Democracy at Work: Curing Capitalism | Richard Wolff | Talks at Google

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  • Опубликовано: 27 сен 2024
  • Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University in New York City. He wrote Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism and founded www.democracyatwork.info, a non-profit advocacy organization of the same name that promotes democratic workplaces as a key path to a stronger, democratic economic system.
    Professor Wolff discusses the economic dimensions of our lives, our jobs, our incomes, our debts, those of our children, and those looming down the road in his unique mixture of deep insight and dry humor. He presents current events and draws connections to the past to highlight the machinations of our global economy. He helps us to understand political and corporate policy, organization of labor, the distribution of goods and services, and challenges us to question some of the deepest foundations of our society. For more of his lectures, visit the Democracy at Work RUclips channel: / democracyatwrk .
    Get the book here: goo.gl/XDxuDL

Комментарии • 9 тыс.

  • @randomstuff911
    @randomstuff911 7 лет назад +3210

    he's takin it right to the workers in one of the biggest monopolies. respect

    • @presa609
      @presa609 7 лет назад +138

      And it's rolling of their consciousness like water off a ducks back. Who cares about inequity when they are being treated equitably; And, their ability to defend themselves with incredible military equipment is affordable to them? These people don't need to care. The illusion of righteousness is intoxicating.

    • @ronbriner8688
      @ronbriner8688 7 лет назад +4

      randomstuff911

    • @reasonablespeculation3893
      @reasonablespeculation3893 6 лет назад +44

      Wolff is complaining about Capitalism instead of explaining how to thrive. Lamenting that the Horse and Buggy is becoming obsolete, instead of explaining which is the most reliable, safe and efficient automobile... I think most people would agree that there is a need for some level of Social Safety Net , and there are important Government Agencies that are necessary to enforce Laws and Guidelines..... But innovation must never be stifled, and private property/wealth must be a cornerstone of Society.... No matter how good Marxist Ideas look theoretically or philosophically, they do not work in reality..... they do not promote the talent of the Best and the Brightest....they give no incentive to the working man.... they lead to strict oversight, loss of individual freedom, and economic disaster.

    • @reasonablespeculation3893
      @reasonablespeculation3893 6 лет назад +6

      Tomato Pa.... More innovation in Mao's China or Stalin's USSR?Democratizing the work place is a vague notion... Super Rich by "simply sitting on to of a corporation" a CEO may be a share holder, but may or may not be a major shareholder... Mr. Tomato Pa has the option to buy shares, and potentially receive dividends, if he is willing to take the risk.... Marxism must be enforced, otherwise clever , productive, organize people will have a better quality of life then the rest.......www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/10/red-famine-anne-applebaum-ukraine-soviet-union/542610/

    • @reasonablespeculation3893
      @reasonablespeculation3893 6 лет назад +3

      Tomato Pa ... Capitalism for me, some variety of Marxism for you... Cuba, North Korea, China for you, ...USA, UK, Canada for me.........I don't know what you mean when you use the phrase "the democratic workplace", but the point is moot... You correctly judged that I consider further response pointless... Also, that cunning UN prefix maneuver, that you formulated, demonstrates you are far too clever for me.

  • @0leander410
    @0leander410 3 года назад +1049

    The fact that Google allowed this scares me as to how confident they are about unionization being impossible and the American working class being forever impotent and unable to exert the powers their numbers should reflect.

    • @kermitfrog593
      @kermitfrog593 2 года назад +66

      You nailed it.

    • @michaelschneider2874
      @michaelschneider2874 2 года назад +24

      IMPERIALLY....Arrogant !

    • @Leyenda1
      @Leyenda1 2 года назад +1

      Unions are a relic of the oast.

    • @JamieRobles1
      @JamieRobles1 2 года назад +61

      @@Leyenda1 *seeing John Deere being out-muscled by a union* No, they're not. If more workers belong to unions, corporations wouldn't be able to get away with doing what they are doing to our country and it's citizens.

    • @Leyenda1
      @Leyenda1 2 года назад +8

      @@JamieRobles1 I think John Deere is an anomaly in the whole of the thing. Boeing is leaving Seattle albeit at a snails pace. They have moved their HQs to Chicago and have built a plant in SC just to avoid union entanglements in the Seattle area. More companies are eating California for more business friendly ventures in Texas. There is nothing stopping this train...

  • @276226
    @276226 3 года назад +1280

    John Steinbeck once said that socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires!

    • @88anarahammertime
      @88anarahammertime 3 года назад +19

      😂😂 such a great writer

    • @connorthornberg
      @connorthornberg 3 года назад +82

      This is really true for poor white america, but most poor minority groups can see what's going on and how the system is stacked against them.

    • @argemirocarvajal7843
      @argemirocarvajal7843 3 года назад +9

      Like ELON MUSK ?
      SOMETIMES HE HAD TO SLEEP UNDER A DESK.HE DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A BED - (OR A SHOWER)=

    • @argemirocarvajal7843
      @argemirocarvajal7843 3 года назад +2

      It was about temporarily embarrassed millionaires.

    • @jamiel6005
      @jamiel6005 3 года назад +56

      @@argemirocarvajal7843 oh for gods sake 😭

  • @SocialistGuyX
    @SocialistGuyX Год назад +45

    Great and well needed lecture! Even in former Yugoslavia there was an economic system 1950-1992 called "the socialst workers' self management". That was 99 % same as today's Cooperatives. I lived and worked in that system and I can tell you first hand that we, the workers, were very, very happy with it. To those who will immediately say that Yugoslavia crashed because of it, I say that cannot be farther from truth. Yugoslavia crashed and ended because of aggressive nationalism and religious hatred between major ethnic groups, and that's completely different story.

    • @dobekhil
      @dobekhil Год назад

      Also that hatred was also funded by capitalist forces... mainly from the west.

    • @mickc6347
      @mickc6347 3 месяца назад +1

      Yes but why exactly did the war happen
      Because of America.

    • @dawnkeyy
      @dawnkeyy 2 месяца назад +3

      ​@@mickc6347The war happened mostly because Serbia, as the biggest country in the federation, stopped concerning itself with socialism, and started concerning itself with expansion. The socialist regimes were at an end in the late 80s/early 90s. Serbia knew it would lose out big losing Slovenia and Croatia for the infrastructure and industry (as well as the coastline), and Bosnia for the natural resources.
      They cooked up a rebellion in Croatia (which who knows what part was grassroots and what part seeded) to justify mobilizing the Yugoslav National Army (comprised mostly of serbs since they were the majority population, as well as overrepresented in the leadership) against Croatia and Bosnia to gain control.

    • @cunhasantos3014
      @cunhasantos3014 12 дней назад

      I agree totally with you… I’ve been there when TITO was alive and saw 1st hand how the cooperatives worked… also I believe that the west contributed for the fragmentation of ex- YOUGOSLAVIA… SO SAD… DISGUSTING WEST INTERFERENCE, as they were afraid of the STRONG NATION/ COUNTRY YOUGOSLAVIA WAS… 22 million population and the strongest army in Europe after SOVIET UNION… MISLAM ISTO TAKA KAKO VÁS… ZAPAD E KRIVO DA GLEDAME FRAGMENTATSIA OF EX YOUGOSLAVIA… PITCHKUMATRINA TO ZAPADDDDDD KRIVE SE ZA BORBASSEKADE… POZGRAVI MNOGU…

  • @sail1999
    @sail1999 4 года назад +1757

    I worked at a shipyard that was bought by the employees. The employees used their 401K to buy shares in the employee owned company. It worked well.

    • @michael5555ization
      @michael5555ization 4 года назад +47

      Yeah, until the employees became complacent and non-competitive

    • @patriciapandacoon7162
      @patriciapandacoon7162 4 года назад +707

      @@michael5555ization you really think a person wouldn't work *harder* when they have an actual, tangible stake in the business? Your understanding of human nature is severely lacking and cloaked in years of hyper-individualist propaganda

    • @24POWERS
      @24POWERS 4 года назад +14

      Patricia Pandacoon you don’t even follow this man because he talks about all that, that argument is outdated. That is NOT human nature according to science. Why are you even on This video there are obvious people who live and love and will die for capitalism and will say that bullshit, mean while look at Basque🤣 hush

    • @patriciapandacoon7162
      @patriciapandacoon7162 4 года назад +184

      @@24POWERS and you think they are like this just naturally? No, they are propagandized by the American corporate establishment into thinking humans are selfish monsters. Read Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution to get an introductory understanding to what I'm talking about because *clearly* you are just talking out of your ass.

    • @bprosperie
      @bprosperie 4 года назад +14

      All fine and dandy until the day someone speaks about what they are being paid and what others are being paid. Because the ones pulling the wagon will always ask for more than the ones riding in it.

  • @adrianjanssens7116
    @adrianjanssens7116 4 года назад +640

    I am just dicovering these lectures and am learning a great deal. I always hated the world of work and am glad I am retired. I now realize better why I hated the world of work. Thank you for the knowledge.

    • @BarrySlisk
      @BarrySlisk 4 года назад +12

      You are a lazy SOB. Nothing more to it.

    • @bubblegumBri
      @bubblegumBri 4 года назад +114

      @@BarrySlisk you cannot discern a stranger's character from a youtube comment. Disliking having a job does not mean you're lazy. There are other ways to contribute to society, like volunteering or being a good parent. You don't know how hard this person's job was, if it was soul sucking, etc. It is ok to be happy to get away from that. Also, you dont owe society anything, especially since our government thinks they don't owe us basics like healthcare, but billions on the military industrial complex is a-ok

    • @BarrySlisk
      @BarrySlisk 4 года назад +6

      We agree on one thing. Nobody owes anybody anything by default.
      The government only has the money it steals from us, so it makes no sense to say that it owes you anything because it can NEVER do anything for you without taking it from you in the first place.

    • @bubblegumBri
      @bubblegumBri 4 года назад +70

      ​@@BarrySlisk Huh? The government's job is to help its citizens, that's why we chose for it to exist, that's why we pay taxes. Taxation is an agreement to pool some of our money together for the public benefit, like roads, public schools, libraries, the fire department, etc. It only feels like "stealing" because currently that money is wasted on corruption in the U.S

    • @BarrySlisk
      @BarrySlisk 4 года назад +4

      @@bubblegumBri
      I never agreed to this.

  • @musicdev
    @musicdev 3 года назад +1217

    Criticism of Capitalism in one of the largest tech monopolies today? I dig it

    • @dosran5786
      @dosran5786 3 года назад +18

      the fact your heroes are hypocrites is telling...

    • @dosran5786
      @dosran5786 3 года назад +7

      @Keaton no it isnt you loon, you can criticize society while in thats how it develops. but stating things and being a professor doesnt make them fact and he oddly never presents any for any of his claims. no one willing chose to buy clothes made by slaves and capitalism just because its in a poor country isnt slavery they arent property. the fundamental problem is you are misrepresenting free market capitalism as the current capitalist system we are not free market capitalists. so use all the clever sophistry you want i dare you to argue the points of people like ludwig mises, frederic bastiat or even a modern economist like thomas sowell. you wont and cant because they use facts and you use rhetoric and sophistry to ignore any kind of opposing view point if im so wrong invalidate the sources of my belief.

    • @vonb2792
      @vonb2792 3 года назад +6

      They used to be capitalist, now they can afford socialism and ask for a state monopoly. The guest speaker is right, however... systems are made to last X period and be changed.... the Chinese guy might retract today since China Communist Party is going back into having a Supreme leader and where high school exit exam is based on ''how great the leader is'' more than the ''scientific improvement you can make''. Democracy is a system that allows the power to move around players (known as institutions)... but when all institutions are going down... the system is too... About Wage he's right... a 12 kids family, 1 house wife, 1 working salary-men = You could live on that (but you weren't necessarily poor)! Debt is also new (not even 100 years old!)

    • @dosran5786
      @dosran5786 3 года назад +6

      @@vonb2792 lol no democracy is belief in the power of the state of the demos. im sorry institutions? what nonsense are you spewing lol. government doesnt have the right to institute anything but whats outlined in the constitution.... also no wolffe isnt right about wages he ignores wage mobility and devaluing of currency as well. absolute tripe from an absolute sophist believed by an absolute sheep.

    • @garystevenson5560
      @garystevenson5560 3 года назад +1

      I read this in a novel (I think ) For social justice, work, affordable housing, good unespensive Health care. Forget identity politics, have invisible brigades block crucial infrastructure (train tracks as an example) to promote claims.

  • @squiddy2688
    @squiddy2688 2 года назад +178

    Never have I had such a clear explanation of the way capitalism works and I have never been able to envision another system. This was amazing.

    • @weebgrinder-AIArtistPro
      @weebgrinder-AIArtistPro 2 года назад +7

      Be sure to check out Michael Parenti lectures here on RUclips as well. I think you'll like them.

    • @brainchildguru
      @brainchildguru 2 года назад +7

      Also check out Thomas Sowell to cancel out the crap you picked up from this video. This guy is so naive it hurts to listen to. He sounds exactly like Karl Marx, who didn’t account for the biggest aspect in ANY economic society… human behavior. His ideas are amazing, but that’s all they are, ideas. Once they’re put into action, or the praxis of their concepts, are tragic. All the evidence you need is Mao and Stalin. Nearly *100 million* dead.

    • @kymd2738
      @kymd2738 2 года назад

      Capitalism works great, central banks bailing out special interest zombie companies doesn’t work, and big business getting into bed with government.. for hand outs and special protection and laws doesn’t work. Capitalism with rules and checks, works. Letting banks use derivatives is a prime example of something that should be illegal.

    • @weebgrinder-AIArtistPro
      @weebgrinder-AIArtistPro 2 года назад +3

      @@kymd2738 Well, then you at least believe in something like or close to Keynesian economics. The thing is, a lot of the bailouts and so on really do save these institutions. And their collapsing or being allowed to fail does have negative consequences. Marxism-Leninism actually has quite a lot to say on these kinds of things. I recommend reading "The Principles of Communism" by Frederick Engels (1947). Take care.

    • @sphires
      @sphires 2 года назад +4

      If you enjoyed this check out Noam Chomsky's free market fantasies lecture, he absolutely brutalizes neoliberalism.

  • @jessewood3196
    @jessewood3196 3 года назад +412

    This speech aged well. It will continue to age well.

