Ask Prof Wolff: Western Capitalism’s Decline
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- čas přidán 9. 09. 2024
- A Patron of Economic Update asks: "Hello Professor Wolff, I’m not sure how familiar you are with Canadian economics but things are very bad here. The average home price in 1980 was $47k ($163k adjusted for inflation), in 2000 it was $119k ($190k adjusted for inflation). Between January 2020 and March 2022, the average home price soared from $504,350 to $795,952. The average home price in my town, with a population of 100,000, is $1 million now. My entire generation has been bought out of the housing market. The annual average earnings of full-time employees in Canada is a little more than $54,630. Average hourly wages in Canada have barely budged in 40 years. Now, the Bank of Canada increased interest rates to 8.1%. We’re told this is due to supply chain management issues, bottlenecks. Yet corporations are making record profits. Canada is experiencing neoliberalism on crack. What’s the solution? Do we need more unions? What can be done? Why are they increasing inflation now?"
This is Professor Richard Wolff's video response.
Submit your own question to be considered for a video response by Prof. Wolff on Patreon: / community .
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ironic that in a system such as capitalism where "you have to have the newest and greatest thing" that itself never gets too old and too broken to be replaced. They tell you, "stop fixing that old car (or whatever) and get a new one!" but fixing this broken system over and over again is what is always done. Get rid of it. There is a better system! #GeneralStrikeNOW
Good point and the 1% is unable to support the needs of the 99% its a broken system.
A system exists with people. In the case of the US there are many people. The country is roughly divided on political views. The far left is a bit more marginalized than the rest of the left spectrum.
imagine you had an old 1969 Ford truck in your friend group and some of your friends loved that truck. They preferred it to the new electric vehicles being produced today.
Instead of chop shopping and changing out the gas engine to an electric engine. Why not let them enjoy their truck and you go make an electric car from scratch, or find some other friends that already has a functioning electric car that you can appreciate.
My point is that we are all human beings on this planet and instead of making war with each other over how we should dictate our lives, we should congregate and live with like minded people.
It is not unreasonable to move states or countries to a place that has a society that is run the way you see adequate with how advanced transportation is these days.
@@melaniel.s8990 The 99% need to support the needs of the 99%, and we can if we have the resources. The one percent - the parasites - have the resources and the 99% must recover it by all means necessary.
@@jakeshota4050 division exists in the US because of the rich parasites. They can't have it any other way else we unite and turn our hate on them.
@@jakeshota4050 mainstream media dividing the people in this country they doing it so the 1% can control the people .
For the algorithm. PREACH, Prof Wolff!!
I am glad that Prof. Wolff has stated very articulately that solving a run away inflation by causing a recession is not the answer we need to solve our economic problems.
I have only a Bachelor's Degree in Economics and I was shocked when the FED announced to control inflation it was increased the prime interest rate.
how do you think they should combat inflation? How do you solve the supply chain crisis?
And what is your solution? Do the opposite and pump even more money into the economy or something?
Patiently reviewing the lecture and repeating the message until the student gets it is in my opinion what a good teacher does ! By all means carry on Prof Wolff ! You're one of the real , coherent voices in these polarized , misinformed times we're struggling to figure out !
What is to be done? Someone wrote a book about that, and more Canadians need to read it.
That is Lenin's vanguard theory and organization of the party.
Brilliant observations and analysis.
I could never understand how people vote against their own interests. As a naive person myself, I can still read the writing on the wall.
Democracy is an illusion bud, simple as that, it's Rigged to death and the media just gives you reasons why a certain party hasn't won, and why a party shoukd win, its all controlled
excellent points prof wolff
All true, Richard, but you're not even addressing her core question. She asks, "What do we do?" How do we survive? How do we, as individuals, continue to stay alive and live indoors, etc.? Of course the system of capitalism must be replaced. But of course it will not be replaced in time to help your questioner to stay alive and survive in the immediate crisis. So what do we actually do? As opposed to what do we wish could happen that cannot happen in time to save us. Helpful answers will have to include some serious kinds of revolt, unionization, organizing, mutual aid, etc. Those kinds of things are - I believe - what she wants your specific advice on.
he did say. Democracy at work. Which could mean unionizing, striking and/or voting for maybe revolutionary instead of reformers. In Canada's case, there is no worker's party. The NDP are reformers, they are not abolishing wage-labour, they just want to get rid of the owner so they can become syndicates. Which is still capitalism because the ownership is visual and there would be a new board of directors, formerly workers but they now enjoy the parasitic relationships between owner and slave
Wolff's absolutely right! Major changes are needed and inevitable. The tyrants in power fear change & the loss of their prestige, so of course there's a fight but they are destined to lose. Fairly soon, transparent governments, UBI and robot technology will be everywhere. Get up stand up, don't give up the fight!
The first step to fix something is to realize (and really accept) that it's broken. Sounds easy to understand, right? But many are still denying Capitalism is a broken system...😢
Thank you, Prof. Wolff, for spreading your knowledge & wisdom.
Alternatives are socialism or barbarism . Thats the coice.
Why do you think so? When you say barbarism... what exactly do you mean?
And is it worse than genocide, slavery, business caused climate change?
Finally don't see that big a difference between socialism and capitalism which is why I'm focusing on your idea of barbarism.
Thanks Prof, for another valuable political lesson, the extent to which this proves to be factual will also determine the extent to which a declining American defined 'modern liberal unipolar world order' is being replaced by a rising China defined 'modern socialist multipolar world order'.
Thank you Professor Wolff, I always appreciate when people point out the Fatal Flaws in Capitalism.
every system is flawed, it isnt clever pointing out the obvious,clever is fixing the flaws lol
@@PazLeBon Okay... so say something clever about capitalism.
@@PazLeBon Judging by comments under many of his videos, the flaws are not apparent to everyone.
@@PazLeBon trying to fix its flaws is what many have been doing for decades. Some flaws are inherent of the system and CAN'T be fixed. Identify wich ones is the smart part of what Prof Wolf is doing.
Fight inflation with recession. You cannot put it more accurately and ironically 👍.
i guess recession is deflation, it already happened in 2020, its back again, which means cash is king !
So the important question then is: What happens if we aren't able to change the system? What happens after this stage of capitalism?
