Economic Update: Recession - Capitalism's Failure Invites System Change

[S12 E32] Recession - Capitalism's Failure Invites System Change
In this week's show, Prof. Wolff defines recession and shows its relation to inflation and stagflation in their respective roles within capitalism's inherent instability. Rooted in the structure of capitalism, recessions represent both costly burdens on employers and employees alike and also strong incentives to question, challenge, and go beyond capitalism. The economics profession has been unable to end recessions despite centuries of trying. The profession often tries to hide the capitalist roots of recession instead. Wolff concludes with how system change might finally "solve" capitalism's intractable instability problem.
**Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a ‪@democracyatwrk‬ production. We make it a point to provide the show free of ads. Please consider supporting our work. Join our Patreon community: / democracyatwork or become a monthly donor at www.democracyatwork.info/donate and help us spread Prof. Wolff's message to a larger audience. Every donation counts!
A special thank you to our devoted EU Patreon community whose contributions make this show possible each week.
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NEW 2021 Hardcover edition of “Understanding Marxism,” with a new, lengthy introduction by Richard Wolff is now available at: www.lulu.com/
“Marxism always was the critical shadow of capitalism. Their interactions changed them both. Now Marxism is once again stepping into the light as capitalism shakes from its own excesses and confronts decline.”
Check out all of d@w’s books: "The Sickness is the System," "Understanding Socialism," by Richard D. Wolff, and “Stuck Nation” by Bob Hennelly www.democracyatwork.info/books

[@bernardheathaway9146]

As a shock absorber, this channel makes feel less and less useless and more and more furious against the people that are exploit myself and others like me and they do everything in their power to gaslight us into believing is our personal failure. It's an oasis really, one that helps keep me sane. Great work as always!

[@mrchristoph5674]

Well said comrade.

[@averayugen8462]

did you get secure as a result of watching this?

[@reubenmorris487]

Heckle and berate management when they misuse labor.

[@smacktart6869]

It is worth mentioning that there is a class of capitalist that does anticipate and enjoy recession. Accumulating assets at bargain prices can only happen at the end of a long downturn.

[@gallectee6032]

Not only that, shorting the market is another thing that some hedge funds or departments of banks exist to do. So those who bought in at the top, further pay for these hedge funds, bankers and billionaires to make massive returns.

[@jjmail1971]

We will see the disaster capitalists making serious profits 📈

[@JohnSmith-vm8rx]

Great analysis! One of your best Mr. Wolff! I can’t tell you how valuable at least to me these videos are.

[@noway2708]

atleast to you, to all

[@reasonerenlightened2456]

If I work in a co-opp for 10 years and then I leave how much ownership do I have in the co-opp? What dividends would I be receiving for the slice that I own?

[@MIDixons]

The system is designed by the winners to preserve their winner status by giving the winners control over the system. You can't change that system. You have to replace it.

[@averayugen8462]

I cant do it. I also need work. Richard cant provide that. He also wont tell us where the coop openings are. There might be two spots in Cali and three in Sweden

[@reasonerenlightened2456]

If I work in a co-opp for 10 years and then I leave how much ownership do I have in the co-opp? What dividends would I be receiving for the slice that I own?

[@socialanarchy081]

Minimize what you need, work less for the owner and more towards your own self-sufficiency, develop community amongst your neighbors and nearby small businesses. This is the way to throw off the chains of our capitalist masters.

[@daniellarson3068]

Simplicity is the solution for many problems.

[@melaniel.s8990]

Capitalism is an inefficient system, it puts priority on corporate business and not the well being of the general economy. There needs to be a livable wage and a better system.

[@doomsday8513]

I said stop voting for the same corrupted politicians. Time for a 3rd party system.

[@temurpipia5236]

Mr professor, thank you for interesting lection! I am from Georgia (post soviet country) and i am your supporter! Warmest greetings... See you again here! Thank you!