    • @nickcarducci3413
      @nickcarducci3413 3 года назад +4

      c suckin commie says what? oh yeah what you just said, go fk yourself commie

    • @underhandcloud1414
      @underhandcloud1414 3 года назад +27

      @@nickcarducci3413 why do you hate communism?

    • @kyoshinka
      @kyoshinka 3 года назад +27

      @@underhandcloud1414 Because they don't understand their own system of economics. They build a rigid cultural ideal around the idea of "capitalism" as something which it is not. Instead of looking towards a future, better system which actually rewards people by merit, they drool over the idea that individuals could play such a great role in affecting our society, and forget whether their work actually translates to billions of dollars worth of effort. It's insividualism on steroids. A very toxic individualist idea which inevitably causes people to turn on each other and be valued purely for the work they produce. It can be part of your identity to be a capitalist now. The word hasn't even been in common use for about 50 years now. It was just realized as a reaction to Russian communism. And since Russian communism counters the ideas individual liberty of power over society that also means it's against all the ideas of a meritocratic system. This is the idea which they use to counter the left. They say all anti-capitalism is anti-meritocracy, and then go on to associate it with Russian communism and how they weren't payed fairly and that's how their system failed. That's how we get such closed-mindedness to anti-capitalism. To even any kind of social programs at all when we've already seen what evils pure capitalism can do to us. Things like child labor, exploitation, unsafe working conditions, 12 hour working days, work alienation, and institutional racism.

    • @dragonitejc
      @dragonitejc 3 года назад +12

      @@nickcarducci3413 lmao talk about being an uneducated moron

    • @dosran5786
      @dosran5786 3 года назад

      shit is even aged is still shit

  • @MartinScreeton
    @MartinScreeton 7 лет назад +680

    I've watched Wolff and read everything he has for 5 years... I never miss one of his economic updates... @ democracy at work

    • @PoopyBarfy
      @PoopyBarfy 7 лет назад +10

      Down with democracy

    • @coopsnz1
      @coopsnz1 5 лет назад +5

      @@fun_ghoul You first

    • @fun_ghoul
      @fun_ghoul 5 лет назад +9

      @@coopsnz1 That all you've got, Ben 'Lest-A-Man?

    • @sojournsojourntraveler1203
      @sojournsojourntraveler1203 5 лет назад +9

      @Paesan Control Centre
      Karl Marx was a Luciferian
      This guy is touting him, what more do we need to know.

    • @fun_ghoul
      @fun_ghoul 5 лет назад +34

      @@sojournsojourntraveler1203 You used the word "Luciferian". What more do we need to know?
      🖕🖕

  • @kooisengchng5283
    @kooisengchng5283 4 года назад +289

    Frederick Bastiat says: When plunder becomes the way of life for some people, after some time they will make rules to justify their actions and a moral code to glorify it.

    • @DirkDjently
      @DirkDjently 4 года назад +28

      correct, that is what capitalism is.

    • @bdev8480
      @bdev8480 3 года назад +5

      @@DirkDjently As long as any society promotes a permanent governing body, it's all plunder, regardless of its label.

    • @valiyapurakkalNarayanankutty
      @valiyapurakkalNarayanankutty 3 года назад +6

      I still dont get how exactly is capitalism plunder.

    • @DirkDjently
      @DirkDjently 3 года назад

      @@bdev8480 what's all plunder? It is unclear what "it's all plunder" is referring to. All profits? All economic activity?

    • @DirkDjently
      @DirkDjently 3 года назад +16

      @@valiyapurakkalNarayanankutty besides the it being necessarily the case that capitalists pay their employees a smaller amount than the value their work was worth to the capitalist, imperialist plundering of the resources of Africa, Asia, and South America. People may claim that wasn't capitalism as they define it, but it was certainly closer to their definition of capitalism than any socialist's definition of socialism, which has nothing to do with "the government doing things."

  • @scouserrr
    @scouserrr 3 года назад +40

    Richard Wolff, Michael Hudson, Noam Chomsky, and Bernie Sanders, thank you all for everything you've done and continue to do for us 🇺🇸

    • @ciaranryan5265
      @ciaranryan5265 2 года назад +2

      What did Bernie Sanders ever do except cave to the corporate wing of his party.

    • @mclovin9165
      @mclovin9165 Год назад +2

      ​@@ciaranryan5265He tries to atleast create marginal change, while also still spreading his opinions. Isn't he like a chairman in a committee? Yes he caved and I can imagine that guy after 40 years of spreading the same opinion atleast wants to have created a bit of actual policy change before he dies. Lets not forget he pushed a lot of democrats towards social democracy and socialism.

    • @briancox9357
      @briancox9357 Год назад

      Chomsky revealed his true colors during the pandemic. Hypocrite and bully.

  • @benvanderark8412
    @benvanderark8412 3 года назад +717

    Why the fuck did Google give Wolf an audience. This is amazing

    • @Halum11
      @Halum11 3 года назад +44

      Must have made a mistake 😂

    • @briananderson8428
      @briananderson8428 3 года назад +127

      Oh, it won’t last. Google (which owns RUclips) is already aggressively suppressing and de-monetizing left-leaning programs. They are essentially run by corporate sociopaths. It will continue to get worse, as we on the left point out how tied to the business world Joe Biden really is.

    • @ianreynolds8552
      @ianreynolds8552 3 года назад

      Yes he s cosmic

    • @ianreynolds8552
      @ianreynolds8552 3 года назад +13

      @@briananderson8428 yes its a sighn that capitalism is ending

    • @spiritualanarchist8162
      @spiritualanarchist8162 3 года назад +27

      . Maybe it's the revenge of some guy that got fired and at the last moment arranged Wolff as a speaker. Management behind the scenes...WTF 😉

  • @bobomber
    @bobomber 6 лет назад +68

    I don't have words to describe how brilliant this guy is, but the main thing is he is willing to tell truths to which most people, including scholars, won't even question.

    • @dmonarredmonarre3076
      @dmonarredmonarre3076 5 лет назад +5

      For anyone that takes this serious, well, uhhh, no. Prices dictate scarcity and mobilization of energy's. You can't "plan" economies dude:
      en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methodological_individualism
      ruclips.net/video/gPJWwiKnYGs/видео.html
      ruclips.net/video/Q-ybKwCkZDo/видео.html
      ruclips.net/video/RY0R0NpIdQQ/видео.html

    • @pd5826
      @pd5826 5 лет назад +1

      @@dmonarredmonarre3076 - Incorrect. In the Scarcity Principle, there are 3 inputs: supply, demand & price. Of those, demand is the most important. Zero demand means price doesn't affect scarcity at any price level.

    • @dmonarredmonarre3076
      @dmonarredmonarre3076 5 лет назад +1

      @@pd5826
      That is wildly inaccurate. Nobody “creates demand.” Humans are BORN INTO SCARCITY, ergo, demand will forever exist. Demand is a function of scarcity, and scarcity perpetually transformers over time. As cars developed, new forms of demand developed, and old forms obliterated (How many horse and buggy manufacturers do we really need today?)As computers developed, new forms of demand were developed, and old forms obliterated (Not really sure how many type writer manufacturers we’re in need of today). Scarcity of energy, scarcity of information (Since every single decision we make is with missing information), scarcity of geography, scarcity of organization, scarcity of specialization, scarcity of development, scarcity of infrastructure, scarcity of TIME (That’s a big one),scarcity of scientific predictability, etc.. Companies simply POP INTO EXISTENCE to then serve that new scarcity (Cisco really wasn’t relevant in the 1830’s when there wasn’t the interconnectivity of advanced network technology y’know. Not too much of a necessity for people thousands of miles away to be sending emails to computers that didn’t exist). THAT’S’ how innovation and competition work. And as for what you are talking about in reference to macroeconomic policy, that is called CRONY CAPITALISM, not socialism. Socialism would have those owners completely voided out of the picture. Nationalized entities would be functioning under a centralized authority. Instead, when THE GOVERNMENT IS TOO BIG, they can pick winners of the privately owned institutions and choose who to prop up due to whatever the calls of political utility(irrespective of, and many times in direct contradiction to economic utility) compel them to so they can pander and narrate their “benevolence.”
      Yes, you are correct, with total free markets, MANY companies and firms would die(As they already due today. Look at the S&P 500 today and see how different is was from 50 ,35, 15 and 5 years ago. That is called COMPETITION. Competition drives away INEFFICIENCY, PRODUCTIVITY and LACK OF INNOVATION. ) But you know what also happens, NEW business would develop due to the changing nature of the market and the OPENING UP OF NEW DEMAND. The market doesn’t just REMAIN STAGNANT as is implicit in your comment. According to your forwarded positions, the market simply has competition, all the companies get out-competed away, and there is no growth, no shift in demands, NO INNOVATION, no NEW scarcity to contend with. That maintains that the market is STATIC and CONSTANT, which it absolutely is NOT. Scarcity doesn’t simply go away when market forces subside within an economic sector. Scarcity is driven by realizations of NEW market functions. Restaurants and small farms were all the rage when food was a lot more scarce. Nobody was really concerned with modern energy markets, biological innovation, smart phone development, online course companies, or any other modern operation we have . That is because the scarcity of food and its transportation and processing was still so LABOR INTENSVE that there was demand enough in it for the organization of profit generating institutions surrounding these functions that made it desirable enough amongst enough people for their to be demand for the private organizations. These organizations saw an intertemporal arbitrage opportunity and acted. Now that many of those margins have been competed away, the scarcity of food, thanks to capitalism, does not really exist anymore. THE FREE MARKET HAS LITERALLY SOLVED THE SINGLE GREATEST PROBLEM THAT HAS AFFLICTED MANKIND SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME. THE PURSUT OF, AND MAINTENANCE OF FOOD! We have solved the problem of famine. First civilization to ever do that, THANKS CAPITALISM! Now new markets are popping up around developing processes that are beyond food and rudimentary transportation. And yes, many firms have died along the way, with pesky government stepping in at times trying to prop up irrelevant, outdated, outcompeted but POLITICALLY CONVENIENT processes. Examples would be the highly inefficient and wasteful transportation and information networks forwarded by the DEMOCRATICALLY elected federal government [Hmmm, should I send a letter or simply email someone. Nah, USPS can kick rocks, GOOGLE gets my business. Hmmm, should I take the bus that has 45 different stops that are irrelevant to me, or should I take Uber, or Enterprise or lift, or any other ON DEMAND (Therefore time saving) service. Conversely, the REPUBLICAN offices are addicted to propping up agrarian based initiatives that are completely outdated since those positions speak to their base of supporters. The Libertarian party of the US has always had it right. The government ALWAYS makes things more inefficient due to the very nature of the political process. Say a few nice fuzzy things, get the crowd roaring by preying on their biases, and then gain control over things you have no idea about. That is the destructive function of political organizations. Strictly economic operating firms have no such luxury and NEW firms have popped up to contend with the NEW scarcities that have developed, such as scarcity of mathematical information [how much do you know about combinatorics, probability theory, discrete mathematics, linear programming, econometric Granger effects, etc.]scarcity of medical information, scarcity of psychological information (Social psychology, cognitive psychology, evolutionary psychology, the necessity of specialization never ends!), scarcity of biological information, scarcity of network technology information, scarcity of space exploration information, scarcity of chemical information, scarcity of nutritional information, scarcity of physiological information. These are all new fields of effort that are perpetually changing and maintain the potential of presenting new sources of value that ECONOMIC ORGANIZATIONS can develop new, unseen, and unheard of value for everyone to consume CONSENSUALLY if they desire. Again, everything you said from the cause of demand to the role of macroeconomic policy is completely divorced from reality. You are so desperate to generate an oppression narrative that you engage in the acts of boldfaced lies. You are naively under the impression that economies DO NOT MOVE, DO NOT INNOVATE, DO NOT OPEN UP NEW MARKETS, but rather are stagnant, and once the economy reaches this point of stagnation, are completely run be a big central authority. That is blatant nonsense, scientifically inaccurate, and a radical misunderstanding of how markets operate and TRANSFORM.
      Before you respond, watch my hyperlinks attached. If I notice in your response that you didn’t and don’t comment on propositions forwarded there, I will not respond since I am not going to consume nonsensical media YOU support, WHICH I DID WITH THE ABOVE DRIVEL, without you doing the same for me. That is a one-sided time investment that I refuse to partake in. I won’t be the one doing all the work while you continuously put NEW burdens of proof on me after I have debunked your first economically illiterate proposition. Again, don’t bother if you don’t show signs of watching what I forward in the hyperlinks, BECAUSE I WON’T RESPOND IF YOU DON’T WATCH:
      ruclips.net/video/sGYl17DiEwo/видео.html
      ruclips.net/video/RY0R0NpIdQQ/видео.html

    • @dmonarredmonarre3076
      @dmonarredmonarre3076 5 лет назад

      @Terrence Anderson
      AMEN!

    • @LolDC222
      @LolDC222 5 лет назад +5

      @@dmonarredmonarre3076 In opposition for the overwhelming amount of deaths due to capitalism? Every death of starvation, every war founded on obtaining resources? Are you aware of how dumb you're coming across as?

  • @SohamSinha
    @SohamSinha 7 лет назад +353

    And that was my first time hearing Prof. Wolff live. It was great conversing with him after the talk.

    • @democracyatwrk
      @democracyatwrk 7 лет назад +83

      Glad you enjoyed the talk!

    • @AgentRafa
      @AgentRafa 7 лет назад +38

      Democracy at work+ please tell Mr Wolff that I truly love him. And thank him for the great work he's doing. Wish you all the best.
      Greetings from Norway

    • @MartinScreeton
      @MartinScreeton 7 лет назад +36

      Been watching him religiously for 5 years... I never miss a economic update by Wolff...

    • @lilaworley8935
      @lilaworley8935 7 лет назад +16

      Soham Sinha you need to listen to his weekly economic update. the man and people behind the scenes...are brilliant.

    • @StephenSchleis
      @StephenSchleis 6 лет назад +12

      How much power do you have a Google? And do you know why google would let a Marxist talk? Do you sense that Google has an understanding of the importance of income inequality awareness? I’m a wage slave at Walmart that has seen the oppression of progressive politics specifically on Googles services. I would like Google to not oppress important voices such as Richard Wolff, Jimmy Dore, Mike Figueredo or Lee Camp.

  • @daniellucero6036
    @daniellucero6036 2 года назад +75

    Aside from his easy going teaching style and knowledge! The Man is one of the greatest speakers I've ever had the pleasure of listening to! Go Professor Wolff!