I've been a supporter of left causes for so long, and yet there's been next to zero progress on anything (other than identity politics...). Maybe negative progress. I've kinda lost the faith, as nothing ever seems to budge for average citizens. With that in mind, I can only assume that nothing will ever work in our favor. So what can we expect next, if we don't change the trajectory?
To your question I think if we are unable to really change this system it will happen whatever has happened with previous systems: Chaos, crisis, war, death... But at regional or global level...that's the real danger here
@@DavidSanchez-vx4bv I think you're right. I wonder how it collapses though. Right now we have increasingly excessive corporatism and plutocracy. So I think it will just keep increasing, but what's the breaking point if the masses aren't the cause--which again, I don't think they will be, at least not with constructive left goals?
@@cev12 I agree. At least for some years, many people will fight very aggresively but without sense. A portion of the elite will want to keep the things as they are, other portion will join efforts with the workers better prepared and organized. But, be aware lot will suffer or die.
This is just the Beginning of the End and could last decades.
In my opinion, we should keep studying, organize ourselves in co-workers companies if possible, and be as human and as smart as much as possible. This system in its death will eat those stupid, brainless, selfish people first.
It's the workers themselves, they want to join the rich club. I mean how else can a minority rule over such a mass with imagery objects such as currency? Of course myth, that is, one day you will own part time slaves. Everyone falls for it without realizing we need to work to make things to live, to sustain our lives .
@@derkaderkda I see it as more psychological... That most people are status-conscious and selfish, in that regard, and seek to fit-in--and at the cost of what's right, rational and beneficial. It's an extension of high school, except that you don't have to be around the same people all the time. But the mentality is the same, of in-group status-seeking. And the popular group (for most people and age groups) is the mainstream corporate parties, with their mainstream corporate news, and their mainstream corporate lives and entertainment, and their money. In contrast to the rest of us, the high school outsiders, who never put fitting-in above sanity (...of course some outsiders form their own in-groups, and then act with group mentality in that space).
I mean, why did people start buying SUVs and large autos in droves when the climate crisis was becoming pretty evident (ca 2000?)? Makes zero logical sense, even regarding self-preservation, and I can only understand that their short-sighted self-centered status-seeking was the impetus. And when immigrants arrive in the US, they abandon all of their old cultural ways, and assimilate into US culture by possessions and lifestyle, if nothing else. Status-seeking, fitting-in, and groupthink, all resulting from ego.
Do your computation, it is astounding:
if $1 is paid every SECOND, the $30 trillion US debt will need 960,000 YEARS to be repaid, not counting interest, and the principal is still growing.....
And the USA is only 245 years old...
Stop the military spending!.
Question from Canada? Our prices are so high. The hope of making it as millionaire or landlord is hopeless with this current concept of value. Doesn't matter if I buy shares when our wage labour income doesn't hold value to the price of commodities to sustain my working life, labour is just diminished. All I have of value to the state is my kid.
Recently the reformists are giving a double flat tax rate rebate to low-income workers and a luxury tax for for the bourgeois when they buy their yachts, jets and purses. How is it the corporations are making profits while payroll remains the same?
Finally the Central Bank of Canada is hawkish on the rates. This will bring down the prices of houses but this is rubbish as the workers will pay more and more to the profit of the big banks in Canada, Lenin was right about this one, the cartel and oligarchs.
Prof. Wolff, I think it would be timely for you to introduce all of us to what has been termed the "Thucydides Problem" in global socio-economic political dynamics. It is the veritable "Sword of Damocles" that hangs over all of civilization. Please.
The system is broken and can't be fixed. Whatever new system we adopt we'll have to suffer through even more pain during a transition period. Look at the former USSR adopt capitalism over night. A decade plus of inflation, hardship, crime, human trafficking, decadence.
I keep wondering everyday what’s keeping things barely afloat or at the breaking point? Or, what key event might trigger a national moment of discussion on the whole issue. Where the shareholder owned media can’t stop the discussion. It would get the same coverage as the Queen!
Initiating a recession to mitigate inflation is like having an infection in one arm and cutting off the other one !
Get rid of lobbyists, citizens United. Take away all investments of conflict of interest from all government employees
All animals are equal.
My view is that the collective West, the US in particular, must relearn to live within its means. Be it the government company organization family or individual. No more free lunches at the expense of the rest of the world. Refrain from creating wars and/or creating destabilization in other countries under the infamous democracy freedom human rights empty slogans
Here, above the 49th *we too are swirling the bowl* .
The beauty of the systems are the surplus formation is from the bottom who spare and lend itit to the large industrialists!!!
This is highly insightful Prof. Thank you.
There is a pervasive tendency to confuse capitalism with industrialisation!!!the only solution is industrialization, with renewable dnetgy
Why do we put up with it?
Because it's not as bad as he makes out. Way to many people have it pretty good, not just the 1 percent. What he needs are more poor people...but even they have it too good under capitalism.. The poor in America are RICH by the worlds standard....Our kids on food programs are obese, while in other countries starving kids actually drop dead all the time.. You freakin' Marxists are complaining babies...and should be sent to Africa or Bangladesh....and you'd stop being so ungrateful...
It is a matter of perspective. You say Western Capitalism’s Decline. But that's not how capitalists are seeing it. For them it is Bonanza.
If that's the case, then I suspect they're in for a shock.
{looks at the practical results}
Hmm.
The purpose of a market economy is to put a few people in charge of the resources everyone needs to survive. These few people then bend the market economy to serve their interests instead of the interests of the people participating in the economy. Which of course means that they can also bend people to their interests as well.
So when someone tells you that the purpose of a market economy is to distribute goods and services... you'll know that isn't really the whole truth.
Just like a casino isn't really a place for people to play games.
It's a place for people to lose money playing games.
I subscribed to this channel so I can try to understand your point of view, but I still don't get it. 100 years ago the poor in the US starved. The concern now is that they're getting too fat. We have way more than we ever needed. If it wasn't for the 1% super rich and their mega corporations would we have packages being delivered to us in less than 24 hours, the technology we're using here, Google, CZcams, smartphones? I don't see how life can be better without this system. At least for me.
Can you show me examples of successful nations with different systems?
there is none, they were formerly colonized and struggle against the wealthy corporations from the EU, UK and the USA.