[@loyddussaultsr4181]

The capitalist system is the best system the rich could have created to keep the working man at the bottom of the pecking order and scared shitless of ending out on the street.

[@chuckleaf8027]

It's the best at eradicating poverty too.

[@loyddussaultsr4181]

@@chuckleaf8027 evidently you have never been poor

[@chuckleaf8027]

@@loyddussaultsr4181 No, not really poor. The "poor" here in America, have cars, TVs cellphones, AC, and more living space than middle class Europeans. Kids on food assistance in America are obese.

[@onebigzero5266]

hummm, finding a dollar on the street is a great boon to some and to others a half a used cigarette is tresure...

[@treefrog3349]

Wage slavery is still subjugation of the Many by the Few. So few American citizens are able to acknowledge that fundamental reality. "Democracy" in America is tantamount to religious magical thinking.

[@42Mrgreenman]

8:38 I feel that trauma acutely, 30 years of labor...being tossed aside every few years since the .com crash of 2000...started in tech...the companies threw me away...went to retail, the companies threw me away...went back to tech, got screwed over AND then was thrown away again...my body is broken and my mind has been rather uncomfortably numb...been that way for the past year or two...not enough money for insurance, not old enough to qualify for medicare, can't stand for 15 minutes let alone 8 hours...my only saving grace is the people with the empathy to take me in and help to support me...but now, after looking at the world through the net (The only affordable window to me) for the last years, I'm enraged...this system has been broken since day fucking one...how much longer will humanity suffer under this yolk? They say that the strong preying on the weak is the way of the world...but if we believe that, I just wonder how long until a mighty asteroid, comet, solar flare, ect. happens to stroll into our neighborhood and wipes out the strong and weak alike...we've got bigger fish to fry if we want our planet to survive with us upon it...but no, we're spending all our time fighting ourselves, turning every boon that could have been into a curse...

[@karendalsadik7119]

I share your experiences in healthcare. I hope it gets better!

[@heb597]

Although I support capitalism, I recognize that it has short comings that is why I support universal basic income for all. The amount will be based on the city’s cost of living for rent utilities grocery medical insurance.

[@normalizedinsanity4873]

@@heb597 check out the world debt clock, that will disabuse you of your support of the capitalist ponzi scheme. In 2012 80% of Americans shared 7% of total wealth, why would anyone support that? As for a basic income that is impossible, it will render anyone doing it uncompetitive in a global economy and bankrupt them

[@heb597]

@@normalizedinsanity4873 thanks for joining conversation. Looks like you are against capitalism. Do you support socialism? If you do, the same argument you used against UBI can be used against socialism which is welfare heavy. Thoughts?

[@reasonerenlightened2456]

If I work in a co-opp for 10 years and then I leave how much ownership do I have in the co-opp? What dividends would I be receiving for the slice that I own?

[@treefrog3349]

Wouldn't this be a perfect time for the American government to institute a massive, nationally-invigorating program of infrastructure repair? Instead of continually pumping money in to our "defense" program, we could easily provide good jobs, repair our infrastructure, and benefit the American People. The fact that we are NOT doing that should be of deep concern to all. Much-touted recent legislation was merely a token gesture, a "nod" to the problem but certainly not a substantive solution. The egregious unresponsiveness, lets be honest and call in "neglect" of the well-being of American citizens, should be a disturbing aspect of contemporary life for all Americans. The fact that it isn't disturbs me even more.

[@lindascanlan6317]

Yes

[@daniellarson3068]

Strangely enough the business people that run our country do not seem to want this. High speed trains could provide business opportunities to many and provide "choice" over taking airlines or snarled traffic. Nuclear power plants could alleviate the emissions that are causing global warming. Large portions of major cities could be transformed and made more livable increasing local accessibility to basic needs. Even something as simple as bicycle lanes could improve the lives of many. I think the leaders of both political parties have limited vision and are obligated to help the special interests that helped get them into office.

[@tracyday6710]

Leaders are beholding to corporate overlords. Oligarchs. Looking for the authoritarian fascist leader to finish the job.