    • @daniellucero6036
      @daniellucero6036 2 года назад

      @@vivalaleta why the ? mark?

    • @vivalaleta
      @vivalaleta 2 года назад

      @@daniellucero6036 The "I know" was implied as in "I know, right?

    • @daniellucero6036
      @daniellucero6036 2 года назад +1

      @@vivalaleta, I see. The ? mark kinda threw me off. Good deal. God bless.

    • @johnproud9163
      @johnproud9163 2 года назад

      He doesn’t understand human nature. To take from someone who earned a reward and give the benefit to someone who does nothing to earn the benefit is fundamentally immoral. Socialism and Communism are both founded on envy which will never lead to equality, but does leave to cruelty with anyone who doesn’t buy into the leftist ideology.

    • @vivalaleta
      @vivalaleta 2 года назад +1

      @@johnproud9163 You simply do not understand Marxism if that's your silly picture of it.

  • @carolparkins4032
    @carolparkins4032 4 года назад +149

    If only we had the Internet in the late 1960's and heard talks given with such clarity, we possibly would have avoided our world economic crisis we see ourselves in now. This should be mandatory viewing in high schools as part of civic lessons around the world. Thank YOU!

    • @kathleenhillock9366
      @kathleenhillock9366 4 года назад +7

      I agree, but the likes of Betsy DeVos are hell bent on promoting religious based charter schools, which would advocate for the execution of Prof Wolfe. In their propaganda, they espouse that public schools teach nothing but socialism and ultimately communism. It is for this and other reasons that Betsy's brother, Prince, infiltrated the teachers unions of public schools with spies, the ultimate goal of dismantling those unions and public schools as a whole.

    • @vylbird8014
      @vylbird8014 3 года назад +4

      If we had the internet in the late 1960s, it would have been banned. We only got the internet because it 'sort of happened' - too quickly and unpredictably for governments to react. If you could send one of our history books back in time to the 60s, the politicians of the era would make sure it didn't happen in any form we would recognise today. Probably set up a system with server and client addresses, servers only available with government license, and clients unable to communicate directly with one another.

    • @SomeGuy-xn4xu
      @SomeGuy-xn4xu 3 года назад +2

      @@vylbird8014 agreed, any content shared would have been highly regulated... just like this comment, HI NSA!

    • @shimes424
      @shimes424 3 года назад

      @@BADALICE lurn 2 eenglish u dum fuc

    • @AnthonyPerpepaj
      @AnthonyPerpepaj 2 года назад

      What a ridiculous reply. Truly highlights why socialism is only popular once the population is dumb enough to go along with it.

  • @AllPeopleUnite
    @AllPeopleUnite 3 года назад +140

    33:00 There's another factor: The employer could still be making well over twenty dollars in value on what an employee produces while being paid 20$ / hour for their labor. But if the employer can find somewhere to pay people 5 dollars, or a technology that can replace part of the labour force, they can make *even more* money. It's not always a matter of "we can't afford to stay open here or keep you on", in some cases it's "we're making good money here but we can make way more". But they've conditioned the public to treat every lay off and offshoring as a difficult choice between going broke and staying afloat. Sometimes that's the case, sometimes it's just going for an even better deal.

    • @tomr6955
      @tomr6955 3 года назад +5

      You're missing the fact that it's two way though. The worker knows they're worth more than $5 and can easily work elsewhere for more money.
      It's a two way trade. The employee isn't some baby, they are to negotiate terms that work for them.
      It's actually government that creates crony capitalism and imbalances.
      Work is offshored not because employers are greedy, but because they can't provide their goods or services while hiring locally, and you can blame government for those regulations which uneven the playing field

    • @useresu301
      @useresu301 3 года назад +4

      @@tomr6955 don't expect Marxists to use logic in their thinking. their whole philosophy is driven by envy

    • @MyGraveDancer
      @MyGraveDancer 3 года назад +18

      @@tomr6955 It is not a two way. If a corporation pays you $5 and you know that in the US you'd get $20 for the same job it doesn't mean that you can easily immigrate to the US AND the corporation will bring your job with you.
      Are you saying that all offshored jobs are because they didn't make profit hiring locally?

    • @pierrechildress8875
      @pierrechildress8875 3 года назад +21

      @@tomr6955 I was almost willing to entertain the notion that corporate/single employee employment negotiation is equitable (though it seems wildly inequitable on it's face). I even continued reading when you wrote that government created crony capitalism, even though anyone who bothers to look knows the US government is owned by corporate lobbyists, not the the other way around. But when you wrote "employers (aren't) greedy" you lost any and all credibility. Come on bruh, MAXIMIZING SHAREHOLDER VALUE is literally the bleated mantra of this post-Milton Friedman corporate dystopia lolz.

    • @dosran5786
      @dosran5786 3 года назад

      LOL oh no he may go for the best deal that monster.... what socialists call evil normal people with a brain call common sense.

  • @veddergirl3521
    @veddergirl3521 3 года назад +45

    Younger generation must be the power behind the movement and change. Most older folks set in their ways will be dead and gone soon. Let's make this move forward for a healthier and happier world.

    • @Edricama
      @Edricama 3 года назад +2

      That is the plan, yes

    • @youtubesucks1499
      @youtubesucks1499 2 года назад +2

      LMAOOOOO. So go start a business and pay your employees $30 an hour.

    • @PeterGeorge-g4i
      @PeterGeorge-g4i Месяц назад

      and that moving forward never arrives at the future moment

  • @ButterBeanCW
    @ButterBeanCW 2 года назад +106

    Mad respect for a man who can walk straight up to the beast and tell it like it is.

    • @aubriewest1135
      @aubriewest1135 Год назад

      Mad respect to you who actually are inside the beast and tell it like that.

    • @cheroso1000
      @cheroso1000 Год назад

      Mad respect for someone that can lie that way and get away with it... he is a resentful and stupid old man, that's all

    • @MrSoulauctioneer
      @MrSoulauctioneer Год назад

      of course, he feeds its daily.

    • @DOR8421
      @DOR8421 Год назад

      its possible google will make more money under Statist communism; theyre already quasi governmental; first in line for licensed monopolies worldwide. theyve acted as enforcement of govs: china censorship. i still use g apps reluctantly; good ui and overall design. theyve always had great software people, pushing minimalism (performance). they did convo-based emails, others copied. image search with thumbnails, others copied. the list goes on of great free apps.

    • @africkle1
      @africkle1 Год назад

      He really only had one point that wasn't stating his resume next to his claims. Watch 5 interviews with him and find one where he doesn't just list his resume as proof

  • @joyannaradcliffe2399
    @joyannaradcliffe2399 5 лет назад +40

    I've been watching Richard D. Wolff for four years and I'm fascinated by his remarkable insight into U.S. economics and his vision for its economic troubles and collapse. He has excellent knowledge on many aspects that make an economy run efficiently, fairly and soluably.

  • @SweetPotatoesBlackStyle25
    @SweetPotatoesBlackStyle25 3 года назад +140

    An astounding description of the system we are trapped in.

    • @argemirocarvajal7843
      @argemirocarvajal7843 3 года назад +6

      Escape from this system .
      GO TO CUBA !
      It is NOT FAR. Moore was VERY well received there.
      I RECOMMEND

    • @tomr6955
      @tomr6955 3 года назад +2

      @@argemirocarvajal7843 Agreed, these morons lol

    • @jamesmorton7881
      @jamesmorton7881 3 года назад +2

      Reversing inequality 2 /4 / 6 / 8 AGITATE
      A wide range of policies can help reduce inequality. Policies should be aimed at reducing inequalities both in market income and in the post-taxand-transfer incomes.
      The rules of the game play a large role in determining market distribution- in preventing discrimination, in creating bargaining rights for workers, in curbing monopolies and the powers of CEOs to exploit firms’ other stakeholders and the financial sector to exploit the rest of society.
      These rules were largely rewritten during the past thirty years in ways which led to more inequality and poorer overall economic performance.
      Now they must be rewritten once again, to reduce inequality and strengthen the economy, for instance, by discouraging the short-termism that has become rampant in the financial and corporate sector.
      Reforms include more support for education, including pre-school; increasing the minimum wage; strengthening earned-income tax credits; strengthening the voice of workers in the workplace, including through unions; and more effective enforcement of anti-discrimination laws.
      There are four areas in particular that could make inroads in the high level of inequality which now exists.

    • @dosran5786
      @dosran5786 3 года назад +2

      LOLOLOL highest quality of living highest quality of technology highest level of health care in history = trapped. wonder what you would call soviet russia?

    • @dosran5786
      @dosran5786 3 года назад

      @@argemirocarvajal7843 why would moore go their he has an 8 million dollar house in new jersey just like every other comkmunist its for everyone else not for him.

  • @AxmedBahjad
    @AxmedBahjad 7 лет назад +197

    Richard Wolff, who is one of the best minds of our times.

    • @jeffsingleton88
      @jeffsingleton88 5 лет назад +5

      He is fuxking stupid

    • @enematwatson1357
      @enematwatson1357 5 лет назад +2

      Sad times. 😔

    • @kezicss
      @kezicss 5 лет назад +2

      Im not the defender of the capitalist system, but RIchard Wolff is fucking thick as a brick and not the best representative for the alternatives

    • @thalesnemo2841
      @thalesnemo2841 5 лет назад +1

      @Axmed Bahjad
      Hear, Hear!

    • @thalesnemo2841
      @thalesnemo2841 5 лет назад +9

      @kezicss
      Why? Capitalism is an unstable exponential system on a finite planet which flies in the face of basic logic and basic maths! It has run its course .A new paradigm is needed!

  • @copacelu93
    @copacelu93 2 года назад +45

    I'm fortunate to live in a city with plenty of cooperatives and even I didn't know what a cooperative was until, like, a year ago. I'm glad more people are speaking about this business model, it really feels like the next logical step for humanity. Not the last step, but the next step

    • @Riolupai
      @Riolupai Год назад

      What is a cooperative like, if i may ask

    • @mclovin9165
      @mclovin9165 Год назад +3

      ​@@Riolupaireally depends, they are super broad. Could be 100% of the company being owned by all workers and sometimes 70/80% with a small group of private investors.
      Within how a company works you should imagine people having an actual say about their work place. So instead of firing people for an example in an economic crisis, people all cut their working hours so nobody has to lose their job.

  • @dialecticalveganegoist1721
    @dialecticalveganegoist1721 5 лет назад +260

    It's so strange that the US, the nation that stands for freedom and democracy has no democracy at the place we spend most of our lives at, the workplace.

    • @themetricsystem7967
      @themetricsystem7967 5 лет назад +10

      it is also strange that the US, with it´s emphasis on the individual´s responsibility is the country where there are more law suits and silly, common sense warning labels than anywhere else in the world.

    • @tiendoan1333
      @tiendoan1333 5 лет назад +27

      The US was never a democracy nor did it fought for democracy. We fought for individual freedom, rights, and liberty.

    • @Thrashaero
      @Thrashaero 5 лет назад +14

      @@tiendoan1333 Which is deteremined by elections, a democratic concept. Just because you heard on your favorite talk show somewhere that democrats are evil, that it's not a pure democracy because that's 'two wolves and a sheep deciding what's for dinner', and that it's a constitutional republic instead, doesn't mean it's exclusively non-democratic.

    • @hassankhan-jg1dx
      @hassankhan-jg1dx 5 лет назад +31

      This "Democracy" has contributed to the overthrowing of 85 democracies all over the world between 1951-2000 alone. This is not including the coups, dictators, genocides abroad the U.S has been responsible since then.

    • @anthonym4541
      @anthonym4541 5 лет назад +15

      You have democracy in the workplace... you can quit.

  • @SajaStoica
    @SajaStoica 7 лет назад +401

    Very informative and thought provoking talk.

    • @mobilechief
      @mobilechief 7 лет назад +9

      True. Hope some listen.

    • @AlexiLaiho227
      @AlexiLaiho227 6 лет назад +11

      he is great at explaining marxian analysis to liberals. it's wonderful to have it so accessible to people who would otherwise have nowhere good to learn ideas that are contrary to the current system.
      Michael Parenti is really good with the political analysis, and Wolff is great at explaining the economic stuff. they're a dream team
      the third pillar (component part) within Marxism is the philosophy, and I guess that'd be Noam Chomsky.
      three old guys explaining the three component parts of Marxism. love it.

    • @jarilocromlech1257
      @jarilocromlech1257 5 лет назад +4

      @@AlexiLaiho227 I don't think Prof. Chomsky is a Marxist-- I believe he's into anarchism, which is a different idea altogether.
      Although in a talk I just listened to from Dr. Wolff, he says that there is no such thing as just a "Marxist"-- that "Marxism" is a collection of *many* different ideas developed by a whole host of figures that range from right leaning (Lenin) to much further left.

    • @Tespri
      @Tespri 5 лет назад +4

      Rofl only a blind fool thinks that this clown provides any information.

    • @dmonarredmonarre3076
      @dmonarredmonarre3076 5 лет назад +5

      For anyone that takes this serious, well, uhhh, no. Prices dictate scarcity and mobilization of energy's. You can't "plan" economies dude:
      en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methodological_individualism
      ruclips.net/video/gPJWwiKnYGs/видео.html
      ruclips.net/video/Q-ybKwCkZDo/видео.html
      ruclips.net/video/RY0R0NpIdQQ/видео.html

  • @gathua
    @gathua 4 года назад +91

    Richard Wolff- The Lecturer I never had.

    • @forposterity4031
      @forposterity4031 4 года назад +4

      Also the lecture no one wanted.

    • @barabimbaraboom7830
      @barabimbaraboom7830 4 года назад +1

      Good history lesson about HUMAN failure and a GOOD reminder than HUMANS are NOT PERFECT.
      BUT GIVE ME A BREAK IF YOU THINK COMMUNISM IS THE ANSWER

    • @forposterity4031
      @forposterity4031 4 года назад

      @Schnbl Apparently a lot of people are gullible and stupid then, sheep.

    • @forposterity4031
      @forposterity4031 4 года назад +1

      @Flash Gordon Awww what a cute little sheeple, go on now join your heard lost little lamb.