1st and all I gotta say is learn Marxism with the prof.
Capitalist's created this worlds problems, THAT is what literally happened...
Nah im not endorsing Marxisim, Im just not dumb enough NOT to blame capitalism.
You see they are not opposites no matter how much the cold war propaganda brain washed especially Americans into thinking that
Reforming Capitalism doesn't work you say?
Boy.. Is Krystal Ball gonna be pissed when she finds out. Lol!
The main driver of rising housing prices is Governments allowing untenanted foreign ownership of land -- as investments, which artificially inflates the market. Permitting inflation contributes as well. Government that can separate itself from the day to day concerns of its people is the core issue. And ideological governments have the worst track record in that disconnect. Adam Smith has all the answers as to how to regulate a society - an open, unregulated market where autonomous citizens combine their perceptions of their self-interest to invoke the common sense of the Invisible Hand. 240 years ago the blueprint was written.
foreign tax is the fix for that. You forgot Adam Smith theory of value or labour theory which contradicts free markets. Workers are the value, prices reflect that.
@@derkaderkda What possible contradiction is there in his theory - the value of work fluctuates with the availability of workers: sorted. [IOW be multi-skilled.]
@@peterclark6290
"The value of any commodity, therefore, to the person who possesses it, and who means not to use or consume it himself, but to exchange it for other commodities, is equal to the quantity of labor which it enables him to purchase or command. Labor, therefore, is the real measure of the exchangeable value of all commodities."
Chapter 5 on real and nominal price (I.v.1., p. 47)
"Labor alone, therefore, never varying in its own value, is alone the ultimate and real standard by which the value of all commodities can at all times and places be estimated and compared. It is their real price; money is their nominal price."
Chapter 5 (I.v.7., p. 51)
@@derkaderkda Which is variable as the marketplace determines. The labour may be worth some exchangeable value one year and twelvemonth later it has changed. The perception of its real value is decided by the market. Basic stuff. No rigidity permitted (the source of Capitalism's strength). Nice try though.
Oh thanks Peter, Ididn't know
One major problem we face is that the common people simply don't want to run a business. They give a variety of reasons. Usually it has to do with a lack of knowledge, the complexity involved, the time commitment and competition from publicly funded competitors.
If no one wants to run a business, who is going to want to run a commune? I think the professor needs to get into the nuts and bolts of what it means to start a communal business. To educate us on what we can do.
Cooperatives exist for ever, even in USA. It is not a new concept. For biggest, look for Mandragon in Spain.
Good to hear from average Canadians about their problems. I never hear anything about Canada (other than gas pipelines, mass stabbings and Meghan Markle), which makes you think it's alright for average citizens.
Meghan Markle? This is 2022 not 2018
@@derkaderkda That's my point, I don't hear much about Canada...
Has western capitalism declined? You bet...here's why.
MICHAEL HUDSON: Well, most people think of all kinds of capitalism as being the same and the assumption is that industrial capitalism of the nineteenth century somehow was always financialized because there were always banks but financial capitalism is you just pointed out is a political system and as a political system it’s very different from the industrial capitalism dynamic. In industrial capitalism, the whole aim or the hope of the industrial capitalists in the late nineteenth century, especially in Germany and central Europe was that banking would no longer be just usury, it wouldn’t be just consumer lending to exploit labor, and it wouldn’t be lending to the government somehow.
The financial system would recycle the economy savings and money creation and credit into industrial production and would finance the means of production to make that productive instead of predatory and parasitic as it became and that seemed to be the way that industrial capitalism was evolving up until World War I. Everything changed after that all of a sudden you had the financial system take over as a result of the crisis caused in the 1920s by the German reparations debt that couldn’t be paid and the inter-ally debt that was insisted upon to repay the United States for the arms that have supplied Europe for a century into World War I. Well, the result was a huge depression.
The allies said, well, we didn’t expect to actually have to pay the United States. If we have to pay the United States, then we have to charge reparations on Germany and for a decade there was a debate between John Maynard Keynes and Harold Moulton and others saying that these debts can’t be paid. How are you going to handle a situation where the debts can’t be paid?
The finance capitalists then were the basically the ancestors of today’s neoliberals and they said any amount of debt can be paid by any country if it just lowers the living standards and squeezes labor enough and that’s what basically the philosophy of the IMF ever since world war II when third world countries can’t pay the debt, the IMF comes in with an austerity program and say you have to lower wages, you have to break up labor unions, if necessary you have to have a democracy, and you can’t have a democracy unless you’re willing to assassinate and arrest the labor leaders and the advocates of land redistribution because a democracy means basically rule by the financial sector centered in the united states. And so finance capitalism ever since WWI and especially WWII and especially since 1980 is the nationalistic doctrine of American banks and the American one percent, and the American financial sector that is sort of merged into a symbiotic unit with the finance insurance and real estate.
In other words, finance capitalism instead of trying to promote overall economic growth for the 99 percent, instead of financing the industrialization of an economy with rising productivity and rising living standards, is now cannibalizing the industrial sector, cannibalizing the corporate sector. As you’re seeing in the U.S., finance capitalism is the economic doctrine of deindustrialization that has occurred in America in England and is now occurring in Europe.
Well, the problem is how do you survive if you’re not industrializing, if you’re not producing your own means of subsistence and how are you going to get this from other countries? Well, the answer is you don’t go to war with them like countries used to go to war with each other to grab their money and their land, you use finance as the new means of war so finance capitalism is the tactic of economic warfare by the United States against Europe and the global south to sort of draw all of the economic surplus of these countries in the form of debt service and the debt service is supplied by basically economic rent seeking from land rent, natural resource rent, and just plain interest charges on economy. So, none of these are really the result of industrial profits that are made by employing labor and uh selling its products at a markup.
Finance capitalism is not based on surplus value like industrial capitalism was. In fact, it destroys industry and in this cannibalizing of industrial capital, it basically dries out the economy and makes it unable to break even or even to function and in the United States today, for instance, if you look at the balance sheets of corporate revenue much of it is spent on stock buybacks. You buy back your own stock or dividend payouts. Only eight percent of corporate earnings are spent on new capital investment research and development: factories, machinery, and means of production to employ labor.
