Contradictions Of Capitalism with David Harvey

Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) talks to David Harvey about capitalism, crisis and social movements.
Camera: Ralph Pritchard @RalphPritchard
#NovaraTV
Help us caption & translate this video!
amara.org/v/DtsD/

[@badfractal]

Damn Aaron looks so young can't believe this was 6 years ago!

[@brianadlich4406]

Haha 9 now and I just stumbled on it. And was gonna comment the same. I didn’t like the first interview I saw of him a year ago but he’s grown on me.

[@vasilikichaintini722]

A great interview. Thank you for this quality context!

[@NovaraMedia]

Contradictions Of Capitalism: Interview With David Harvey buff.ly/1oWzyq3

[@Liebilllll]

AARON UR STILL HOT DON'T LISTEN TO THESE CHUMPS XXXX

[@michaelemonds]

A very interesting illuminating interview.

[@1o1s1s1i1e]

Great discussion!

[@annaspringbear]

Thanks Novara!

[@dazpatreg]

Good god Aaron was young

[@Sara-xr9ph]

AARON USED TO BE A WHOLE MEAL WHAT HAPPENED

[@gilbertodelavega359]

Hahahahaha that's hilarious.

[@dazpatreg]

He got thicc

[@user-jw6yh4ev4n]

weight gain ?

[@francescaviceconti3770]

BESIDES all the silly teen like comments about Bastani's looks and very little comments on the content...

[@franciscofuentes8916]

The interviewer said that 2011 demonstrations were 'primarily in the US' and a little bit elsewhere but everyone who's informed enough knows that movements in the middle East and Europe were way stronger and David Harvey fortunately knows that. Kudos for him. (Also a great teacher of Capital)

[@williamroberts1490]

V interesting !

[@shadowofmyfutureself]

More relevant in 2020 even than in 2014

[@phantomsuccour]

Wow, Aaron... yum

[@dogblessamerica]

Aaron is so beautiful in this video I really struggled to focus on the dialogue.

[@BlyatimirPootin]

Mr Bastani how young you look bro

[@kayedal-haddad9294]

Aaron Bastani looks 16!

[@francescaviceconti3770]

I m watching this under CO19 lookdown in London and Iam annoyed by the easy selfserving manner A.Bastani drops Israel in this conversation as a paragon of social development when we know the long history of ethnic cleansing occupation genocide demolitions tabula rasa that Israel has conducted under the "international blind eye" against the native occupants the Palestinians

[@hatchibyebye]

yooooo. what happened to Aaron. He was kinda handsome here! I dont understand how someone can change so much in 4 years☹️

[@Sara-xr9ph]

Javan uHnah I KNOW RIGHT

[@dazpatreg]

This will happen to you

[@mdaniels6311]

Don't be horrible. People grow up, its life.

[@hatchibyebye]

@@dazpatreg checking in 2 years later. It did. Oops. Got carried away with the bulk 👀 but I will reverse it

[@jaygatsby3039]

Oh young Aaron, if only you knew what the future held 😰

[@manuelmanolini6756]

Capitalism has a problem in that denies many the basic economic human rights for all: health, education, food and shelter. The government's role is to redistribute and regulate to make sure that they are not denied. The government in capitalist countries, except some of the advanced European countries, do not ensure that this role is served because the government has been dominated, infiltrated and parasitized by the dominant class known as the 1%. Best example is Gringoland. Pretty obvious but the interviewer feigns not to know.

[@mdaniels6311]

I have to admit, I wasn't satisfied with the answer by Harvey about the fact poverty has dramatically fallen in the last few decades. Im currently having an internal tension between the liberal side of me and the socialist one.

[@hiddeluchtenbelt6440]

The internal struggle resonates with me. If you look at the growth of wealth of the global poor (and price levels do indeed complicate the optimistic picture) and connect that with conclusions about the poverty-reducing nature of capitalism, you should keep in mind you are comparing it to the preceding economic system- which depending on the region is likely some form of feudal relations or perhaps even nomadic tribal systems, etc. You are not comparing it to possible contemporary alternatives to capitalism that utilize similar levels of technology and social coordination. Such a comparison makes capitalism look great because it can produce commodities at tremendous rates and offers people who own nothing the change to sell their labour (which did have major emancipatory effects, even Marx admits). Our modern choice is not between capitalism and what existed before it though, and the socialist attitude should not be that capitalism is the worst thing that ever happened to humanity, but rather that we can do a lot better now (or at least make an effort to properly redistribute it's profits). Another major complication is that there are a lot of external costs to these epic productive forces, mainly social ones (like for example artificial unemployment) and ecological ones. You should at least subtract those if you want to make up a balance of capitalist vice/virtue

[@reggie69.]