    • @kaitlynkarol4600
      @kaitlynkarol4600 4 года назад +2

      And the lecture you should never want again. Wolff is a 'wolf' in sheep's fur b/c he is irrational as he appeals to ego and emotion. He is obviously ignorant of economics more than anyone I've heard in a long time & if someone as ignorant of economics as I am can see through his BS, then others should be able to see this too.... How old are you? If over 30, you should be more educated than to be impressed w/ this fluff as he speaks to those who want their ears tickled and b/c your bias wants to hear this, your bias has been validated and this 'confirmation bias' is sad b/c most ppl don't want truth - they want their own version of it that fits into their fantasy life or idealistic dreams.
      While Wolff praises socialistic solutions to remedy capitalism, the situation is FAR MORE SERIOUS and much BIGGER than any of that. We must broaden our small-minded tunnel vision b/c our state of emergency right now is about how the GLOBALISTS want us to live in a Rockefeller world - and when we see this bigger picture of what the evil powers at this high up want us to do - give up all our rights and liberties eventually - and use a virus to justify such evil - then you start to change your worldview to the reality you never thought you'd have to take off your rose-colored glasses to see...This doc here tells you what you need to know:
      www.nommeraadio.ee/meedia/pdf/RRS/Rockefeller%20Foundation.pdf

  • @hx-flixblog4569
    @hx-flixblog4569 2 года назад +13

    This was a very good presentation by Dr. Richard Wolff. I'm sure it will be eye-opening and educational to many viewers. I truly hope many will watch and learn something from it.

  • @Mishk
    @Mishk 7 лет назад +42

    Great speaker, great talk. The significance of the ideas Wolff presents as a way to bring democracy to the workplace will be felt for decades to come. As we all know, the world now is entering a new phase of development and the old ways of thinking and addressing problems have become outdated and worn. It is the boldness of individuals like Richard Wolff, to present ideas like these, that gives me hope for better times to come. Racial and religious equality, economic security, the equality of men and women, and the recognition of the unity of all mankind are but some of the many important things we should be fighting for.

    • @martijnheil8825
      @martijnheil8825 6 лет назад +3

      This isn't really anything new however, it's just that it has been suppressed by one of the biggest misinformation campaigns in history.
      "As we all know, the world now is entering a new phase of development and the old ways of thinking and addressing problems have become outdated and worn."
      this is why Marx developed his philosophy and his analysis of capitalism, all the way back in the 19th century.

    • @ccpj0eyb319
      @ccpj0eyb319 2 года назад +1

      He even says no other economists agree with him. Why would you ever listen to this comi? 😂🤣

    • @Mishk
      @Mishk 2 года назад +2

      @@ccpj0eyb319 the same economists that said there nothing to worry about pre-2008?

    • @emanuelneagu14
      @emanuelneagu14 2 года назад

      @@ccpj0eyb319 they don't have counter arguments and run away scared disagreeing. Wolff is just too right.

  • @55jeffgoldberg
    @55jeffgoldberg 7 лет назад +45

    This is a major step forward in cultural communications. Thank you Google Talks!

  • @binarybob0010
    @binarybob0010 7 лет назад +61

    I have been listening to Richard Wolff's talks for some time now on his youtube channel 'Democracy At Work.' I just love this guy. He's speaks very eloquently and presents excellent facts.

    • @thelastwildone6162
      @thelastwildone6162 5 лет назад +1

      HE HAS A LOT GRATE IDEA's HE KNOW's A FUCKTON A SHIT ALL RIGHT!!!

    • @Koshokar
      @Koshokar 5 лет назад +5

      @@thelastwildone6162 dude, chill with the caps

    • @dosran5786
      @dosran5786 3 года назад +1

      he presents no facts he presents contextualized information he describes as facts.

    • @dosran5786
      @dosran5786 3 года назад

      @@thelastwildone6162 he like you is a moron who follows a militant ideology unironically to promote peace.

    • @ccpj0eyb319
      @ccpj0eyb319 2 года назад

      He even says no other economists agree with him. Why would you ever listen to this comi? 😂🤣

  • @amitavabose2414
    @amitavabose2414 2 года назад +26

    Thank you Professor Dr. Wolff for explaining the evolution of economics and the social imperatives for transforming classical capitalism in a lucid manner.

  • @tomr6955
    @tomr6955 3 года назад +139

    The irony is not lost on me that he's talking to one of the biggest monopolies of our time, if not the biggest. Google has literally destroyed so many small businesses

    • @jaidsalgado
      @jaidsalgado 3 года назад +12

      As well as Amazon and Walmart

    • @dosran5786
      @dosran5786 3 года назад +1

      no no thats hypocrisy.... he is standing ina corporation telling you all they are bad THATS HYPOCRISY.

    • @alex_flynn
      @alex_flynn 3 года назад +20

      @@dosran5786 ah yes, the old "yEt yOU pARtIciPaTe iN a SoCIeTY" argument

    • @dosran5786
      @dosran5786 3 года назад +1

      @@alex_flynn never once made that argument way to ignore my actual argument and supplant it with your own.

    • @alex_flynn
      @alex_flynn 3 года назад +2

      @@dosran5786 okay, what's your argument then?

  • @excitedaboutlearning1639
    @excitedaboutlearning1639 4 года назад +201

    This talk was absolutely fascinating. I've never thought about this question as profoundly as he explains it and goes over it. The first audience question was a great one, but Richard Wolff's answer was an even more impressive one.

    • @actualideas8078
      @actualideas8078 4 года назад +4

      Excited About Learning yeah, it’s very impressive how little a Harvard professor understands about economics. Listen, he doesn’t understand inflation. The Federal Reserve Act in 1913 led to a massive debt bubble that crashed in 1921 and 1929. The federal reserve also paid for WW1 with paper currency. Capitalism is always an underlying force in the economy, but when massive banks and corporations infiltrate politics, we end up with this globalized corporate fascism that’s impoverishing us all. Learn a little bit about gold and silver and inflation. The Fed lies every day while they bailout their corporate buddies. Charles Lindbergh Sr. said in 1913, “from now on, depressions will be scientifically created”. Mark Twain said, “it is easier to be fooled than to admit you’ve been fooled”. The American Public has been fooled for over a century, and prof Wolff is as bad as Karl Marx in his misunderstanding on economics. No wonder Harvard hired him. “In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act” -George Orwell. Truth is, Wolff is wrong. Peter Schiff, Ron Paul, Milton Friedman, Murray rothbard, Mises, Ayn Rand are all correct. End the Fed. Buy gold buy silver buy crypto, or we will all starve like under Stalin when they abolished property rights to everybody. These problems are more complicated than “left vs right”. It’s more like “right vs wrong” and Wolff is WWWWRREEOOOONNNGGGG.

    • @jamesmorton7881
      @jamesmorton7881 4 года назад +1

      @@actualideas8078 It is trust, not assets. BitCoin is in use. Paper
      not used much in China. Just bits and bytes. Ends when lender figures out he is not going to get paid. Bubble bursts. Friedman admitted . . . greed
      is not good. Just say NO to austerity.

    • @actualideas8078
      @actualideas8078 4 года назад +2

      Memento Mori dude Orwell admitted on his death bed that he changed his mind about capitalism. So get your facts straight. And I do respect and read socialist also. We NEED social programs. Problem is, public offices are abused by the mafia and funded by the central bank (Federal Reserve). Look Ayn Rand and Alan Greenspan are NOT THE SAME. And most these people are Neoliberals anyways so what’s your problem man? Milton Friedman suggested a UBI, but it must be on a metallic standard of 40-100% reserve. Otherwise we allow the Central Bank to print currency, or counterfeit money; or better yet call it ALCHEMY. These are the darks arts we’re dealing with son. Epstein didn’t kill himself

    • @actualideas8078
      @actualideas8078 4 года назад +1

      But why would anyone have trust in the Dollar? There is no incentive for the bank to get its principle back..... because..... wait for it........
      They created it out of THIN AIR. The lender has been a parasite on the people for about 107 years exactly. So wake up and realize why the USA funded the Russian military complex with the western bank’s “credit” in WW1 AND WW2. Churchill and the USA teamed up with Communist Russia. Did you miss that part? Then the KGB and CIA both funded by the Central Bank teamed up to kill JFK by hiring the mafia. This is your history lesson. Why would anyone have to pay back these debts? And why would any 401k or IRA have ANY credit whatsoever? Inflation is coming and so is communism. Dangerous times.

    • @actualideas8078
      @actualideas8078 4 года назад +1

      Memento Mori “George Orwell was a staunch anti-Stalinist like most libertarian communists” first article I looked up, so yes that’s accurate what you said. So he sounds more like an anarchy capitalist or neoliberal than a communist. In modern times, it’s obvious that we cannot simply abolish social programs. We need a UBI on a gold/silver standard to replace manipulative welfare programs used to obtain votes.

  • @nancythecat1079
    @nancythecat1079 7 лет назад +84

    Richard Wolff, you never fail to inspire me and give me hope.

    • @dmonarredmonarre3076
      @dmonarredmonarre3076 5 лет назад

      For anyone that takes this serious, well, uhhh, no. Prices dictate scarcity and mobilization of energy's. You can't "plan" economies dude:
      en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methodological_individualism
      ruclips.net/video/gPJWwiKnYGs/видео.html
      ruclips.net/video/Q-ybKwCkZDo/видео.html
      ruclips.net/video/RY0R0NpIdQQ/видео.html

    • @thebrunoserge
      @thebrunoserge 5 лет назад +3

      @@dmonarredmonarre3076 I'll trust the *actual economist* instead. Sorry bro, nice try

    • @dmonarredmonarre3076
      @dmonarredmonarre3076 5 лет назад

      @@thebrunoserge
      Sweet, that's why I sourced what I was saying WITH ACTUAL ECONOMISTS. Here's some more if you'd like:
      "The Anti-Capitalist Mentality," by Ludwig von Mises
      "Basic Economics," Thomas Sowell
      "Free to Choose," Milton Friedman
      "The Road to Serfdom," Friedrich Hayek
      "The Dao of Capital," Mark Spitznagel
      "Judgement Under Uncertainty," Daniel Kahneman
      "The Vision of the Anointed," by Thomas Sowell
      "The Birth of Plenty," Bernstein
      "The Ascent of Money," Niall Ferguson
      "The Rational Optimist," Matt Ridley
      "Classical Economics," Murray Rothbard
      "A Conflict of Visions," Thomas Sowell
      "Wealth Poverty and Politics," Thomas Sowell
      "Intellectuals and Society," Thomas Sowell
      “Marxism,” by Thomas Sowell
      "The Chicago School," Johan Van Overtveldt
      "A Short History of Man," Hans Hermann
      .NICE TRY IN PRESUMING THE HIGH GROUND.....BRO

    • @dmonarredmonarre3076
      @dmonarredmonarre3076 5 лет назад

      @@thebrunoserge
      ruclips.net/video/dQiBD-crrvA/видео.html

    • @thebrunoserge
      @thebrunoserge 5 лет назад +5

      @@dmonarredmonarre3076 Wolff IS an *actual economist*. Something tells me you hate the truth. You seem very desperate to cover it up. Means you're either very evil, or very stupid

  • @Dani68ABminus
    @Dani68ABminus 2 года назад +16

    Professor Wolff is an absolute treasure. The movement, ultimately, is towards cooperation instead of exploitation and that gives me hope for the future.

    • @ccpj0eyb319
      @ccpj0eyb319 2 года назад

      He even says no other economists agree with him. Why would you ever listen to this comi? 😂🤣

    • @googlefashists4986
      @googlefashists4986 2 года назад

      He is a Marxist. So he is not to be trusted. Marxism had equality in the USSR and China. Every was poor and miserable.

    • @mikewilcox7853
      @mikewilcox7853 Год назад

      This guys is “fundamentally”wrong

    • @Shozb0t
      @Shozb0t 4 дня назад

      Is a person exploited if he is born into a system in which he must pay for other people’s retirement with no likelihood that anyone will pay for his?

    • @Dani68ABminus
      @Dani68ABminus 4 дня назад

      @@Shozb0t yes!

  • @codacreator6162
    @codacreator6162 4 года назад +152

    Bring back Liberal Arts. Disparaging the study of philosophy and literature has brought us here. That, coupled with the absurd notion that education is job training. It's not and never should have been solely that. Otherwise, you end up with a vast employment base willing to maintain the status quo simply because it doesn't understand that there is a real alternative.

    • @nobleherring3059
      @nobleherring3059 4 года назад +29

      But if we do that, we might have people questioning the established institutions and developing class consciousness!

    • @fengmian8377
      @fengmian8377 4 года назад +9

      It is the Politically Correct crowd that hates the Lberal Arts. Shakespeare is called a misogynist, Columbus a monster and the Founding Fathers racists. This is all comes from Critical Theory or Marxism applied to Western Culture. Critical Theory was not allowed in the Soviet Union or the CCP, Chinese Communist Party. No one can criticize them. No Islamic country allows Political Correctness or Critical Theory.

    • @codacreator6162
      @codacreator6162 4 года назад +2

      @Aphrodite's Child how the shaman maintained mystical power over early civilizations. It's both depressing and frightening. Stalin and Hitler both eradicated their "intelligentsia" in the name of control. We're doing the same without the need for prisons and firing squads. We just make education about servitude and then price it as a desirable commodity like Air Jordans. If there's anything the American consumer loves, it's a product that makes them feel special without itself having any intrinsic value.

    • @JohnnyTwoFingers
      @JohnnyTwoFingers 4 года назад +2

      As someone who fell for this propaganda most of his whole life, thanks for pointing that out!

    • @theblackhundreds7124
      @theblackhundreds7124 4 года назад +2

      Liberal arts are here already you fool. Just because you want to justify your existence doesnt mean that the rest has to provide a job for you, from our pockets.

  • @johnmastroligulano7401
    @johnmastroligulano7401 7 лет назад +20

    Thank you Richard Wolff.

  • @stevehas1861
    @stevehas1861 6 лет назад +126

    This guy is brilliant! Brilliant and brilliant. People will eventually understand when the music stops

    • @stevehas1861
      @stevehas1861 6 лет назад +2

      And BTW it’s about to stop! It’s taken to the extreme that when you scream you will only hear your echo. THINK

    • @itsallminor6133
      @itsallminor6133 5 лет назад +3

      Not really. Try being a economics major you will see through it

    • @Darkhartx1
      @Darkhartx1 5 лет назад

      @@stevehas1861 you mean how the internet has turned everyone's lives into echo chambers? XD

    • @ludwigvonmiseswasright4380
      @ludwigvonmiseswasright4380 5 лет назад +5

      This guy is just rehashing Marx's talking points, but he has not addressed any of the counter arguments made which can be found at the Mises institute. I wonder how he would fair in a debate, where the other side is represented. And I don't mean where rich people cry that it would be so unfair if things were fair. I mean economists who respond to the "work surplus" idea with the idea of "time preference of money". What about "the road to serfdom"? Marx writes 50 years after the capitalist french revolution. "the road to serfdom" is written in the fallout of Marx.