How did General Electric (GE) go broke? Basically, Jack Wells said let’s use our income not to continue to invest in making more electronic goods and services and appliances, let’s use it to buy our own stock that’ll push up our stock and essentially, we’ll just sell off our divisions and we’ll use the money of selling off our washing machine companies and stoves and sell it off and we’ll just pay it to the stockholders. That’ll push it up and by the way his salary was based on how much he could push up the stock of GE and he was paid in the form of stock options. Well, all of this is now the normal corporate behavior in the United States and corporations are no longer led by industrial engineers as they were a few centuries ago in the nineteenth and twentieth century.
( continued ) They’re led by financial engineers of the chief financial officer and the ideal of these corporations is to make money financially not by industrial investment….. so on the narrow microeconomic level finance capitalism is a way of basically selling out a company and giving the proceeds to the stockholders and the bondholders but as a political system, because it is so destructive of the economy as you’ve seen in the United States and you’ve seen in Britain through de-industrializing it, it becomes belligerent in an attempt to make other countries just as equally paralyzed by making these countries pay tribute to the U.S. and England and the financialized economies by means of financial engineering, by means of debt service, by means of selling their mineral resources, their public utilities, their land, their roads all to foreign investors-basically to who borrows the money that’s just simply created in the U.S. and to save all of their money in their central bank reserves in the forms of loans to the U.S. treasury holding treasury bonds which is how the international monetary system worked until just a few months ago when everything changed.
So if you’re England and America right now you can look at President Biden’s speeches and he said well, China is our number one enemy because it’s competing unfairly. China is actually subsidizing industrial development by having its own infrastructure. It gives free education instead of privatizing education and making its labor pay for it. It has public health instead of privatizing social medicine like we do in the United States and making employers and workers pay for it.
Well, industrial capitalism in the nineteenth century was all in favor of strong government infrastructure. The ideal of industrial capitalism was to keep the wage costs of production down not by reducing wages but having government provide a basic infrastructure to cover the basic
needs of employees. The governments would provide free education so that employers didn’t have to pay for it. The governments would provide medical care so that employees didn’t have to pay for it and employers wouldn’t have to pay employees enough money to cover the education costs and to cover the medical care costs. The government would build roads and infrastructure and everything to facilitate the overall cost of doing business by industrial capital.
Well finance capitalism is just the reverse. Finance capitalism wants to privatize and take education, medical care, roads, turn the roads into toll roads, and take all of these and privatize them and make them financial corporations that will essentially pay out their economic rent to the bondholders and the stockholders and this economic rent adds to the cost of education and everything else that workers need to live on so the result is to make it a high cost economy and that’s why Biden has said China and Russia are America’s enemies because the only way that America can succeed given our privatized economy, given the fact that Americans have to pay up to forty three percent of their income for rent, given the fact that eighteen percent of America’s GDP is for medical care, given the heavy student loan debt-only if other countries tie themselves in the same knot, only if other countries impose the same economic overhead on their labor force and on their industry can there be equal competition.
If other countries have a mixed economy and are more efficient because they have an active government providing basic needs, that’s “autocracy” and that’s the opposite of “democracy.” Democracy is where everything is privatized and ultimately the one percent own everything.
Autocracy is any government that’s strong enough to have its own public investment. Any government strong enough to tax or regulate the financial sector is called “autocracy” so the U.S. in the 19th century would be called an autocracy as I guess the Austrian school called it
- civilization is basically an “autocracy.”
There never has been an unmixed economy without government regulation, without a government investment, although Rome began to get to that point at the end of its empire and we all know what happened to it. So basically, finance capitalism is a predatory international economic policy aimed at draining the rest of the world all to pay the leading one percent of wealth holders in the U.S. and their satellite oligarchy in England and a few European countries.
You should read Lenin "imperialism the highest stage of Capitalism". You will find out that Financial Capitalism existed even then. It is inevitable result of Industrial Capitalism. Profit have to go somewhere.
@@Mutineer9 I'm sure Michael Hudson is familiar with Lenin and Marx...that doesn't
change either history or the facts involved in this piece, which you clearly didn't read
or respond to. The "profits" of industrial capitalism lifted 2/3 of the worlds
population out of poverty...and you're RIGHT, rentier economics existed way before
"capitalism"...and the point of the piece is that, IT IS NOT CAPITALISM. ( and pretty much
explained in the first paragraph. )
And my biggest "willfully ignorant, functionally illiterate" fan insists on confirming the description.
Today, the meaning of the word "continued" is beyond his reading comprehension skills.
And my biggest "willfully ignorant, functionally illiterate" fan insists on confirming the description.
Ask Michael Hudson, he is the author...but you still can't read, can you?
I made up the following questionnaire to weed out candidates who seek our endorsement, but who share the political views exemplified by the Trumpster and Qanon believers.
And of course the candidates should feel free to explain their answer(s). And even refusing to answer some questions may tell us a lot about the candidate.
What do you believe or are you troubled about?
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Do you believe only three bullets were fired at President Kennedy and Lee Oswald fired all three?
Do you believe we are will never run out of CHEAP oil, natural gas, and electricity?
Do you believe scientists are wrong about global warming being a very serious threat and the cause is not man-made?
Do you believe the population growth is nothing to worry about?
Do you believe people have actually seen an alien being or a space ship (aka UFOs from out-space); notwithstanding that people have seen strange things/lights in the sky that are unexplained?
Do you believe that the US government has recovered parts of an alien out-space craft, that aliens brought technology to earth and that is the reason we humans now have it?
Do you believe human civilizations in the past gained advanced technologically that science has only discovered in the past 200 years?
Do you believe that Nikola Tesla invented unlimited, free energy and the energy producing, companies are keeping it secret?
Do you believe that people can somehow predict the future, communicate with dead people, and/or read other people's thoughts?
Do you believe that there may be real ghosts, witches, and demons that make people crazy, aka “demonic possessed”?
Do you believe that the US did not really land a man on the moon and/or 12 Americans did not really walked on the moon?
Do you believe our elections can be faked or hacked even if the exit polls results agree statistically with the election results and voters check a paper receipt when using a voting machine?
Are you troubled that Nancy Pelosi did not publically speak up after she learned in 30 private briefings that Bush and the boys were planning to use torture?
Do you believe someone downloaded Hillary’s email using a flash drive or CD-rom and no one hacked the DNC computer/server?