The only place poverty has actually fallen Is China the definition of poverty used by the imf or world bank doesn't acount for inflation and even when they raise the global poverty line its not in line with inflation as I said and it's only high enough that it still looks like progress is being made and in a lot of countries where this so-called poverty line exist if you live over that line you're still in poverty in my opinion a person that lives in New York and becomes homeless is in poverty but technically homeless people in America live above the poverty line even though they can't even afford to live on that line

[@Sara-xr9ph]

how could you not be a communist if that face told you too

[@Sara-xr9ph]

he needs to stop being so hot so i can focus on the conversation

[@patrickvanmeter2922]

Greed and selfishness. A excellent description of human beings.

[@calc2323]

It's a single facet of human beings that is systemically rewarded under capitalism. Is greed an element of human nature? Sure. Is it the only part of human nature? Fuck no. Is it the element of our nature we want to reward? Well, you tell me.

[@evanmcginn4408]

Is Aaron still a communist

[@clover2340]

of course

[@richardkelley3644]

What needs to be done is to get big money out of the election process. Otherwise there is no hope.

[@JohnHarlienIII]

Richard Kelley reformism won't attain real change

[@AntonioGarmsci-cy5vt]

Capitalism is the exploitation of the working class!

[@benangel3268]

Gov´t are the ones who keep capitalism alive. The USA and the west even have a seven step plan for destroying anything that threatens capitalism.

[@benangel3268]

Noah Namey - No that is your reality. It is not the reality of those who work for Mondragen in the Basque region in Spain. This is a workers cooperative where the workers earn on average more than double as much as in a capitalist company. So are you saying that those who exploit others - perhaps those with hidden illnesses or perhaps someone on burnout - deserve to be wealthy ??? 0f course, these people are going to be easy to exploit.

[@tomalomtiger]

@@coolworx i hope your thinking has evolved this last year but it's depressing to see someone with an outlook like this. Things being done by historical societies is not a barometer for what is right/natural, in fact it is a wholly dangerous sentiment which over the last centuries has led to misled ideas of race superiority. If you follow your argument to its conclusion you will reach absurdity

[@clover2340]

aaron is so fucking hot i swear. and he is also a communist? A+

[@torosytoros]

Hm Harvey doesn´t really know what creative destruction is. Not a surprise...

[@calc2323]

Which creative destruction? That which happened in Europe in during the two world wars for example? And people complain about the human costs of the failed Soviet experiment.

[@nakkadu]

Capitalism works, it needs guidance and to be kept in check but it works. People bitching about inequality are missing the point....what matters is how well the poorest people are doing, capitalism drags people out of poverty better than any other system, it doesn't necessarily matter if there are mega wealthy people also.

[@nakkadu]

@@doughsquid what's your point?

[@calc2323]

Well, poor people struggle against capitalists to gain a greater share of the wealth they create. Capitalism rewards those capitalists who repress this struggle in order to maintain a greater share of the wealth to reinvest. This is one of the contradictions talked about here. It's not a sustainable economic model. That's not even to mention the problems of rent-seeking, looming environmental catastrophe, corruption or war.

[@killerskiely100]

@Marco There's not much arguing with this.

[@stephenoni2019]

1. straw man: who assumes it's a smooth process? 2. risk is a big part of capitalism! 3. why can't capitalism go on for years? Its worked, and it keeps elevating millions out of poverty! 4. how does capitalism create poverty and unemployment? by definition, it cannot thrive under poverty and unemployment! 5. the market, people's tastes and desires, destroy or create wealth, it's not the capitalists, in many senses, the capitalist is at the mercy of the market! 6. the west is generating enough food to feed the whole world, but that's irrelevant because they are not responsible for feeding the rest of the world 7. taking a look at the statistics, the 1% is not a concrete group of people, about 56% of Americans will be in the 1%, usually when they're older, most people don't stay there, so who is the 1% exactly? 8. Dave Harvey is a member of the elite, claiming to be a voice for the 'oppressed'.