    • @ctreacts1537
      @ctreacts1537 5 лет назад +8

      Sarah Isles he’s been in a few and normally he obliterates them, but debates aren’t the way to come up with an argument, debates are for soundbites of trying to “beat” the other person, like how Trump “won” the debates, but his ideas have been proven wrong time and time again since the Great Depression and the Great Recession.

  • @byravanviswanathan6460
    @byravanviswanathan6460 2 года назад +30

    Most enlightening and instructive talk by one who is a great economist and teacher. Thank you Prof. Wolffe.

  • @DjWellDressedMan
    @DjWellDressedMan 7 лет назад +14

    Life still stinks under the yoke, but Richard Wolff makes it tolerable and he knows what Time it is!

  • @denniswinters3096
    @denniswinters3096 5 лет назад +81

    Richard Wolff offers a more convincing argument for socialism than anybody I've ever heard. His understanding of Marx and Capitalism is total, and his critique of the American universities he studied at is very telling.

    • @rustyyb8450
      @rustyyb8450 5 лет назад +7

      Does Richard Wolff have any idea about how socialism may be implemented equitably? Marx figured it couldn't be done with out meeting significant resistance. The communist eliminated or suppressed lots of seemingly resistant kulaks and profiteers. Pol Pot reasoned the classes in the cities would have to go. Mao reeducated lots educated folks. In the Cuban revolution Che Guevara would execute all those imagined impeding the revolution etc

    • @danijelstarcevic007
      @danijelstarcevic007 5 лет назад +8

      @@rustyyb8450 I've upvoted your comment because you seem to be genuinely interested. In theory I am an anarchist, historically the anarchists were a left-wing branch of the socialist movement, today, anarchism tends to be perverted into some kind of an extreme individualism of anarcho-capitalist varitey, at least in the US (I am from southern/middle Europe). However, in Europe and elsewhere, anarchism has retained its status as a branch of socialism. Why is this important? I'll make a brief historical detour.
      During the first international, there were 2 dominant factions: the anarchists with Bakunin (google him) as the representative and the Marxist with Marx as the representative. Their goal, the same, the methods, however, differed. The Marxists branch wanted to win state power through elections and solidify themselves in order to transition to a socialist economy -- this strand spawned the places you've mentioned. It spawned Russia, however, Russia undertook an ideological change in the hands of Lenin. Marxist-Leninist thinking, then, influenced other revolutions and functioned as a model. The Leninist model is total state control of the economy and the political life. Now, we might say that the Marxist camp did not intend this to happen since social democratic parties are also part of the tradition. The economy of Soviet Russia was that of state-capitalism, in the sense that the state owned the economy through its government agencies (it was centralized). Lenin is explicit in this, he says that a form of state-capitalism is good because it will create a technologically strong society that could transition to a communist society. However, we know that this strategy is a total blunder and the left-wing branch of the socialist movement -- the anarchists were always skeptical of this.
      Okay, the left wing branch now. As opposed to the Marxist, the anarchists wanted to collectivize the economy through strikes and direct opposition to the owners. You might think of this as the direct approach, whereas the Marxists took a roundabout way. Undoubtedly, this is a more democratic approach, although a harder one since you need to have a politically critical general public, connected through various institutions and ready to act. Spain was influenced by this, it had an anarchist tradition for about, I think, a hundred years that ultimately spawned a revolution when Franco, a fascist leader, was going to usurp state power in Spain (you can read about it here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Revolution_of_1936).
      While there were killings of Priests and owners who were reluctant of letting their power go (since you have to understand that the working class in Spain saw the church and owners of business as oppressing them, which is true), at least the owners were offered to work with the revolutionaries or have their own land and do their own work but to never hire anyone since wage-labor was seen as wage-slavery.
      Furthermore, this was during a civil war, as I mentioned, the fascists versus the workers and anarchists. The dominant strand of anarchism was anarcho-syndicalism during that time. Anarcho-syndicalism is a strategy of winning over the economy through collective mass struggle, the workers were effectively connected through various syndicates that operated democratically. What anarchists want is a self-managed society, where the industry would be operated on democratic grounds with mutual aid and solidarity as generalized cultural principles (these principles need to be ingrained in the souls of the revolutionaries, but they would also be encouraged by the new economy).
      Self-management is a principle that says that if a decision affects you then you have a say in it. If a decision does not affect you then you don't have a say in it. If a decision affects you less than somebody else, then you have a less say in it than that somebody. It's a principle that's needed for a democracy to function well, otherwise you can have a tyranny of the majority.
      The economy proposed is a decentralized planned economy, and it worked rather well in Spain in terms of economic output, outranking the previous economy by tenfold. Keep in mind that this was during a civil war, with different socialistic tendencies kinda battling it out. The communists, influenced by Russia, worked against the anarchists. The fascists were supported by the US, Germany and other western liberal democracies (because these countries do not want true democracy (that is economic) to spread, since they will die out then). The outcomes of this support is the crushing of the collectivized economy and eventually Franco taking the state power, a fascist dictator. Just like the US today implants fascist dictators in other countries, because it is then easier to control those countries, so they did back in the day. It's the incentive that capitalism necessitates. Wars and imperialism are a logical outcome of a profit driven economy.
      You can read the rest in the wikipedia page or you can read true testimony from George Orwell in his Homage to Catalonia. Orwell was a socialist, sympathetic to anarchism, that fought against the fascists and witnessed the revolution. Personally haven't read it.
      A decentralized planned economy is an economy that functions like an organism. Think of it as a connection of small units that all function democratically internally. They are linked through institutions of representation -- councils. Each unit sends their delegate who will relay the information to other delegates. Then the whole of delegates will go back to their respective units and relay the information to others. In this sense it is decentralized, but planned. And it works! Today, with technology, it would work a lot better. No owners, just people working together and planning in order to fulfill the needs of everyone.
      Hope this helps you a bit, but note that I am not an expert. You can check Rojava today that is doing just this, in their own way. Again, it works.

    • @petergbrics7260
      @petergbrics7260 5 лет назад

      A a
      Hey boy,your head is filled up some shit al right.Did you learned all this garbage in school?Or you are a special kind of stupid?What is your problem?

    • @JRobbySh
      @JRobbySh 4 года назад +1

      It does not dwell on the question why, that Liberty, equality, fraternity led to oceans of blood within a few years.

    • @magnontaur
      @magnontaur 4 года назад +5

      This guy is a overrated turd who sells populism and always argues on a moral level to morons who cant tell the difference, it's hillarious that Marxism WONT DIE, the literally worst thing to happen to humans since the 1900s. Classic Socialism is flat out retarded, it's a fantasy land made by a child with an adult filling in the details and you sheeps buy into it. Shit like this only helps creating another generation of Marxism.

  • @pagetvido1850
    @pagetvido1850 7 лет назад +247

    To people who are anti-socialism/communism answer this, why is Mr.Wolff correct that it's not taught in schools? If it's such a bad idea, what's the harm in teaching people about why it doesnt work? We'd surely have fewer people misconstruing it as a good system if it were taught, so why the complete black out about it in the school systems?
    I don't think either system holds the answers, both have significant pro's and con's. It's interesting that for such a complex topic, people are so dogmatic about one system or the other.

    • @visnevskiscom
      @visnevskiscom 7 лет назад +4

      Paget Vido
      Seriously? Read the comments.

    • @pagetvido1850
      @pagetvido1850 7 лет назад +41

      +J P To the same degree as other organizational structures? To the same degree in different schools across countries? Many people have deficient knowledge of the kinds of political systems humans tend to engage in, as Mr.Wolff pointed out. My question, and perhaps Mr.Wolffs as well, might be better placed against the average person in society. The more people know, the less they can be misled.

    • @matthewmalpeli
      @matthewmalpeli 7 лет назад +69

      The right is so obsessed now about purging Marxism from the humanities that nobody has bothered to examine why it was purged from economics departments 65 years ago. It was a threat to the moneyed interests to be taught in economics and so they conducted a nationwide witch hunt.
      The right is the side of the political spectrum that has lost track of all the lies that it has made to the point that it no longer knows when its making them. Indeed, they lack the vocabulary to understand why they're lying. They don't even know, for the most part, what the ideology of conservatism is and why it's an ideology of destruction. Always has been, always will be.

    • @classiqueliberal8576
      @classiqueliberal8576 6 лет назад +26

      I love how socialists are constantly talking about how they never get a chance. WTF are you smoking? Billions of people lived under various forms of socialism. Marx is one of the most recognized and studied philosophers in history. Capitalism is constantly being critiqued. Be serious. Every academic department in every major college has one of these Marxist fools. The problem with socialism is not that it has not been tried. The problem with socialism is that it fails miserably and those who espouse it starve to death.

    • @kyleramsey5189
      @kyleramsey5189 6 лет назад +37

      The problem with capitalism is that every time it fails, the state is there to bail it out. I get the impression that you're commenting without watching the whole thing. No one is defending Leninists and state capitalism.

  • @leealexander3507
    @leealexander3507 3 года назад +45

    I also went to school during the cold war which took up half my life or more. I studied Marx for the first time in elementary school using books I got from the university library where my uncle went to school. I wanted to know what I was supposed to be afraid of and was very surprised to discover it was only a different economic system. I went back and read those books again later with a better understanding. I've always tried to understand things beyond what we learned from our school books so that university library was highly important to me. History was another subject that obviously required a deeper understanding in order to make sense of the world.. The teachers stopped calling on me for answers because they got a lot more than they bargained for.

    • @averayugen8462
      @averayugen8462 2 года назад +2

      Did you figure out how to start a worker coop??? If so please contact me and we can work together maybe

    • @DipayanPyne94
      @DipayanPyne94 Год назад

      ​@@averayugen8462 Hey there ! What do you do ??

    • @MrSoulauctioneer
      @MrSoulauctioneer Год назад

      this ''only a different economic system" commited genocide regularly. Russia killed almost as many Jews as Hitler, but they added any believers to their list. The Chinese starved MILLIONS.. yeah its harmless. and you're asleep.

  • @markjones6916
    @markjones6916 4 года назад +105

    So true this. Capitalism and democracy are polar opposites.

    • @kathymayes4290
      @kathymayes4290 4 года назад +4

      Well thank dog we have a republic!

    • @matthewozanich8796
      @matthewozanich8796 4 года назад +6

      You’re a moron.

    • @ichisichify
      @ichisichify 4 года назад +1

      what a resounding condemnation of democracy! cheers!

    • @mianfeng4406
      @mianfeng4406 4 года назад +5

      What???? Why has every one of the 27 Socialist regimes become autocratic? Socialism's actual track record sucks for democracy. Let's face the facts. There is no democracy in the One Party State.
      There is no democracy without freedom of speech. No Socialist country ever had that for long.

    • @lkhgfsriulh
      @lkhgfsriulh 4 года назад +2

      Saying socialism and democracy are polar opposites is more accurate.

  • @johndale6437
    @johndale6437 5 лет назад +99

    I really like the way Wolff lays things out so simply and understandably.

    • @criticality2056
      @criticality2056 3 года назад

      But he's wrong and selective.

    • @beck_to_future5529
      @beck_to_future5529 3 года назад +1

      @@criticality2056 could you give a couple examples?

    • @criticality2056
      @criticality2056 3 года назад

      @@beck_to_future5529 Yup, always like discussion.
      Jobs are replaced by computers and automation: workers fired/jobs lost - there are more jobs in America now than almost any time in its history. He ignores that people work on computers and build automation. Odd considering this is a talk at Google. Technology does not lead to job loss, just changes which create jobs that may have never existed before. Innovation is not the enemy it is made out to be.

    • @criticality2056
      @criticality2056 3 года назад

      @@beck_to_future5529 Private corporations gain profit without paying costs. If we ignore payroll, capital investment, risk, time etc. It is not a magical process, it is not reasonable to ignore the rest of what happens.

    • @criticality2056
      @criticality2056 3 года назад

      @@beck_to_future5529 An employer will only give you money if you make more for them. He frames it as some sort of injustice, but it requires the zero sum fallacy. Both are discretionary players in the transaction, both will get more out than they put in. If not they would make different decisions.

  • @peteryu1612
    @peteryu1612 4 года назад +99

    Very insightful watching in 2020

  • @tonymiller6847
    @tonymiller6847 2 года назад +7

    Richard is always informed and informative, intuitive, influential and willing to go out on every limb, He's inspiring and he always makes me believe that I can understand what's going on instead of just feeling bewildered.

  • @josephfacundo26
    @josephfacundo26 4 года назад +24

    There were 2 other reasons for the great migration: 1) business wanted to neutralize unions and 2) environmental laws were choking profits.

    • @rurome2151
      @rurome2151 3 года назад +5

      That’s when tariffs should have been attached to imports. The funds could have gone towards employing workers for work on infrastructure

  • @antesikiric3782
    @antesikiric3782 4 года назад +84

    Richard Wolff is brilliant mind, big bravo, we need more peoples like him... 90 % of peoples does not understand Marx

    • @Dillonthewinner
      @Dillonthewinner 4 года назад +8

      it doesn't matter if people understand it as long as we remember communism has become genocidal every time

    • @Omar-ir4gk
      @Omar-ir4gk 4 года назад +19

      @Gerry Atric he's a wackjob for promoting democracy at the workplace of which we spend A HUGE PORTION of our lives (monday through friday, from 9am to 5pm)? for pointing out the contradictions of capitalism? for calling out the greediness of billionaires? well, if that's what it means to be a 'wack-job' then i'll go ahead and join him.

    • @jerrycheese2196
      @jerrycheese2196 4 года назад +4

      @@Dillonthewinner What criticisms of capitalism of his do you not find accurate? What are your own criticisms of democratizing the workplace? Im new to this idea of socialism so im always curious to see what those who ferociously oppose it think about these ideas.

    • @MM-du7je
      @MM-du7je 4 года назад +3

      @@Dillonthewinner Focus on Venezuela and forget the Congo

    • @hoogmonster
      @hoogmonster 4 года назад +2

      @Gerry Atric if it's "whack jobs" you are looking for try the current POTUS.