Are you trouble about the 193 email Hillary Clinton sent or received that contained classified information, and that the FB/DOJ judged that she had not intentionally used her unsecure email methods/accounts? Are you troubled to learn her emails contained carefully worded messages where classified information was “talk around”? www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/hillary-clinton-emails-2016-server-state-department-fbi-214307/
Do you think the enemies of the US are so dumb that they can’t figure out the classified information which was TALKED AROUND?)
Are you troubled about the DNC refusing to let FBI investigators seize and inspect the DNC server for evidence that classified information had been stored on it or that Russia allegedly hacked and stole the embarrassing Clinton emails?
Do you believe the FBI/DoJ should be charged with obstruction of justice for allowing Clowdstrike to inspect the computer or server?
Are you troubled that the FBI/DOJ never even saw the report on Crowdstrike’s finding and the FBI and DOJ were only allowed to see a redacted “draft” report prepared by Crowdstrike?
Do you believe Congress and Obama were wrong for not prosecuting of Bush et al for war crimes, for allowing Gina Haspel to become CIA Director, and for not prosecuting CIA officer Jose Rodriguez for destroying the video tapes of CIA torture?
Are you troubled about past US presidents making war on other nations without a Congressional declaration for war?
Are you troubled about all the past US presidents who have made war on other nations without a Congressional declaration for war, and supplying arms to Ukraine in its civil war with Russia?
Are you troubled that it is alleged that the people of Libya loved Gaddafi, yet the US and NATO attacked Libya with 120 cruise missiles?
Do you believe Gaddafi stopped supporting terrorism years before Reagan bombed Libya?
Do you believe economic sanctions placed on other nations by presidents should require a Congressional declaration of war by sanctions? czcams.com/video/UAcV6p2f8xU/video.html
Do you believe a President Trump should have gotten a Congressional declaration before selling weapons to Saudi Arabia after making war against Yemen and President Biden supplying arms to Ukraine in its civil war with Russia?
Do you believe on 9/11 that all three of the World Trade Center buildings totally collapsed only because of airplanes, gravity, and office fires?
Do you agree that corporation have a Constitutional right to give some of their profit to candidates and not pass that money onto their shareholders?
Do you believe that the holocaust of the Jews and Poles did not happen?
Do you believe that our national income tax is unconstitutional?
Do you believe that low levels of fluoride used to prevent tooth decay in our drinking water, is poisoning people?
Do you believe vaccines cause autism?
Do you believe depleted uranium weapons used by the US military did and does not harm civilians during the wars and long after the wars end?
Are you troubled that too many people do not believe basic science, for example Qanon-ers and flat earth-ers?
Do you believe we need a new law called “assessor to a pandemic” whenever public official disregards the warnings of peer reviewed medical science?
Do you believe that public officials violate their oath of office when ordering social distancing, wearing of masks, and etc after CDC declares a pandemic is happening?
Do you believe we need a new law authorizing the Secretary of Defense and/or the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to protect members of Congress and US Supreme Court Justices from a rioting mob if the President does not act?
Shouldn't we be asking every candidate these questions.
My answers are of the above are mostly “NOs”.
Are you troubled by that Nancy Pelosi did not speak up publicly after she was briefed in 30 private briefings that Bush and the boys were planning to use torture. YES
Do you believe the Democratic led Congress was wrong for not prosecuting of Bush et al for war crimes, for allowing Gina Haspel to become CIA Director, and for not prosecuting CIA officer Jose Rodriguez for destroying the video tapes of CIA torture? YES
Are you troubled about all the past presidents who have made war on other nations without a declaration for war by Congress or by Obama’s drone attacks, aka war on terrorism? YES
Do you believe economic sanctions placed on another nations by presidents need to require a declaration of war by sanctions by Congress? YES
Do you believe a President Trump should have gotten a Congressional “declaration to sell weapons” to nations like Saudi Arabia due to their war against Yemen and after it killed a US journalist? YES
Do you agree we are in a war on science? YES
Do you believe we need a new law called “assessor to a pandemic” whenever a public official disregards the warnings of peer reviewed medical science? YES
Do you believe we need a new law authorizing the Secretary of Defense and/or the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to protect the Congress and US Supreme Court Justices from a rioting mob if the President does not act? YES
Do you believe someone downloaded Hillary’s email using a flash drive or CD-rom and no one hacked the DNC computer/server? Yes
Are you trouble about the 193 email Hillary Clinton sent or received that contained classified information, and that the FB/DOJ judged that she had not intentionally used her unsecure email methods/accounts? Are you troubled to learn her emails contained carefully worded messages where classified information was “talk around”? Yes www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/hillary-clinton-emails-2016-server-state-department-fbi-214307/
Are you troubled about the DNC refusing to let FBI investigators seize and inspect the DNC server for evidence that classified information had been stored on it or that Russia allegedly hacked and stole the embarrassing Clinton emails? Yes
Do you believe it was obstruction of justice for the FBI/DoJ to Clowdstrike to inspect the computer or server? Yes
Are you troubled that the FBI/DOJ was only allowed to see a redacted “draft” report prepared by Crowdstrike about what they found or didn’t find on their inspection? Yes
Do you believe Congress and Obama were wrong for not prosecuting of Bush et al for war crimes, for allowing Gina Haspel to become CIA Director, and for not prosecuting CIA officer Jose Rodriguez for destroying the video tapes of CIA torture? Yes
Are you troubled about past US presidents making war on other nations without a Congressional declaration for war? Yes
Are you troubled it has been alleged that the people of Libya loved Gaddafi, yet the US and NATO attacked Libya with 120 cruise missiles? Yes
Do you believe Gaddafi stopped supporting terrorism years before Reagan bombed Libya? Yes
Do you believe economic sanctions placed on other nations by presidents should require a Congressional declaration of war by sanctions? Yes czcams.com/video/UAcV6p2f8xU/video.html
Do you believe a President Trump should have gotten a Congressional declaration before selling weapons to Saudi Arabia after making war against Yemen and President Biden supplying arms to Ukraine in its civil war with Russia? Yes
Excellent questions!
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put bluntly hyper-Austerity is on the march , globally
Inflation is too much money pumped into the economy. Think how much money was pumped during pandemic, and think how much is being pumped into Ukraine. How it's all gonna cool off? By stopping this madness!
