughtful and honest sharing with world.
Thank you
Hope such wise words work in avg us citizens and intellgencia .
Good perspective
Thank goodness for Professor Wolff! I so appreciate his analysis and perspectives. A voice of reason in a world of propaganda.
A voice of reason? If sanctions do not improve the conditions of the
general population, by what reasoning do "strikes" improve those conditions?
Thank you Prof Wolff for your tireless explanations. Everything is shouldered by the poor to the greatest extent possible. Thank you D@W once again.
Thanks Prof!!!
We have no beef with long suffering Russian, Iranian, Cuban or North Korean people. Lift the sanctions, give humanity aid where needed and negotiate in good faith
do away with dictators wouldn't be bad. They hurt their people the most, not just sanctions.
@@helpanimals- Who is the dictator? Do you mean the US the global dictator? Which always dictates the world?
Could you please explain what sanctions have done to the people of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. How many thousands of people are killed as a result of sanctions and not just in the countries I mentioned, but Syria, Iraq, Afganistán. Also how much money this countries loss in trade and because of banking sanctions. Thank you I really think sanctions on countries of the Global South are brutal for everybody. Thank you for your program
Salute to Richard!!!
we must find a way that true democracy can rise!.
Ah, "waiting for true socialism or something like it."
You seem eager for a democracy that will cancel you, why is that?
Dr so true!😢😢😢😢😢
Good video, another bad effect of sanctions are, they cause undesired migration, like in the case of Cuba and Venezuela, people from both countries are flooding into the USA, Colombia and many other nearby countries, thus causing societal pressure on the resources of those countries.
Much appreciated perspective that the professor proffers for the disingenuous intentions of US sanctions. So to buttress his assertion that sanctions don't hurt the higher ups in society but rather they do negatively impact the poorest most severely. Isn't it also likely that sanctions are simply another US instrument intended to engender mass unrest and suffering to facilitate regime change.
Awesome 👏🏻 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Excellent explanation. As an Iranian, I got hit by US sanctions. I personally never chanted "'death to America ". The worst effects of sanctions is making it difficult and almost impossible to the citizens to buying foreign drugs. I was witnessing a guy who struggled blood blood cancer and told me there is no chemotherapy drug in country.
Most of people got so poor that can't go elsewhere for their treatment. in my opinion this is the most painful effect of sanctions .
But i want to draw your attention to those people who live in neither side. Assume you are someone who runs a startup in Europe. When US sanctions another country like Iran, you are not able to do business with Iranians and hence you will loose a big market. So sanctions also affect others who live in third countries by depriving them from the market in the sanctioned countries.
I am
In live as a foreigner. Sactions didnt hurt the locals but people like me suffered
And they encourage self-reliance in the country sanctioned
What is the alternative?
So, if something like that what will be the best option to do to change the absolute behavior of such leaders ?
understanding made simple.
The only reason sanctions imposed by the US are good for domestic political consumption is Americans don't understand the extent to which they are hurt by those sanctions. China produces some good technology, both consumer and business, we in the US can no longer get, and most of us don't know we can't get it and what we're deprived. Sanctioning Russia has increased energy prices for all of us here, though Europeans have been particularly hard hit.
Except that the present "domestic policies" are responsible for any energy
shortages here...as we have more than enough.
We have criminals in charge
well said
3:50 Trickle down sanctions
good stuff
Well spoken
Prof Wolff, I thank you for explaining how U.S. sanctions affect the people of the countries the U.S. government imposes these stupid sanctions on.
How are "strikes" any different?
The argument that sanctions are not working is only valid if you accept that their stated purpose is their real purpose which it mostly isn't. For example: The purpose of sanctioning China can not be to try to get them to stop oppressing Uyghurs because, as I can tell you as a person who actually lives in China, the idea that they are doing that is just a great big American Lie. To understand US sanctions you have to consider their effect on the 9 out of 10 countries that aren't being sanctioned. You only have to look at the way that the EU effectively sanctioned themselves over Ukraine in a way that was absolutely against the interests of their own people to see the lengths that the 9 out of 10 will go to in avoiding becoming one of the 1 out of 10. If you are obsessed with world domination, you make examples of the few to keep the many in line.
Can Anyone recommend any good books on this subject?
If you don't want to do business with them, why stop others from doing business with them?
Thanks professor
How exactly do the governments and ruling classes pass on the effect of sanctions on to ordinary people is it an active things they do or is it just done by the not taking action to alleviate the problems caused by the sanctions
It is important that countries do not use a service that is used for economics that could be deflected towards others that can do little about the situation.
The idea of regime changes should no longer be tolerated. So the world should reflect these regime changes on the perpetrators, ie mostly the Americans.
What would be the alternative besides war?
Maybe diplomacy? ☺☺
Oh, there are lots of things that could be done.
I even made a little list:
1. Criminalize the corruption of the mentally-ill addicts in the wealthy-class.
2. Tax the mentally-ill addicts in the wealthy-class out of existence.
3. Rehabilitate the mentally-ill addicts in the wealthy-class by allowing them to participate in the meaningful, life-changing labor that is required to produce life-sustaining necessities.