  • @Dan.50
    @Dan.50 3 года назад +51

    I work at a place where the more the employees produce, the shorter the boss makes the lunches. Crazy.

  • @musictomyears8
    @musictomyears8 2 года назад +5

    Yugoslavian socialism might be a good example of workers's control over enterprises under a coordinated production system

    • @youtubesucks1499
      @youtubesucks1499 2 года назад +1

      You might want to look at the quality of life those people have.

  • @booboodadfool8015
    @booboodadfool8015 4 года назад +225

    But democracy in the workplace, aka seizing the means of production, would soon lead to democracy in the state. Without private corporations having a near monopoly on the means of production, how would they collude with the political establishment to keep the majority of workers politically impotent. If workers were economically empowered they just might have the resources necessary to influence the government to take action that benefitted them. And how would elected officials exploit the system for personal gain if they are being held accountable. It would make it so that in order to be elected and reelected politicians would have to work to serve their constituents. And by this point it would only make sense for people who intend on making a positive change to even run for office. And we couldn't have that now could we?

    • @joncool1847
      @joncool1847 4 года назад +18

      You are bang on.

    • @tomservo75
      @tomservo75 4 года назад +6

      And where do you get the notion that "seizing the means of production" would make the company better off or more profitable and keep it from failure? The socialism you describe is based on nothing more than jealousy, anger, and greed. Yes, greed, the thought that you get to steal from the producers stuff that you didn't earn.

    • @booboodadfool8015
      @booboodadfool8015 4 года назад +46

      @@tomservo75 thnx for the critique. But I'll put it to you like this: imagine we work the same shift and get paid the same wage. If I slack off and you work harder we both get paid the same. That's not fair to you right.
      Then let's say we both work really hard, and through our work we increase sales and profits. We still get paid the same.
      Now let's say we both slack off. We don't increase sales and we don't decrease sales. Our employer sees us as technically profitable. And we still get paid the same.
      If workplaces were owned by the workers and profits were given to those who labored to generate them in accordance to how much labor they put it then things would change. If I could reliably expect to see more money when I worked hard I would reliably work hard.
      My boss may say if work really hard he'll give me a raise, but until then and if then, if I work harder any profits I generate through extra labor goes to my employer.
      If I hard work for a company for years, and they consistently make profits for years, and their value has been rising for years, and one day they decide to sell the company for a huge return on investments, I don't get anything but a box to put my stuff in.
      We should be valued for how much work we put in. And we should value the labor of others. If good honest hard working people show up everyday and make an operation possible they should be valued.
      A democratic workplace is not a rigid prescriptive structure that would be identical in every place. The would vary wildly depending on how their members decide to organize themselves. People would actually have some autonomy in their lives for once.
      Also it would bring the spirit of democratic participation back to our society. People arent voting in elections like they used to because for the most part elections don't change anything on a day to day basis for most people. So instead of waiting around for someone who doesn't know our name to make an effort on our behalf, why don't we just come together with the people we see everyday for years and say let's have a vote right here among us who are here five days a week. It's really not that radical.

    • @tomservo75
      @tomservo75 4 года назад +6

      @@booboodadfool8015 That's a fair reply. I would say a couple of things. First, I do agree, people who put more time and effort in for the same job should be paid more. Though if you and I BOTH slacked off on the job, I dare say sales would not increase, the company itself would suffer and we'd probably be replaced with more competent workers.
      I generally agree that those who put more labor in should be compensated better than those who don't, those who MAKE more for the company, in general, should get paid more in return. And for many people in large corporations, that compensation includes stock options, so they are in a sense owning a part of the company.
      But where I think some people (not necessarily you) get mixed up on this is that there's a difference between higher compensation and forced ownership, like when people like Bernie call for companies to put employees on the board. On its face it sounds good. But there's no reason for a Presidential candidate to be talking about that unless he wanted to make it law which would be immoral and constitutional to FORCE such a situation, and really, that type of law would be unenforceable anyway because I as the CEO would say, "No, Mr. Sanders I'll choose my own board members, what are you going to do about it?" Besides, what if those new owners have no idea how to manage a company and the whole thing goes bankrupt? Of course, maybe it might be a good experiment to put some of those employees on the board for a few months, just attend a couple of meetings, so that they can see first hand the tough decisions that must be made, how it's not always a matter of figuring out who deserves what, because running a company is far more complex than any of them realize, they look at it in a very simplistic way. The way that the socialists talk, they don't seem to even care if one is more productive than the other, that employee ownership is some kind of right. They don't at all take into account all the money and effort and work hours that the owner puts into it, they just think that if you're one of 20 workers you deserve 1/20 of the profit no matter what. Going back to your example, if we have the same position, the one who works better makes more money for the company and thus should be paid more.
      For your example of working hard and then the company gets sold, well I would think/hope that the buying company would want to keep as many workers as possible since they know the company and product, recognize my work and want to keep me on (with a raise to prevent me from going to their predator). Or, if I was compensated through stocks, then I'd profit some from the sale myself. But I think in your example, you're overlooking the fact that the owner put much more into it than me. I just showed up and got hired. I didn't have to start the company put up the money, the ideas, pay for all the expenses, etc. I think that gets left out of the equation too often. As I said, what if the company failed and went bankrupt, should I as an employee be expected to eat part of the loss too? That's something the people commenting here won't answer.

    • @tomservo75
      @tomservo75 4 года назад +4

      I have to add one more thing - I'd like to explore the sentence _"Without private corporations having a near monopoly on the means of production, how would they collude with the political establishment to keep the majority of workers politically impotent."_ There's a lot to unpack there. It's a VERY broad statement.
      1. There are some companies that have monopolies on certain industries, and that's mainly due to sweetheart deals with governments. That's not capitalism, it's cronyism. Capitalism is about making free choice. If I can only choose one cable provider, that's not a free choice, and if the reason I can't choose one is because my town made an exclusive deal with them, then that's cronyism.
      But private companies in GENERAL do and should largely control the means of production, but that's not a monopoly. A monopoly is for a specific type of business or industry. And what's the alternative? Are you suggesting governmental bodies should control production? Because that's the ONLY alternative to what you're suggesting, and I think most Americans know that would be disastrous. One of the first moves that Chavez made in Venezuela was nationalizing industries. How did that go? Even if your alternative is bringing workers into management, then that's an idea that some companies may try. Though they have to be competent in that business to do so. As a President or CEO I would only want people on the board making decisions who have a stake and know what they're doing. Sometimes to keep the company afloat, businesses have to make decisions that some employees, who don't have the insight, experience, or information necessary to make those decisions, don't like. To pass laws requiring companies to involve all employees in management decisions is no better than letting your 8-year-old decide what's for dinner every night.
      2. A huge portion of Americans (though not a majority) are politically impotent, but that has nothing to do with any type of collusion, unless you're talking about biased media providing mis-information. But this is on ourselves and our education system, which no longer teaches civics, history, and basic economics, who drum into children that America is bad, that capitalists are evil, people only hear one side of the story. There's a VERY EASY cure for "political impotence." Inform yourself! Listen to the news and diversify your sources. Think about issues, do some research, and make informed decisions rather than getting all your information from Facebook and Twitter. If I hear one more person talking about "fake news on Facebook or blogs," I want to scream, "WHY THE F*CK ARE YOU GETTING YOUR NEWS FROM BLOGS??!!" Watch one hour of CNN and one hour of Fox News and then a third hour from other reputable sources online. It's up to each and every one of us to make sure we're well-informed. Capitalism, if anything, provides MORE and better news sources to choose from.

  • @david8157
    @david8157 7 лет назад +107

    A corporation is similar to a feudal manor and a waged employee is similar to a serf

    • @TRUTHandLIGHT4809
      @TRUTHandLIGHT4809 5 лет назад +1

      Socialism is the SLAVE MASTER.

    • @joeldwest
      @joeldwest 5 лет назад +16

      @@TRUTHandLIGHT4809 Socialism is the pro-social, ethical and moral way to live.

    • @johnnytocino9313
      @johnnytocino9313 5 лет назад +19

      The new world is corporate feudalism. Governments are their vassals and workers are their serfs.

    • @TRUTHandLIGHT4809
      @TRUTHandLIGHT4809 5 лет назад

      @@joeldwest So you are saying--a CENTRAL GOVERNMENT enslaving people is moral and ethical? How?

    • @TRUTHandLIGHT4809
      @TRUTHandLIGHT4809 5 лет назад

      @Daniel Brown If the STATE does not control ALL--and OWN all--it is NOT SOCIALISM.

  • @marissadower-morgan3313
    @marissadower-morgan3313 4 года назад +264

    This man has done his work well , Most Americans have Blind Faith in the goodness of Corporations . If You really understood American Business Values , it's all predatory and exploitative.

    • @lambynighttrain
      @lambynighttrain 4 года назад +13

      the answer isn't putting blind faith in the goodness of government to do the right thing...

    • @marissadower-morgan3313
      @marissadower-morgan3313 4 года назад +4

      @@lambynighttrain I never suggested we should trust Corporations to do the right thing

    • @marissadower-morgan3313
      @marissadower-morgan3313 4 года назад

      ruclips.net/video/-v4NvQqVrF0/видео.html

    • @eyekissass
      @eyekissass 4 года назад +7

      @@lambynighttrain that is supposed to be the great thing about a democracy - the government is ideally the transparent servant of the people, no blind faith needed

    • @2DRonaldo
      @2DRonaldo 4 года назад +9

      @@lambynighttrain Difference being, you can vote out a politician.
      How do you vote out a King? How do you vote out an oligarch?
      If you can't even vote to change the system? What good is that system?

  • @andriypredmyrskyy7791
    @andriypredmyrskyy7791 2 года назад +3

    I love watching someone who knows that they're talking about. He answers questions well because he's asked them to himself already.

  • @Funnyvidsclipz
    @Funnyvidsclipz 3 года назад +538

    I was a Republican 3 years ago and somehow I’m here and supporting everything he is saying

    • @henryrollins9177
      @henryrollins9177 3 года назад +59

      Soon to be a socialist/progressive... it's the only way.

    • @ellinmara5997
      @ellinmara5997 3 года назад +151

      I think many Republicans, at least working-class or non-corporate ones, see the problems caused by capitalism, but thanks to propaganda, indoctrination, cold-war trauma, etc. come to the wrong conclusions...
      Another problem, imho, is the red herring that is abortion rights, which is one of the things keeping Republican politicians in power. If we truly implemented what Mr. Wolff suggests, over time, much fewer women would even desire to or see the need to an abortion in the first place, because not only would their economic situation improve dramatically, access to stellar healthcare and paid maternity leave would too! I dare say, abortion numbers would go down more drastically than any ban on abortion could ever possibly achieve.

    • @stolenjunk
      @stolenjunk 3 года назад +9

      @@ellinmara5997 abstinence would work better than anything and personal responsibility.

    • @ellinmara5997
      @ellinmara5997 3 года назад +62

      @@stolenjunk if it works for you, that's great! But don't expect it to work for everybody else, especially inexperienced, hormonal teenagers

    • @dosran5786
      @dosran5786 3 года назад +6

      you should take a course on economics. capitalism is not evil nor is it somehow labour being manipulated this was proven false in the fucking 50s. consumers dont always buy producers always produce the employee of said producer gets paid whether that product sells or not even if the company paying for its production doesnt make a profit....marx was a drunk lying coward who fled his country when it got dangerous and then cheated on his wife and treated his bastard son like an animal. that is the founder of modern communism. look back too the british civil war for your first socialists the levellers and the first organized political socialists were in 1850s france. every single one of these organizations wanted the abolition of personal property and to LEVEL out society aka make everyone equally poor......except government and those enlightened party members. this is your grand utopia, we live in crony capitalism and no not all capitalism is crony capitalism marx was a fool who claimed a great recompense must be paid before true capitalism could flourish.......he never substantiated this with evidence of course. so ill ask since marx said " to sum up communism in one sentence it is the abolition of personal property" what do you support about the abolition of personal property? why do you think a centralized state government is inherently benevolent? also why do you ignore the mass charity of 19th century capitalism the highest in recorded history in fact? im seriously hoping for a discussion here i dont get what you see in it.

  • @DocZom
    @DocZom 3 года назад +189

    This is the third time over the years that I have watched this particular lecture from Prof. Wolff. I find it the single best, most understandable criticism of capitalism, the American economy, and the implications for our society.
    If only he could give this lecture without using the trigger words (capitalism, socialism, etc.) to an audience of Trump supporters. IMO most of Trump's base feel the brunt of our unequal system, but lack the education to understand the source of their woes. Prof. Wolff might be able to turn on some light bulbs, if only...

    • @dudleybarker2273
      @dudleybarker2273 3 года назад +8

      good point - a spoonful of sugar and all that

    • @DocZom
      @DocZom 3 года назад +20

      @rob Wait. You think there are no bread lines in the US, no hungry families? Do you not know that the US prison system is becoming more and more for profit, a very fascist idea? Are you aware that in Texas there is a new law creating vigilantes to inform on their neighbors for assisting a woman to obtain an abortion?
      OK, now that we have gotten your "one words" out of the way, allow me to point out to you that the gulags and the Stazi had nothing to do with the economic systems in their countries, and everything to do with the political systems.
      I do agree that capitalism is the best system for the oligarchs, but not so great for the people on the bottom except when it is tempered with a little socialism and a lot of regulation. Laissez faire capitalism has much in common with organized crime; those with the muscle prey on those without. Rules are needed to keep the mobsters from taking over. Surely you must agree. Or do you miss the Gilded Age?

    • @tonyv5202
      @tonyv5202 3 года назад +11

      @rob awesome work proving your lack of education 👍. Now let me describe US capitalism: no education, can't afford it, no healthcare, can't afford it, no industries. But hey anyone can open their own business and compete with Walmart and made in China, no one is stopping you. Except lack of capital and education and pretty hard to do without healthcare and when your in jail and when you have to work all day without a break to make profits for the shareholders who are mostly uber wealthy foreigners. What's even better is your working for them for free too by repeating thier capitalist propaganda. Your nation has been raped and usurped by and is now totally set up to protect foreign money while you get jailed in private jail's owned by foreigners and getting killed in wars to protect foreign capital. The only time USA was great was when it was socialist eg. moon landings. A huge effort by the government to educate people producing scientists, astronauts, machines, achieving something for humanity. Capitalism's achievements: worked out how to make a big Mac 5c cheaper to produce, tastes like crap now but who cares, count the savings as profit give profit to executives as bonus... repeat until business fails move on to next business repeat. You have confused free market for capitalism it is not the same thing. Capitalism is about capital who owns it and protecting it at all costs nothing less nothing more and as it fails it turns monopolistic and pressures the government to control people more and more to protect it. It's a hungry beast that wants more and more and now it's forsaken us and moved to China anyway. I realise this is way to much for you and I apologise but it's really for others to read.