[@jamesmorton7881]

Nate Haggens - - - prepare for a new life

[@rickb3650]

You got it. 👍 Let me try a different perspective. The government is abdicating its job as laid out (badly) in The Constitution to so called private enterprise, which is simply a euphemism for unrestrained, unaccountable power of the owner class.

[@treefrog3349]

I was raised to be and idealistic person. I just now, after reading your comments section, at the age of73, realized that economic cut-throat pragmatism has over-come all the "better angels" of human nature. For many fools "greed is good". Under the current circumstance, I feel that it is also good to be old and on my way out.

[@daniellarson3068]

Don't leave without spreading what you have learned to the rest of us.

[@misterhill5598]

Love that you focus on 1 topic at a time. Here is a challenge: Can you teach 1 topic at 4 levels of difficulties? Level 1 : to a child 8 to 10 years old. Level 2: to a year 12 student, who is interested in economic. Level 3: to an average working person aged 30 to 60. Level 4: to a fellow economist.

[@lindascanlan6317]

I can listen to this man for hours

[@zna9297]

Better for him to save the time, teach at level 3 and then we spread to the other people

[@5508Vanderdekken]

You got your levels mixed up. A fellow economist should be like explaining to a baaby

[@reasonerenlightened2456]

If I work in a co-opp for 10 years and then I leave how much ownership do I have in the co-opp? What dividends would I be receiving for the slice that I own?

[@jinabrasser9439]

Out of curiosity, I googled this question: “What is the most stable type of economic system??” & this was an answer: “Capitalism is the world's greatest economic success story. It is the most effective way to provide for the needs of people and foster the democratic and moral values of a free society…..” I BEG TO DIFFER 😟🤔🤨

[@weskerredfield5176]

because of the invisible hand

[@chuckleaf8027]

@@weskerredfield5176 Yup. That's millions of individual actors in the market, making many decisions..... it's very similar to evolution. Commies like Jina think central planners can run the complex economy better than the brain power of millions.. Socialism has no hand..or price system, so it can't allocate resources like a free market. Goofs like Wolff think the rich raking in gobs of cash is due to just greed, when it's really the FED who's creating or causing the income gap...

[@daniellarson3068]

I used to believe that. Just think about food. So much food goes to waste in this world and so many go hungry. Walk into any big grocery store. You will see processed food sold from many brands with little differentiation. It dominates the store. Is it nutritious? Well - no. Is it then providing the needs of the people? Well -no. Isn't having all these different brands of the same thing sort of a waste? We could easily discuss medicine the same way. Shelter could be discussed the same way and clothing. I no longer think capitalism is the best way to provide people's needs. Wants, maybe,........needs - no.

[@tracyday6710]

Google. Nuff said...

[@ExPwner]

That’s because you haven’t studied economic history.

[@HectorChamizo11]

|

[@brendamoran7360]

This must be an investment with Mrs Margaret

[@Felix-qe3nr]

I'm just shocked you mentioned Expert Margaret thought am the only one trading with her

[@agadamiracle9330]

Wow was so surprised how she recovered my huge losses

[@richardcole2432]

[@wilsoncharles3990]

Wow I know Mrs Margaret I met her at a conference in carlifornia 2019 where she introduced us her business strategy, she helped me cover my student loans

[@thetasworld]

It's a breath of fresh air to hear Professor Wolff. Thank for all your work. This channel remains one of the few sane voices on the internet

[@danielalondonoserna3101]

Live it, thank you for your recommendation: change the system!!!

[@billfrenger8955]

Thank you Profesor Wolff. Yes, we are forced to choose between the lesser of two evils: Inflation vs Recession AND a Red vs Blue criminal political system to deliver that choice. Sadly, America will have it no other way.

[@iceangel1701d]

Best explanation I've heard EVER! Thanks you Prof. Wolff!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@News_Watcher]

Excellent analysis-thank you.