Eliminate the wealthy-class, and you eliminate the inequality and wars they perpetuate.
Eliminate the wealthy-class, and you eliminate the main source of the world's problems.
But -- just as the rhyming-nature of history will never stop telling the truths of the future -- the mentally-ill addicts in the wealthy-class will never willingly give up their addictions. And, thus, the class-war continues.
The US sanctions certain countries, not the countries that the US can benefit from. Sanctions can actually have the opposite effect. I lived in one of the most sanctioned countries - the old South Africa. When the US impose sanctions, the government used it to an advantage. They called it "local content". So everything was to be locally sourced. Which created millions of jobs. For example, cotton was planted, it was made into fabric, and then into clothes. From start to finish everything was manufactured locally. Jobs were so easily available. You'd never hear of unemployment. The economy boomed. Our currency was worth More than US dollar. Ironically, all the foriegn companies then moved here. Sanctions will work only if a country makes itself dependant on the US or any other country. Sanctions made no difference to Russia now. Their economy is actually thriving.
You're also creating a climate of fear to invest in Chinese companies on the US stock exchange, using a looming threat of somehow blocking out the Chinese companies.
I saw the late secretary of state madame Albright boast of how Americans sanctions had killed 500'000 iraqi children, where is she now?....her carcass is dead like those Iraqi children, at the end we'll all die, do great things in the world and leave it a better place.
Senctions on Zimbabwe did work😢
Excellent Speech- Salute ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
These sorts of sanctions serve local collaborators in neocolonialism, fascist and capitalist elites who are happy to see their vulnerable populations suffer. The US offers solidarity to local bourgeoisie in the global south via sanctions when the class struggle there intensifies. This is why anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist solidarity is priority 1 for the left.
when u shut ur room door and no one could enter
u also block urselve to leave
Right about sanctions not working
mr Wolff , with all due respect , I like your attributes to the people , but you forgot one thing to mention , namely how sanctions do hurt the people of the country which apply these sanctions , it hurts their own people , import/export , production, employment and their businesses , big and small etc. ( ample examples )
I don't think Prof. Wolff would deny that. It's governments and oligarchs playing power games, with no respect for the "victim" country's poorer population, or their own, and only worried if strong interest groups in their own protest (say, agrobusiness).
Thank you very much for this beautiful and clear lesson.
In order to impose sanctions, a formal declaration of war should be required to precede it.
But that formal declaration of war could also be illegal. Only the UN has the legal authority to declare sanctions. No country may legally declare war unless another country attacks them first.
Economic terrorism.
Imposed by the oligarchy's champagne terrorists.
We especially need to have Venezuela on our side.
WPAA-TV a community TV station would like to share your commentary as life-long learning content. Advise if this would not be permissible.
Zimbabwe was hit with sanctions decades ago, people have never revolted against the ruling party. People are poorer and the ruling party is still on power & much richer by the reason of corruption
Tariffs are not sanctions but a tax imposed on certain goods imported from a particular country! They aim at protecting the imposing country (e.g USA) from an aggressive trade policy of the exporter (e.g China) who deliberately undervalues his currency in order to boost his exports and restricts his imports at the expense of his trading partners (e.g USA). The imposition of sanctions is an aggressive trade policy while the imposition of tariffs is defensive!
Sometimes. Not always. Cf. Trump's tariffs. Pure (petty) aggression.
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I'm honestly surprised that this name is being mentioned here, I stumbled upon one of his clients testimony last week in CNBC world news
Last winter, the energy prices in europe caused a lot of energy poverty. Usa just wants to sell its expensive gas. To buy heating oil, it was like 5000 euros per household for a year and governments had to subsidise the gas prices to hide the effect.
We see the effects of sanctions, with the poor souls seeking refuge at our borders.
Great breakdown of the ineffectiveness of sanctions. I think we’re also seeing an additional level of suffering of the santioners societies. in regard the the western block sanctions on Russia. We in the west have suffered more under these sanctions than anyone in Russia. High interest rates, high cost of living and high inflation. Biden and the EU leaders might have just sanctioned their nations into a rapid slide into irrelevance and collapse.
The rapid dedollarisation, brought on by us sanctions and the demonstration of the west as a untrustworthy trading partner also means the sanctions will have a massive impact on the wests importance for a long time to come.
It's another version of "collateral damage" in a hot war!
is the rise of wealth for russian billionaires in 2022 a "collateral damage" ?
Agree whole-hearted with you, Prof Wolff. It's the result of the present political system. high-sounding rhetoric wins votes. And political leaders are short-sighted to make another term than to do the society long term good.
By what means can a central government determine what policies
are going to result in the long-term good of society?
What are some examples of the ways the people in positions of power choose to "offload" the damage of the sanctions onto the working class? I know there must be many but my brain isn't functioning today....
I'd say, inflation, taxes, fees, and service and interest rates, cut backs of medical etc .
Sanction isn't design for the leadership class, that just a misdirection. It's design too disrupt the masses so that it may create chaos and the overthrow that government with NED money and agents.
Thanks for your explanation. Fully respect.