Money was released in the market to make sure workers can feed themselves or otherwise Canada would have revolts. Unfortunately workers used it to buy GPUs for Crypto mining. Everyone dreams of being a capitalist.
You're an intelligent man. Take a look at the facts on climate
why? to feel suicidal?
@@PazLeBon He's right. Say we follow Wolff plan. Say we pull it off just the way they want it.
Now we have all these climate change causing business busy as bees cranking out stuff for everyone to use.
I don't see how that helps climate change. You mean all the people that now own the car building factory are going to vote to stop doing what they know because of climate change that no one wants to face because it requires such a fundamental set of changes to our culture?
People often look at cultural death as worse than physical death. It's why soldier die on battlefields...to defend their cultures.
Our culture has failed. Not just markets and economies.
Civilization has failed.
Agriculture is a bad solution... at least the way we do it.
Authoritarianism that is used to establish property and fields is a bad solution because it's leave the most ruthless successful criminals in charge.
Property/acquisition... Law... economies... all that stuff has always been about giving control of the resources everyone needs to a few.
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Corporate America decline!
democracy at work is a nonsense.
the word means 'citizens rule.' there are no real democracies, but the swiss come close enough to suggest democracy is possible to homer sap,
enterprises can be co-ops, and powerful unions might at least have voice in the direction of large enterprises, but this has nothing to do with the management of the nation.*
the management of the nation is the business of politics. at the core of politics is the question, 'who decides?' almost invariably, the answer is a person or small group who have power to rule. they hold this power while the police and army agree to let them manage the state. elections may change the face of some or all of the power-holders, but this does not by itself signify democracy. often the new face is no different from the old, in matters of concern to ordinary people.
why is the word so popular, when the thing is never seen?
claiming democracy makes rule easier for the rulers. even north korea does it. it confuses resistance. [ see 'doublethink' ]
it makes life easier for the common person, they soothe their misery by saying ' i'm a citizen and not a slave.'
* i think pr. wolff is a secret admirer of a political notion called "anarcho-sydicalism.'
believers imagine homer sap doesn't need a state, will be much better off without. but those believers have never convinced enough people to disturb any nation's history, aside from the over-enthusiastic nutter who kills a prince. that's why his 'democracy at work' is all the democracy you need. so far, they are 0 for 1000's.
Reinstate democracy to achieve your proposed reforms! End gerrymandering and unlimited terms for elected officials.
Maybe the government should just stop "helping". ? President Harding cut government spending by 50 percent after WW1 and cut taxes... We were out of the woods in short order, while the New Deal policies deepened and lengthened the depression...
@Account NumberEight During the Laissez Faire era of course. Thanks for asking, but the greatest increases in standard of living and life expectancy came then.... We need the "nightwatchman" state Ayn Rand talked about. As if????
@Account NumberEight Now ya got the biggest giant government in the world, where 40 percent of the economy is government run.... and it doesn;t produce. It just takes from the actual productive 60 percent.. It's like you socialist/commies are saying...here let me break your legs,, and then why are you complaining about walking???
@Account NumberEight I mean, maybe it wasn't pure "libertarianism" cuz that would mean anarchism...which Ayn Rand didn't like... but you knew that already, right??? (right)
@Account NumberEight It's not my problem if you don't like the answer. The reason why you reject it is because it's so true. The time when we had the most freedom... ie liberty....and an awesome economy was the industrial revolution. Aside from that probably the Go-Go 80's under Reagan...which was pretty great also.. (due to deregulation..)
@Account NumberEight Discredited by who, liberals (commies) ???? Not sure how old you are but most people loved Ronald Reagan, even democrats back in the 80s and where I was at, SoCal...there was a massive building boom and the economy was on fire.. he won like 49 states in his second election dude.. ??? WTF are you talking about??? Oh, he was fighting your fuxxing commie friends down in Nicaragua??? Is that it??? (Or helped bring down the Iron Curtain and freed millions????? That's probably why you hate him...because he was instrumental in stopping the vile evil of your socialist/commie ideology...
X-Files
Humans vs. Alien Vampires
Economic growth measures the rapid rate at which the hostile alien vampires (greed) are sucking the joy out of life and devouring the planet.
Big, empty, brain numbing, soul sucking numbers measure the amount of darkness (greed) that a vampire's giant a**hole in space called "ego" posses. Not brilliance.
Lots to expensive yachts, tickets and things measure the pride and imagination of a vampire's ego. Not intelligence.
Unlike earthling human beings and creators of joy... the capitalist counting corpses that rule US can't create harmony (real intelligence) because vampires (greed) are far worse than stupid.
The loveless, lifeless parasites are ignorant (dead).
Vampires (greed) who suck the joy out of life have joined the zombies who eat the futures of their children.
Zombie Apocalypse is here and happening now.
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I think Wolff is really trying for greater change than coops and democratizing the workplace.
He's just focusing on that issue as a mechanism for beginning the other necessary changes we have to make to our culture.
The problem with this is that everyone can see that simply democratizing the workplace isn't a silver bullet. There are more problems than that. And by focusing on this one... it makes it seem like he's not aware of the others.
Or is worried that the extent of the necessary plans will hamstring the effort from the beginning.
That last is probably the truth.
Can't expect to run a representative democracy if you aren't open about the whole spectrum of problems that democracy will face.
The number one problem is simply how money is created and played with in our economy. The rules of money creation (loans with interest representing money creation out of nothing, paying them back is money destruction) benefit the very top of society and funnel wealth from the bottom to the top
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Dr. Wolff, what sort of impact would the switch to a democratic workplace have on the economy? (including foreign investments). So for example, all of the billions that come in in investments every week, I am assuming would no longer do so as the return that such investments can produce would decrease (because for example employees would now be paid more due to taking more of the profits that they produce through labor), so the US would no longer be one of the most attractive places to invest in. What sort of impact would that have?
Thank you.
Profit margins would decrease for sure if more of it is distributed to workers. Whenever there is less profit to be made, there is less foreign investment.
Apple for example, in China if you raised the hourly pay for an iPhone assembly worker, the cost of the iPhone would go up and/or the net profit will go down. Depending on the profit margin, the US company, Apple, will decide whether they want to keep manufacturing there. (This is exactly why they chose to manufacture in China vs the US bc there is no min wage in China).