[@andrewprice8820]

Stephen Oni 1. So? 2. So? 3. Not really. 4. Any evidence at all for this? 5. No. Capitalists rig the market. 6. Why? 7. That's definitely not true. 8. Evidence for this? (Also classic ad hominem attack) Go fuck yourself. PS Daily Wire, AEI, MRAs. Yep, the usual suspects. I refer you to my previous line ^

[@andrewplotner2952]

I only have time to reply to your number 4. But if you are observant you can see how it applies to the other portions. first lets define capital. Capital is the money utilized to purchase assets. Capital is a term utilized to define a very specific form and function that money takes. Traditional economic cycle is C-M-C. you sell a commodity, for most people this is work. you get money for that work and you use that money to buy another commodity. There is an equivalence of exchange. the premise being the work and the commodity are of the same value. Capital on the other hand changes this equivalent form of exchange and makes it nonequivalent turning it into M-C-M'. Where capital is the money that is used to purchase a commodity that is then sold for more money. Therefore Capital is money utilized to gain more money without doing any work. Notice you cannot have two forms of exchange in an economy, one being equivalent and the other being non equivalent. This means that the other form of exchange C-M-C where most people are is non equivalent. Meaning C'-M-C where the commodity that is sold is of more value than the money received. This is evident in the inequal distribution of profits in a company. If profits rise and workers pay does not, then the workers are not being properly compensated for their work and the value of their work is not being properly measured. specifically because if a products percieved value increases so too does the value of the labour it takes to produce it, why? because there is more demand than there was before, to divorce the product from the labour necessary to create it is the trick capitalists use to steal from the worker. This in turn creates a siphon from the working class to the capitalist class that leads to inequality within the system. As the system perpetuates the inequality grows until it cannot sustain itself and the system must reset (crashes every 6-10 years, and major crashes every 60-80 years). I have to go, but that is the underlying structure of capitalism. Critically think on it and what the long term implications of such a structure insinuate.

[@benangel3268]

"1. straw man: who assumes it's a smooth process?" Most of the capitalist arguments can be pulled to pieces too!!! "2. risk is a big part of capitalism!" The insanely rich who want to become even more insamely rich like talking about their risks. As their reason for keeping every body else down. Workers co-operatives carry risks too but the money is distributed a lot more fairly. "3. why can't capitalism go on for years? Its worked, and it keeps elevating millions out of poverty!" Capitalism has been around for hundreds of years and it´s certainly not done a very good job in that time. In fact it has failed the vast majority of people in the world. "4. how does capitalism create poverty and unemployment? by definition, it cannot thrive under poverty and unemployment! " A few insanely rich capitalists take a larger and larger slice of the cake. The poorest get to share out the crumbs. Unemployment is good news for capitalists. That is why it is called an employers market. David Harvey discusses the contradictions of capitalism. "5. the market, people's tastes and desires, destroy or create wealth, it's not the capitalists, in many senses, the capitalist is at the mercy of the market!" The capitalist system is also unsustainable, creates a huge amount of waste, is enviromentally destructive. Commodities are produced that are not durable and cannot be repaired. Pyschology is used to sell products that so often end up on a shelf or in the bin. A resource based economy would be far more effective. "6. the west is generating enough food to feed the whole world, but that's irrelevant because they are not responsible for feeding the rest of the world." We can all act in a responsible way. It´s a choice. The poorest countries are more often those with resources that we all depend on. It has been thanks to the very hard work of the natives of these countries that capitalists in the west became/become very rich. Yet those countries are extremely poor thanks to the exploitative and manipulative tactics of imperialists and many capitalists. "7. taking a look at the statistics, the 1% is not a concrete group of people, about 56% of Americans will be in the 1%, usually when they're older, most people don't stay there, so who is the 1% exactly? " If you want to start winning arguments then I suggest that you put a lot more work into finding out the facts and checking they match the truth. "8. Dave Harvey is a member of the elite, claiming to be a voice for the 'oppressed'. Indeed it would be nice if some of the so-called "elite" would start being that humane.

[@benangel3268]

What is capitalism and how can we destroy it? kzbin.info/www/bejne/rXXGimewhtF0lbM

[@prayunceasingly2029]

Ben Angel capitalism or perhaps the technology that it has helped create raised the standard of living in western nations higher than they have been in past history. do you have any historical example of a successful performance of the system you favor? thanks.