    • @NinjaPandallnight
      @NinjaPandallnight 2 года назад +3

      @@tonyv5202 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

    • @cheryls3224
      @cheryls3224 2 года назад +3

      @ DocZom
      I totally agree with you, so how do you make this happen?
      A true understanding
      of the other side would probably turn on alot of light bulbs.
      How do we make this happen.
      The main stream media is ultimately guided by profits so the real facts are never going to be reported on. This includes Right & left leaning media organizations .
      I still hold hope that educated/informed masses can do what's right for the greater good.

  • @Twirlyhead
    @Twirlyhead 4 года назад +114

    Came here looking for _Howlin' Wolf_ and stayed to the end. Now them's the blues.

  • @ratnabahadurgurung9850
    @ratnabahadurgurung9850 2 года назад +3

    Thankyou prof.Wolff for your excellent discussions, i appreciate you.

  • @youngeagle5953
    @youngeagle5953 7 лет назад +130

    " Capitalist society is based upon the exploitation of labor. A small minority owns everything; the working masses own nothing. The capitalists command. The workers obey. The capitalists exploit. The workers are exploited. The very essence of capitalist society is found in this merciless and ever-increasing exploitation.Capitalist production is a practical instrument for the extraction of surplus value." Nikolai Bukharin

    • @mobilechief
      @mobilechief 7 лет назад +6

      Yes your right, now its a addiction out of control.

    • @TheReactor8
      @TheReactor8 5 лет назад +4

      @Haile Selassie Because it an old and failed way of thinking.

    • @enematwatson1357
      @enematwatson1357 5 лет назад +1

      @Haile Selassie
      Amazing how Marxism boils down to the most irrational, poorly thought out dogmas of Christianity. In this instance, the sin of usury. 😏

    • @DiThi
      @DiThi 5 лет назад +1

      @Haile Selassie If you replace "goods" by "services", the labor theory of value still works. A service is very similar to a perishable/consumable good. The capitalist can still hoard surplus value, and in many cases they have to in order to survive. The fact that is not always the case doesn't invalidate the theory, it only lessens the injustice a little bit.

    • @stephenpavlov8942
      @stephenpavlov8942 5 лет назад +3

      You are participating in capitalism when you have a garage sale or trade illegal contraband for currency. In fact any consensual exchange of services for currency or other trade value are also capitalist.
      Governments create a system in which the proceeds of capitalism are funneled into a super minority. This speaker's plan is to hand more power to those governments.

  • @eddypitono4995
    @eddypitono4995 3 года назад +80

    criticizing Capitalism in front of one of the largest Capitalist Corporation on Earth. impressive!

    • @dosran5786
      @dosran5786 3 года назад +3

      he got paid to do it...he is a hypocrite. its ok when we do it just like every other socialist in history.

    • @saransong5547
      @saransong5547 3 года назад +20

      @@dosran5786 sit down, bootlicker!

    • @rickardedman8836
      @rickardedman8836 3 года назад +2

      Well what do we have here, a critic of the capitalist system yet he's using a capitalist platform. Curious!

    • @eddypitono4995
      @eddypitono4995 3 года назад +2

      @@dosran5786 so when banker give money to Slave master in Lybia, is it considered hypocrite or not?

    • @saransong5547
      @saransong5547 3 года назад +5

      @@rickardedman8836right? Like all socialists must be silent until we have built a new world with no exploitation built into it. Wait... What?

  • @vbboyd
    @vbboyd 7 лет назад +559

    Richard Wolff going to Google? Talk about Daniel going into the Lion's den!

    • @banjobill311
      @banjobill311 7 лет назад +5

      Since I've heard many of his talks before, i kinda want to skip to the comments/QA. But I'm also scared because I know it probably isn't going to be good.

    • @SajaStoica
      @SajaStoica 7 лет назад +7

      Erich Bishop the Q&A wasn't bad actually (except maybe for the one guy at the very end who went on and on about China).

    • @democracyatwrk
      @democracyatwrk 7 лет назад +68

      Wolff isn't afraid of lions.

    • @vbboyd
      @vbboyd 7 лет назад +19

      Yes, that is quite obvious. Kudos for him for doing it and why on God's green earth they would want Richard Wolff to lecture the Google guys on the shortcomings on the current predatory Capitalist system that has gone awry and has run amok since Reagan got elected is way, way beyond me.

    • @alanmclemore3927
      @alanmclemore3927 7 лет назад +29

      ...and. like Daniel, he escapes unscathed because he has the truth on his side.

  • @johnstiletto1537
    @johnstiletto1537 2 года назад +2

    Was a boat captain and have said that the designer's should have to fix the boat themselves first to see if it's possible... This is the basis of employees running the country... Let those that do the work decide how things are to be...

  • @vagizz
    @vagizz 5 лет назад +85

    I guess you can't argue with the guy if it's declining even in Japan while those folk are workaholics.

    • @robertbrothers2099
      @robertbrothers2099 5 лет назад +1

      The problem is still more about the currencies [no-modularity/diversification in the bedrock-for every country].

    • @HannesRadke
      @HannesRadke 4 года назад +10

      They literally work themselves to death. Almost as if it you can't work enough to satisfy the system. Even robots, working 24/7 with 100 times a workers output won't be enough at some point. Capitalism will fail, question is when and how much suffering humans endure along the way.

    • @meatrace
      @meatrace 4 года назад +1

      Workaholic suggests that they enjoy it or it is fundamental to their person. It isn't. They fucking hate being worked to death, but leaving a company and starting at another means starting at the bottom of the ladder, and the bottom of that ladder is not really livable.

    • @blueyedxy171
      @blueyedxy171 4 года назад +1

      Let's see, to change over to a socialist/communist regime we will need to re-educate (KILL), about two million Americans .Duh, I'll take Capitalism. (really all ISM's are bad)

  • @lord6617
    @lord6617 5 лет назад +5

    My college economics teacher informed us he was required to teach this class, read from a textbook, and was basically a semester of hell which convinced me for many years that economics was something I wasn't at all interested in intellectually. Why did you have to bring that traumatic memory back to me right off the bat :P

  • @baronvonlimbourgh1716
    @baronvonlimbourgh1716 5 лет назад +39

    Still one of his best lectures.

  • @somdevraomadala2473
    @somdevraomadala2473 2 года назад +2

    One of the best orations I have heard.

  • @stephenfreeman4256
    @stephenfreeman4256 4 года назад +363

    The person who invited Mr. Wolff was immediately fired after this presentation.
    Don't be evil, ya'll.

    • @rutessian
      @rutessian 4 года назад +7

      Look up "Why You've Never Heard of the Great Depression of 1920 Thomas E. Woods, Jr." if you want to find out why this guy is a clown.

    • @chasmurphy1227
      @chasmurphy1227 4 года назад +6

      @Charles McCarron correct. I am on the complete opposite spectrum from this commie in terms of videos I watch, yet he is continuously recommended to me. And who controls the algorithms?

    • @AG-el6vt
      @AG-el6vt 4 года назад +134

      ​@@rutessian Yeah, let's not look at how capitalism gave us 2008.
      Or how politicians bought by Wall Street gave them free rein to go wild at the casino, and them bailed them out with everyone's money.
      Let's not look at the issues addressed in the video: the accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few as the fundamental aspect of the economic system we live in.
      No. Let's not look at all that.

    • @rutessian
      @rutessian 4 года назад +6

      @@AG-el6vt Artificially low interest rates set by the FED, government guaranteed loans, government bailouts - this is not free market capitalism. Lookup The Depression You've Never Heard Of: 1920-1921

    • @AG-el6vt
      @AG-el6vt 4 года назад +54

      @@rutessian Thanks, but no thanks. You'd do well to think about the topics in the video though. No amount of 'big gov is bad' mantra is gonna address them.

  • @AnkaraBeekeeping
    @AnkaraBeekeeping 5 лет назад +9

    Goog talk. thanks Mr. Wolff people need to listen to this. Greetings from Turkey.

  • @msbramble176
    @msbramble176 4 года назад +31

    I know cooperation works. I lived in a cooperative run on consensus decision making and it was awesome! Communism is human evolution.

    • @samuelthornton9179
      @samuelthornton9179 3 года назад +2

      @Dillon McCluskey because state communism is bad. Cooperatives are not.

    • @msbramble176
      @msbramble176 3 года назад +5

      @Dillon McCluskey Cubans will tell you that is is because of the crippling US sanctions and other underhanded techniques used by the disgruntled mafia who lost their casinos.

    • @msbramble176
      @msbramble176 3 года назад +6

      @Dillon McCluskey The Washington post is owned by Amazon. The Washington post has a clear agenda. I read an article recently about an issue that I happen to know a lot about in the WP it was the most obvious propaganda.

    • @msbramble176
      @msbramble176 3 года назад +2

      @Dillon McCluskey If you watch net flicks. check out the "WASP network".

    • @msbramble176
      @msbramble176 3 года назад +3

      @Dillon McCluskey I agree poverty is crippling and unnessessary. Capitalism will bring people out of poverty as long as exponential exploitation of finite resources lasts. What's with the US not even having universal healthcare?

  • @jean-pierredevent970
    @jean-pierredevent970 3 года назад +6

    Again a real intellectual joy to be able to listen to but there is more than ideas, he does it with such virtuosity, such clarity that there is "art" in there too, as always.

  • @space.youtube
    @space.youtube 4 года назад +159

    There's a Wolff amongst the corporate flock.

    • @space.youtube
      @space.youtube 4 года назад +2

      @K Korona thanks for that. Here's your gold star for participating ⭐

    • @space.youtube
      @space.youtube 4 года назад +4

      @K Korona Are you asking me to name a technology conceived by a political system? Really? Maybe you should be more specific? lol Make your case and if It's remotely compelling I'll play.

    • @Cucumber-ej1pm
      @Cucumber-ej1pm 4 года назад +1

      @K Korona Satelites

    • @steppenwolf3252
      @steppenwolf3252 4 года назад +3

      We need a pack of Wolffs!

    • @DanielVargas-yx8ff
      @DanielVargas-yx8ff 4 года назад +5

      @Truth Seeker can you tell me how workers owning the buisness together and voting on their manager leads to genocide?

  • @thejollysloth5743
    @thejollysloth5743 4 года назад +173

    Google employees listening to someone preach against capitalism whilst working for the biggest and most capitalist company on the planet. The irony is just too sweet.

    • @tomservo75
      @tomservo75 4 года назад +5

      Silly man, don't you understand? Socialism is only for "the little people!"

    • @thecondescendinggoomba5552
      @thecondescendinggoomba5552 4 года назад +22

      @@tomservo75 lol and capitalism which lets 35,000 'little people' die from lack of healthcare in the united states is so great. You people who worship capitalism only care about the wealthy and if you can get a little crumb off their massive wealth you'll be their bitch for as long as you can get more crumbs.

    • @steppenwolf3252
      @steppenwolf3252 4 года назад +11

      I'll take the truth no matter the venue

    • @blazingkhalif2
      @blazingkhalif2 4 года назад +7

      @@thecondescendinggoomba5552 compared to 100s of millions killed by socialism and communism

    • @thecondescendinggoomba5552
      @thecondescendinggoomba5552 4 года назад +18

      @@blazingkhalif2 still ignoring the deaths from capitalism.

  • @eliyahbenysrael3903
    @eliyahbenysrael3903 5 лет назад +12

    Fascinating critique of America's cold war capitalist ideology strangling free speech and open thought in education-and society overall-in it's effort to maintain it's dominance. His dissection of capitalism is really thought provoking relative to why we accept this arrangement and the alternatives he names like democratizing workforces through cooperatives is worth consideration.
    The critics falsely accusing him of advocating for "bigger government" have no problem fighting two unpaid for wars while preparing to start others, massive tax cuts for the wealthiest , cuts to social security and a border wall and seem to be able to find money for these projects without a problem, despite the deficits they're already causing.

    • @quohime1824
      @quohime1824 5 лет назад +1

      Those critics are arguing in bad faith, they don't actually care to hear anything about any other systems. No one is that brain dead to see making worker places democratic as big government, they are acting in bad faith.

  • @brianjones6500
    @brianjones6500 2 года назад +1

    Working together builds muscle memory. Corporations exist on brilliant people. Critical workforce skills atrophy if not used no matter how much you don't need that critical skill today. I'm very happy to have come across this video. Thank you Richard W.
    My comment comes at no cost ha ha

  • @deanwolfechannel
    @deanwolfechannel 5 лет назад +210

    Hmm. Some people must have become quite uncomfortable during this talk. Kudos to whoever brought the Wolff to town...

    • @maxrebuschatis5603
      @maxrebuschatis5603 5 лет назад +33

      Thanks - I collaborated with Professor Wolff to organize this talk! Everyone in the audience was really attentive - I don't think I would describe the atmosphere as "uncomfortable". Most people have some inkling that the organization of our world isn't fair and are curious to understand exactly how and why. A huge group of people stayed after the talk was over to continue asking questions!

    • @naomi-nada
      @naomi-nada 4 года назад +2

      ​@@maxrebuschatis5603 Thank you for your efforts. This was a fantastic talk. I wish I could have listened to him answer more questions.

    • @Herr2Cents
      @Herr2Cents 4 года назад +2

      @@maxrebuschatis5603 what do you think about the news of Union busting today at Google?

    • @maxrebuschatis5603
      @maxrebuschatis5603 4 года назад +1

      @@Herr2Cents No sir, I don't like it.

    • @SpoopySquid
      @SpoopySquid 4 года назад +1

      @Kit Carney so prosperous that it's existence is dependent of the mass impovershment and colonisation of the Global South and crashes once a decade give or take

  • @charlotte1228
    @charlotte1228 3 года назад +34

    Uni students in USA are not taught Karl Marx‘a economics, while in China, the students are taught all kinds of economics from the west, therefore they not only know Marx’s Capital(Das Kapital), but also know Adam Smith and Keynes etc as well

    • @JK-gu3tl
      @JK-gu3tl 3 года назад

      Alot of Chinese have read Mises as well, I'm impressed.