This new "democratic workplace" would be kind of like a commune or an egalitarian society, maybe socialistic where everyone may not get exactly the same pay, but it would be negotiated to be "fair". Like would the janitor of a hospital get paid the same as the surgeon? In a purely equal outcome the answer would be yes, but a socialistic system, maybe the people would agree that the doctor get paid 3x janitor wage or else there would be less financial incentive to be a doctor, which is harder work (more valuable). But also, maybe the janitor would get 2X the wage of the receptionist bc would you rather clean toilets or sit at a desk and talk to people?
Infinite growth, finite planet...
you're asking the wrong questions.
@@greenlampshade8909 apparently you can fit everyone in the world standing shoulder to shoulder in the City of Los Angeles. Space for living is one thing that is not a concern for the near future, but resources may be. Desalinization (for water) and vertical farming (for food) may become more necessary as the population grows. Therefore, technological innovations is a must. This answer to your question really took an off course from the original topic of how to govern a society.
@@jakeshota4050
czcams.com/video/XGAVTwhsyOs/video.html
Important question to ask, but not from moral point of view but an economic one.
Right, the profit will be reduced, but will be better invested (not purchase your own stock, for example). It should be a balance between be efficient to compite, but not focus on profits per se but a long term grownth.
There are real examples of very large co-work companies as Mondragon in Spain
"We claim to love democracy, why not run businesses that way?"
I wish that argument worked, but that claim doesn't hold up to very much scrutiny. The MAGA crowd is actively backing a Fascist who openly calls for destroying the opposition party and a really significant percentage of the under-30 crowd have looked at where democracy has gotten us and concluded that it doesn't work all that well. Between those two groups you might have a majority of Americans who aren't really in favor of democracy as a system.
You might be right that allot of Americans aren't really in favor of democracy, but it's absolutely foolish to judge Democracy based on the American undemocratic rigged system. That would be like calling North Korea, "democratic" and using that as an example of why democracy doesn't work. What people want is actual democratic control and input, not democracy theatre.
@@-Zevin- true, but America is also frighteningly self-absorbed and yet somhow also bafflingly lacking in self-awareness.
A disturbing number of Americans flatly refuse to entertain the idea that a better version of democracy even exists, and will call you a Communist (or worse) for even _attempting_ to explain the advantages of a preferential voting system. And honestly you don't get a lot of traction from the people on the other side, they're too focused on stopping corruption and cheating in the existing system to get them to take a step back and ask whether the system is fundamentally vulnerable to corruption and cheating.
Bringing democratic co-ops to the workplace is a great idea, but the people who would have to be implementing it mostly don't know their civics well enough to make it work. I don't know, maybe the exercise of trying to get co-ops to work will be the thing that gets Americans over the hump on not understanding what's wrong with the government. Maybe we need the awful collapse that is the alternative before people will give new ideas a try. The most we can do is sound the alarm and point at where the deep problems are and hope people listen.
Both Democrats and Republicans back fascists with every vote they cast or every time they support the Republican or Democratic parties.
The countries in many parts of the world that are facing famine don't include the western style capitslist democracies.
capitalsim is hardly just a western thing.besides its the greed rather than the system at fault, same as it is under communist or any regime
You mean that maybe a market economy isn't really designed to distribute the necessary goods and service the people need to survive?
{thinks}
Hmm, I wonder if that means a market economy... any market economy... real purpose is to establish control over the resources everyone needs to survive by a few ruthless self interested people?
Because that's what I've been saying and wondering why people are so concerned about brand naming market systems. Socialism... communism... capitalism...
Seems to me the real problem is the idea of property and all the institutions that exist to maintain and enforce that fiction. Like law, and economics, and religion, and government.
Such authoritarian structures have never really been able to justify their activities... except in terms of greed.
{points at business caused climate change}
Silly as hell to call that progress.
If greed is a universal trait, only varying by degrees in different people, then maybe it's the system's fault when greed is not well enough regulated. For example, we (supposedly) regulate monopolies to prevent one company from greedily dominating a market and closing off healthy competition.
Of course, the functioning of any system depends on the vigilance of its stakeholders in assuring that greed does not slip in by the back door and allow people of wealth and power to rig the system in their favor. My disappointment in modern civilization is partly due to the large percentage of people who are in a state of "permanent snooze".
Can anyone show me any market economy that never crashes or suffers down turns?
Maybe the problem isn't capitalism per se... maybe the problem is that market economies aren't very good at distributing goods and services in an equitable way.
Maybe property and ownership needs to be rethought.
Do go on. Expand your thoughts.
@@user-wp8yx Have you ever noticed that market economies end up with a few people in control of the resources everyone else needs to survive?
Have you ever thought that that is the actual purpose of market economies. To establish control over populations... not to distribute goods and services.
Kind of like a casino isn't a place to play games.
It's a place to lose money playing games.
Then when you look at the institutions that are necessary to have a market economy.
Like law. Law legitimizes property and authority. Give a sole franchise on violence to... whom?
How does all this stuff actually play out in our societies?
Seems to me it all plays out in such a way to establish control over resources and through that control over people.
One final thought on the wisdom of allowing some people to control the resources and rules of other people.
It doesn't work.
@@blogintonblakley2708 well stated, but I must offer a counter example. During the New Deal era, wealth disparities decreased. This was in the context of a market system.
So I would conclude that markets can be run in many different ways. And some ways produce better results than others.
@@user-wp8yx That's a good example. Of course, you also need to examine what happened to those reforms.
And what did happen?
Rich people bought politicians and reversed the reforms.
So sure, the conditions for a market to work are well known.
We've just never been able to successfully implement them for any length of time.
The New Deal lasted for about thirty years... if one is generous. And guess were all the gains for that explosion of "prosperity" ended up?
@@blogintonblakley2708 that's true. We stopped fighting. We have to keep fighting because the rich never stop fighting.
It has been said that a minimum wage law promotes unemployment -- better a tiny wage than none at all. I'd like there to be a nationwide minimum wage moratorium of several years just to find out its consequences.
My take is that Capitalism, like Communism, is an extreme that does not exist in the real world. Communism is where we are headed. Capitalism was where we started. We all have shades of Socialism, some closer to Capitalism and some closer to Communism.