كلام حق
Dear professor, all what you said is true ... and let me say once more: wars are always paid by the people in the street and those with means will increase their means.
But I think there is something quite important that you didn't mention, in fact 2 things : First, sanctions will most probably be answered with counter-sanctions and second, what I experience now ... a country that is sanctioned will seek to get independent from what is 'taken away' from them.
And, in my humble opinion, thát solution will make the sanctioned country more independent, but on top, possibly the solution they build might in time also become a replacement that others might be willing to use. And thus it might take away the business from the one that came up with the sanctions ... with all its consequences.
Well said. ! (Similar to sanctions on South Africa. Now twenty years after "free elections" all metrics show a dismal outlook on all groups of indigent people!
Good and simply analysed by proffesor Richard Wolff.
... "sanction" is just another name what used to be called "excommunication".
You considered "sanction" from the "utilitarian" (does it work or not?) viewpoint.
Should also consider "sanction" from the legal, international law, fairness / natural justice ... and ethical/moral point of views.
The interesting case is that opposite actually works better. When Russia had tons of cheap money from NATO countries, liberal ideas were popular among population. However, to achieve liberalization of that... Another 20-30 years of free money should have been imposed on Russia. That didn't happened.
Please do not Sanction me is synonymous with fabled Brer Rabbit begging "Puhleeeze, don't throw me into that briar patch!" ; both parties are in Cspitalistic Cahoots, I tell you!
Define sanction...
Not bad, but he misses / confuses a key point. Country leaders do not necessarily off load sanctions on their poor people.
Leaders generally have money and they can handle sanctions and the poor can't, and therefore suffer. There is no off loading as he implies. In layman terms, if a country leader has $ 1000 in the bank and he is sanctioned so that he looses $300 he still has $700. The poor peons? who only had $300 get wiped out. There was no off loading, just the poor can't handle the hard times as well.
Last year many or most of Europeans had to pay double for their gas and electric. Did not hurt Russia, but having to pay double for your heat and electric sure hurts and created a heat or eat condition for the countries doing the sanctioning.
Except don't conflate tariffs with sanctions. Tariffs level the pricing of goods so people can choose a product based upon its quality, workmanship and style, and not just its cheap price. Once the tariffs make prices equivalent then there is no advantage to making ANYTHING in China, so the jobs DO flow back to America. Any questions Professor?
To Prof Wolff please look into the sanctions put by US and Europe to the small country on the Horn of Africa Eritrea with four to five million population that came out of thirty years war for independence they put sanctions again and again but they failed.
By the way their hand out was rejected by the people and the government of Eritrea
The reason I put this comment for you you only mentioned the bigger countries were put on sanctions
Just for your information
Thank you
Was US and their Allies imposition of Sanctions against İraq legal? The sanctions killed over million childs, and million elderly?
I thought maybe the goal of the one sanctioning was to create an uprising in the sanctioned country, as the people suffer?
lol, yeah , but you can't talk about that openly)
I can’t recall sanctions ever causing people to revolt and overthrow their state leaders. (Cuba, North Korea , China, Zimbabwe, etc…)
Sanctions were an important part of what brought down apartheid. Once the US sanctions were enforced, only Israel and to a lesser extent the UK continued to deal with the racist regime in South Africa. And their impact was huge. Unashamedly pro-apartheid president Botha began negotiations with the ANC leadership including the still incarcerated Nelson Mandela in the mid '80's right after the US sanctions were imposed.
The liberation movements in South Africa considered the negative effects of sanctions on the working class a sacrifice worth making to forward their struggle. 9:21 9:21
Apartheid was itself a regime that had kept most of South Africans living in infra-human conditions for many decades. That system was bound to fall regardless of sanctions. All such systems end up fading into the dust heaps of History sooner or later.
South Africa sanctions were legally approved by the UN.
That is not the same as US unilateral sanctions, imposed to enforce colonialism and hegemony, which are illegal and immoral.
@JEpronuke Sanctions alot in S. Africa. Sanctions don't always work but they sometimes are all we have short of war. Nobody wants war! Sometimes we can't just do nothing because doing nothing is equivalent to approval. I just can't think Russia is doing the right thing agressively invading Ukraine. If Russia has good reason for invading Ukraine does the United States have your approval to invade Cuba or some other country where we previously had interests? Russia is being criminally aggressive and I just can't stand Putin.
Sanctions are a flawed system and concept.
In my opinion I think sanctions hurt only wen the sanctioned country has foreign deposits, assets other thn tht its a zero work n stupidity
US has sanctioned itself,to some estimates the U.S. has lost about two trillion dollars trade with Iran in the last 40 years.how many jobs could have created in the US if there was no sanctions on Iran .
the poor pay the price, not the wealthy they have millions and sanctions will not do not much of harm.
the list are: the minorities (discriminated) and the poor.
The Title should be: "My Own Narrow Interpretation of Sanctions"
RUclips and Narcissists... hand-in-hand to the end
sanctions are bully behaviors
天下苦美久矣
Sanctions better than war , just do what we tell them to do and things will be allright . Don't build nuclear weapons , don't allow terrorist to threaten this country from there's, then all will be good , we can be friends