  • @markuspfeifer8473
    @markuspfeifer8473 7 лет назад +181

    In German, employer and employees are called "Arbeitgeber" ("work giver(s)") and "Arbeitnehmer" ("work taker(s)"). The funny thing is that Arbeitgeber refers to the emloyers, so our language reflects very closely the notion that it is the employer who "gives" us work. But if you think about it, it is actually the Arbeitnehmer (employee) who gives his work. This is why some German marxists now use the other way. F**k the system!

    • @ionezgb
      @ionezgb 6 лет назад +23

      +Markus Pfeifer In Croatia we have similar language constructs. It's basically popularized after restoration of capitalism. I'm not conspiracy theorist but it seems that this language constructs are made to make working class think that they don't know how and what to work without "work givers".

    • @fun_ghoul
      @fun_ghoul 5 лет назад +25

      @@ionezgb This has been mirrored in American/Canadian English for perhaps 10-20 years now, with the euphemism "job creators" being bandied about in every public discourse about corporate taxes, "payroll taxes", the unemployment rate, etc. Of course, it's not something you'll ever hear average people say to each other, but it stems from the same disgusting capitalist bullshit. Solidarity, comrades.

    • @maibaolinh1253
      @maibaolinh1253 5 лет назад +14

      @@fun_ghoul Well, typical capitalism Orwellians :v They just change the word to make a delusion :v

    • @brianlacy8870
      @brianlacy8870 5 лет назад +2

      relabel as labor giver / taker ...

    • @patrickvernon5368
      @patrickvernon5368 5 лет назад +2

      Labor creates demand and not the other way around. The economy should work for the people not the other way around. The economists should work for the economy. German economic tradition going back to guilds, through Bismark until 1945 (absent weimar) the economy was understood in this way. Neoliberalism is cancer. Usury is cancer.

  • @johne.mckenzie9344
    @johne.mckenzie9344 Год назад +12

    Brillant, I really appreciated this discussion!

  • @TheGroovyJones
    @TheGroovyJones 7 лет назад +60

    Capitalism requires competition right so worker cooperatives need to get the same governmental support big business gets and we'll see where the most talented people in each field want to work. Flexibility in the labor market! Consumer choice!

    • @TheGroovyJones
      @TheGroovyJones 7 лет назад +7

      Think of the term "labor market". It's a market where the product being traded is "labor", otherwise known as people. Capitalists HATE competition; especially from something that might take talented people away from producing money to go into their own dividend checks.

    • @PoopyBarfy
      @PoopyBarfy 7 лет назад +2

      Capitalism does not require competition.

    • @TheGroovyJones
      @TheGroovyJones 7 лет назад +2

      I'd sincerely enjoy hearing more about your version of capitalism where competition isn't necessary. Please start with what is happening on the "free market" when it's not competition among sellers for consumer's money.

    • @piercebales9546
      @piercebales9546 6 лет назад

      you can be a consumer or a citizen but you can't be both.

    • @ludwigvanel9192
      @ludwigvanel9192 5 лет назад +2

      Agreed, with nte caveat that "same governmental support" should mean "absolutely none whatsoever"

  • @sirjohn2u
    @sirjohn2u 3 года назад +18

    The definition of "cogent" has to be this lecture! Bravo Professor Wolff!!!!!

  • @jessicak4839
    @jessicak4839 Год назад +2

    I like this man. He was saying how we go to war with other countries in order to bring "Democracy" that we don't have. He is right. We spend the majority of our time at work and an enterprise have no democracy at all. While the corporations are making millions in profit (after expenses) and pay no taxes we have to suck up to all the work for a small amount of salary that doesn't cover our expenses or our livelihood. All this while putting other countries in debt too!!! USA have the biggest Debt in the world when the USD is backed by NOTHING!!!

  • @LDrees
    @LDrees 3 года назад +95

    I'd like to nominate Professor Wolff for the Secretary of Labor position in the new Biden Administration.

    • @febopennyficari8716
      @febopennyficari8716 3 года назад +36

      Would never happen, Biden is owned by big business

    • @febopennyficari8716
      @febopennyficari8716 3 года назад +4

      @@alexleanh couldn’t have said it better myself

    • @kuja2049
      @kuja2049 3 года назад +7

      @@alexleanh It's a sad world, maybe we should try that revolution thing again.

    • @evolution__snow6784
      @evolution__snow6784 3 года назад +4

      @@kuja2049 there are some politician that don't take money from corporations like Bernie and AOC and that their politics are directly against corporations, they are examples to follow

    • @wl415
      @wl415 3 года назад +1

      They wouldn’t allow that, Biden is too far right

  • @Jstoney127
    @Jstoney127 7 лет назад +73

    Fucking Brilliant!

  • @rick.d
    @rick.d 5 лет назад +15

    Terrific presentation, thank you.

  • @MrKane101111
    @MrKane101111 Год назад +1

    The fact that Google allowed this encourages me that they allow their employees to think openly and judge if their employer is fair. The American working class have more choice than ever since the industrial revolution and can exert their power in numbers.

  • @saptarsimondal7653
    @saptarsimondal7653 4 года назад +14

    Respect Sir. It's an outstanding discussion mixing economics and history. Being a chemist also I didn't find it difficult to understand the basics of economics!

    • @ccpj0eyb319
      @ccpj0eyb319 2 года назад

      He even says no other economists agree with him. Why would you ever listen to this comi? 😂🤣

    • @isidoreaerys8745
      @isidoreaerys8745 2 года назад

      Economics is baseless. Until it’s tied to the actual energy generating potential of our planet we are doomed. The economy must be tied to Molecular Biophysics of our globe. ruclips.net/video/ZSjNCPPY-1I/видео.html

  • @vader3669
    @vader3669 3 года назад +42

    Professor Wolff is mega based

  • @oldskoolgaming
    @oldskoolgaming 3 года назад +5

    This is absolutely Brilliant. So glad I came across this presentation :)

    • @ccpj0eyb319
      @ccpj0eyb319 2 года назад

      🤣😂 this comi is trash 🗑

  • @maddiemalacopa1380
    @maddiemalacopa1380 4 года назад +17

    Obsessed w Richard Wolff! Thanks for all the lessons 🙌

    • @ccpj0eyb319
      @ccpj0eyb319 2 года назад

      He even says no other economists agree with him. Why would you ever listen to this comi? 😂🤣

  • @Thrashaero
    @Thrashaero 5 лет назад +60

    But there’s a reason. There’s a reason. There’s a reason for this, there’s a reason education SUCKS, and it’s the same reason it will never, ever, EVER be fixed.
    It’s never going to get any better, don’t look for it, be happy with what you’ve got.
    Because the owners, the owners of this country don’t want that. I’m talking about the real owners now, the BIG owners! The Wealthy… the REAL owners! The big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions.
    Forget the politicians. They are irrelevant. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice! You have OWNERS! They OWN YOU. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought, and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls.
    They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying, lobbying, to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I’ll tell you what they don’t want:
    They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That’s against their interests.
    That’s right. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table and think about how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago. They don’t want that!
    You know what they want? They want obedient workers. Obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork. And just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shitty jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they’re coming for your Social Security money. They want your retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street, and you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it all from you sooner or later cause they own this fucking place! It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it! You, and I, are not in the big club.
    By the way, it’s the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head with their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy. The table has tilted folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care! Good honest hard-working people; white collar, blue collar it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on. Good honest hard-working people continue, these are people of modest means, continue to elect these rich cock suckers who don’t give a fuck about you…. they don’t give a fuck about you… they don’t give a FUCK about you.
    They don’t care about you at all… at all… AT ALL. And nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. That’s what the owners count on. The fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue dick that’s being jammed up their assholes everyday, because the owners of this country know the truth.
    It’s called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.
    RIP GEORGE CARLIN

    • @Amadeus8484
      @Amadeus8484 4 года назад +1

      Capitalism won't have control over education forever. They are now at the point where most of their ill gotten gains are fictitious capital. Not sustainable.

    • @dianefowler8744
      @dianefowler8744 4 года назад +1

      Thrashaero yes there’s people out here that care and give a shit and have been speaking up and speaking out. We just need more that’s all. Hopefully people are beginning to realize what the truth really is. All these companies are ran by a certain group of people they have been running these companies forever including asshole bankers! They have set up the system to fail over and over again and they never use their own money but use ours and we the people are constantly screwed because of their stupidness! Co-ops do seem to be the best Way to go but I do not believe that anyone other than the workers make the rules for the company getting any government involved in anything is the worst thing anyone could think about! But they will try to rig that too but somehow someway we the people have to stand up and figure out the best way to handle us and make the rules for ourselves not let them make the rules for us. It’s going to be a fight and hopefully people are willing to stand up and start doing it otherwise the system is never going to change

    • @ChideNorms
      @ChideNorms 4 года назад +1

      Thrashaero NAME THE JEW DAMNIT!

    • @steppenwolf3252
      @steppenwolf3252 4 года назад +1

      There are more of us than there are of them. We know they don't care. We know all that. Time for us to pay attention to OUR wants and OUR cares. Screw them. We need to think about what the majority of us want and need.

    • @barriewright2857
      @barriewright2857 4 года назад

      Than you BRILLIANT.

  • @martimcfly9147
    @martimcfly9147 4 года назад +49

    Last time Google ever invited the Wolff, dude was magnificent here.

    • @michaelryd6737
      @michaelryd6737 4 года назад +3

      If you like Communism and don't understand that you are living in the last resort of the free-world and Wolf are "paid off" by China, then you are correct...

    • @Azamat421
      @Azamat421 4 года назад +16

      @@michaelryd6737 trumptie

    • @neill9778
      @neill9778 4 года назад +21

      @@michaelryd6737 Sources on that? Or is that a fringe conspiracy theory you concocted without any evidence? I'm guessing the latter.

    • @Matt-ww9wv
      @Matt-ww9wv 3 года назад +6

      @@michaelryd6737 Why do you make up bullshit and pretend it's true?

  • @donrastar1579
    @donrastar1579 2 года назад +2

    "The worker produces a surplus" That surplus is the capital, Mr. Wolff.

    • @lepidoptera9337
      @lepidoptera9337 2 года назад

      Where did you pull that bullshit out from, Love?

    • @mcnt9506
      @mcnt9506 2 года назад

      It's capital when it is not distributed, and is more of a company asset, when you can point to it and say "there is my capital."
      Surplus is capital but used, especially in the interest of the worker, not the company which interests rarely coincide.

    • @lepidoptera9337
      @lepidoptera9337 2 года назад

      @@mcnt9506 Dudes, you need to let go of failed economic hypotheses of the past. Marx/Engels got pretty much everything wrong about basic economic theory.

    • @mcnt9506
      @mcnt9506 2 года назад

      @@lepidoptera9337 Obviously not, or it still wouldn't be of contention

    • @synergygaming65
      @synergygaming65 Год назад

      Right of the scene from Office Space , "why should I bust my ass beyond the absolute minimum when none of the benefit is coming my way." Paraphrasing, but that's what he's getting at.

  • @eightiefiv3
    @eightiefiv3 7 лет назад +9

    excellent answers and questions at the end there! thanks google and Prof. Wolff!!

  • @farty555
    @farty555 3 года назад +13

    Google should have more speakers like this!

  • @samuelnutas2030
    @samuelnutas2030 5 лет назад +21

    You are a true inspiration mr!! You deserve a Nobel prize...

    • @phil5569
      @phil5569 4 года назад +1

      A Nobel prize for believing in Marxism? Really? laughable.

    • @blokcomNativeFaces
      @blokcomNativeFaces 4 года назад +1

      @@phil5569 HAHAHA

    • @blokcomNativeFaces
      @blokcomNativeFaces 4 года назад +1

      He's a crank and promoting fairy tales

    • @rutessian
      @rutessian 4 года назад

      :))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

  • @judithbaxter1257
    @judithbaxter1257 2 года назад +1

    Brilliant Talk- still so relative 2022

  • @trista4congress827
    @trista4congress827 4 года назад +61

    Awesome lecture! Thank you, Teacher! I spent many years in Europe & Asia, & many countries have far superior systems than we do - political, economic & social systems that work a MILLION TIMES BETTER, for ALL of us, not just the 1 % of Oligarchs, like what we got goin' on in Amerikkka!
    I STRONGLY recommend everybody SHARE this video with all yer friends!

    • @BarrySlisk
      @BarrySlisk 4 года назад +2

      Superior if you are a lazy lowlife.

    • @ediodimacaroni
      @ediodimacaroni 4 года назад +1

      @@BarrySlisk move to Denmark without a job and see how long you can last

    • @BarrySlisk
      @BarrySlisk 4 года назад +1

      @@ediodimacaroni
      I already live in Denmark. People can exist their entire life here without working. My GF's mother has not worked for at least 40 years. She is now recently retired but that is also paid by the government, so....

    • @pound7816
      @pound7816 4 года назад +3

      don't confuse capitalism with corruption. Americans pay more than enough taxes to pay for the services you think the government ought to provide, but the money is wasted on...government

    • @jrm5037
      @jrm5037 3 года назад +1

      Then why'd you come back and why do so many people around the world fight to come to America and not those other countries dumbass?

  • @AlbertSchram
    @AlbertSchram 5 лет назад +6

    Brilliant lecture. On radical differences between Keynesian and neo-classical economics [00:00] to 05:49]. On the failure of economics programs to discuss radical critique of economics [38:31] to [44:35]. On democratic capitalism [44:35] to [53:42].

    • @Alkis05
      @Alkis05 4 года назад

      Democratic capitalism? You sure missed the point. If there is no capitalist owning the corporation and, by the virtue of this ownership, deciding how to distribute results of labor, that fundamentally ain't no capitalism.

    • @AlbertSchram
      @AlbertSchram 4 года назад

      @@Alkis05 If you can't democratize the enterprise (with cooperatives), the state needs to regulate.The Netherlands or Sweden, for example, always had capitalist system, but they tax wealth progressively. As a result, the state has and uses the power to address the two weaknesses of unfettered capitalism: instability and crises are less severe, and at the same time inequality and poverty are consistently lower and at more acceptable levels than in the USA. This in fact is true for most of continental Europe.

    • @jonsegerros
      @jonsegerros 2 года назад

      @@AlbertSchram lol. hearing my country sweden and UNFETTERED capitalism casually like that is just hilarious
      yea i fkn wish