Yes, the US Federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. But that is misleading. Minimum Wage by State 2022 vs 2023 shows that 30 states have minimum wage above the Federal minimum. California will soon, 1/1/23, have a state minimum wage of $15 per hour, as that rate currently applies to employers with 26+ employees.
From the Property Prices Index by Country 2022 Mid-Year, we can see that Price To Income Ratio of Hong Kong (42.59) and China (38.43) are much much worse than Canada (8.91) and the US (4.58). In the matrix of supply, demand, and pricing, reducing the demand is the fastest way to achieve price reduction. New laws and regulations in Hong Kong have resulted in an exodus of foreigners (which the media has portrayed as destroying Hong Kong as a financial capital), and is reducing property prices. China has piloted and will broaden the imposition of real estate taxes, which is severely stressing real estate as an investment, resulting in the Evergrande crisis (which the media has portrayed as destroying the Chinese economy). In other words, property price reduction can be achieved, but not without financial pain.
If we are serious about reducing the property pricing, the easiest government tool is the real estate tax rate. The mortgage a borrower could qualify for is based on the borrower income and property monthly payments. By increasing the real estate tax rate, the mortgage amount will be reduced, putting downward pressure on property market price. Of course, the current property owners will hate that idea.
The current real economy inflation problem is due to the combination of 1) massive money printing during the pandemic which inflated investment prices, and 2) Western geopolitical conflict with the supply countries of China, for manufacturing, and Russia, for energy. The US Federal Reserve seems to be trying to help fix 1), but actions and rhetoric from our political leaders are worsening 2). Unfortunately, democratizing the enterprises is not going to change the international geopolitical landscape. The bottom line is that China and Russia believe they should have their Monroe Doctrine, and we object. We need to understand if the objective is feasible and how much we are willing to sacrifice to reach those objectives.
The fundamental Democracy problem is the quality of our leaders due to: 1) the skill set needed to win the election to get the job, is not the skill set needed to actually do the job, and 2) the voters need the skill set to properly elect the person with the right skill set for the job. Technology, such as social media, is further widening the gap.
The fix is actually not that hard. Implement: A) financial rewards for voting and financial penalty for not voting (for example $100 income tax credit for voting + $1000 police ticket if fail to vote), B) testing to confirm understanding of how the government and voting works (for example a Civics testing in order to obtain a drivers licensee, Real ID or US passport, which will be required to Register to vote), C) upgrade the ANNUAL publicly available voter information guides (for example independent, objective, non-partisan, annual performance review reports done by CPA firms, that are posted to the public internet), D) testing understanding of voter information guides after reaching polling place but before casting ballot (for example computer showing the relevant section of voter information guides, then question/answer randomized multiple choice, if answer correctly proceed to vote, and if answer incorrectly, option to retest or give up with $1000 ticket).
We need to "change the system" so everybody has an "equal say in how we produce things", whatever in hell that actually means, but most of all, we need to contribute more to support his efforts to spread far-left political ideology disguised as Economics, right??
""equal say in how we produce things", whatever in hell that actually means" It means actual democracy, or that such a negative concept to you? Do you hate the idea of having a democratic choice? Or is it that you only see yourself as the dictator at the top, not the one being dictated to?
@@-Zevin- We need heirarchy for the sake of heirarchy. Is that not enough, serf? Lol /s
@@-Zevin- We currently need WAY MORE carbon-free nuclear power plants, and even more so in Europe, where they've been cut off from Russian oil and gas. But I'd actually prefer that the guys who pour all the concrete for the new plants really not have much say in how the engineering is done.
Try Islam. Worked for many empires before. Worked better..,
What happened to those empires?
Nah. Religion is so last millennia. Time to finally social evolve away from believing in sky wizards in the clouds and fire monsters underground. Math, science, logic, and reason is what will bring us into the next golden age.
@@TheAmericanAmerican Mattias Desmet, author of "The Psychology of Totalitarianism" has suggested that it's an illusion to think that the mystery of life around us can be reduced to a rational understanding. Humans need to connect to the world in a different way. The part of reality that can be understood in a rational way is quite limited. The rest of reality can only be understood by empathically resonating with it. Developing a “feeling” for it. That’s how you get in touch with the eternal principles - the ethical principles -- of our existence as human beings. It’s these principles that should be the true cornerstone of humans living together.
Rational knowledge is extremely relative and never really touches the real. It just circles around the core essence. The illusion of rational understanding is extremely enticing to the human being. It makes him feel powerful and in control. Transhumanism, as promoted by the WEF, is the modern version of this ideology. But the essence of life escapes rational understanding. It’s not mechanistic in nature. Put another way, if you TRY to reduce life to rational understanding then you kill the essence of life.
Much of what we call reality, what we call the facts, is simply not rational. All complex dynamical phenomena in nature (virtually all of nature) behave like an irrational number; they are unpredictable. Logical reasoning builds a wall around us. It isolates us from our environment. We need to be humble enough to allow space in the wall to let in the “music of life”, the mystery of the irrational, the eternal spirit of life, at which point we can start to tolerate that there is sometimes great risk in living and even tolerate the idea of death and dying.
It’s important to note that this does not necessarily demand organized religion or a return to religious dogma. Virtually all of the seminal scientists such as Niels Bohr and Max Planck reached the limits of rational understanding in their fields. They recognized the need to go beyond. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, for example, acknowledges that both the position and momentum of a particle in quantum mechanics can never be exactly known.
Planck put his position on rational understanding like this: “In the end, the only thing that counts is that which transcends rational understanding. For me, that something is my personal God. Science ultimately arrives where religion once started.”
@@RussCR5187 I was born and raised SUPER religious. I pray and "talked" to God, but they never answered. Nothing bad happened to me via the church but eventually I learned "too much" and the glaring truth was unavoidable. I broke away completely from religion and all mystical thoughts/beliefs because it's ALL BS. That and it has been holding our species back because of religious dogma and fear tactics designed to keep us under control and to not question authority. I have never felt more happy and free in my life!
Religion has long served its purpose and has NOTHING to offer us anymore as a species. It's time to evolve to the next step if we are to become an interplanetary species.
@@blogintonblakley2708 they rise, they decline, more gracefully though.