[@jeannined7532]

So thrilling to hear a powerful, brilliant speaker of truth! Makes me happy to be a human being with people like Richard Wolfe in this world.

[@stefan-vasileionita2510]

Nice speech , explanations, thanks!

[@helphelpimbeingrepressed9347]

Thanks Prof. Its a crazy ol world but it needn't be.

[@dwindlingpatience7870]

Thanks Prof. Wolff!

[@nancyhirsch7768]

Hands down, this is one of your best discussions to date. Thank you!

[@jptugagmr]

Always a pleasure listening to professor wolff

[@profe3330]

Thank you, D@W. 👍

[@josephschaumberg4136]

Thank you Proff Wolff

[@iart2838]

As usual I learn soooooooooo much. Thank you.

[@RZA36]

24:55 - 29:35 should be broadcast to everyone in the US. It's that important

[@SquillyNelson]

Thank you, Professor

[@cev12]

Well done! It for sure is traumatic when workers keep getting discarded every 4-7 years, and especially after suffering their authoritarian bosses in between.

[@MoisesGarcia-bc1wh]

A much needed insight on recession and its social consequences! Muchas gracias, Profe Wolff!

[@MrDanrn999]

Thank you

[@boombot934]

Professor Richard Wolff, big thank to you❤🌹🙏 Please, make a program about global warming🌎📛!

[@SkoolieB]

Excellent show! Excellent content! Much like Hedges, Chomsky, Klein, or even MLK our Capitalistic Phomocracy will try to to covertly dismiss, deny, and deflect you, but keep on keeping on.

[@reasonerenlightened2456]

If I work in a co-opp for 10 years and then I leave how much ownership do I have in the co-opp? What dividends would I be receiving for the slice that I own?

[@kurtriker9141]

Thanks!

[@catherinemoore9534]

Thanks. Very interesting.👍💯👏

[@sharkamov]

*Imagine, just **_imagine_** for a second,; The steady hand of an individual like Professor Wolff on the fiscal tiller! . . . .*

[@salarian9026]

I haven't thought about it like that but recessions are indeed absurd, all that wasted potential on top of the immorality of it all really makes me mad. Thanks Prof Wolff for keeping us focused on the issues, both in mind and in heart

[@hdkepon]

It seems to me that the primary source of economic instability is the stock market system. The stock market is a completely unnecessary and illogical practice. The only benefit to society is that it provides an additional source of capital for large corporations who are able to afford the associated costs of going public. This is an extremely weak argument for the necessity of the stock market. Businesses already rely on traditional sources of funding such as loans to raise most of their capital. Unfortunately our entire economy is tied up in this giant ponzi scheme which is completely unstable and subject to manipulation by large investment firms, government legislation, and insider trading. I'm completely baffled why we have decided that our savings should be invested in this ridiculous manner. Please open your eyes and see the bigger picture everyone I beg you.

[@5508Vanderdekken]

The whole system is broke. No quick trick - our society has to change

[@petersepall2590]

People with power blaming the victims of their excesses is an old, all too human story. Modern society hasn't changed as much as most people want to think it has. We are animals engaged in animal behavior and can be understood best as such.

[@krasimirhristov4745]

Right on

[@jonathonjubb6626]

Excellent summary! Back in the sixties we assumed Keynesian economics would be with us always...

[@paulmentzer7658]

Keynes made two points, first the Government must increase spending a recession AND then increase taxes during booms to pay off the debts used during the Recession and provide the money to spend during the next recession. The Problem since the 1960s is we are Keynesians during recessions but in the subsequet boom refuse to increase taxes and we embrance Supply Side Economics. This combination is the worse for it takes the "Bad" side of both systems and ignores the "Good" side of Keynesian economics?(i.e. the need to incrrase taxes during any boom to balance out the boom with the resulting recession).

[@GladysAlicea]

Insightful explanation of capitalism, Professor. Tku for all your wonderful videos. I never miss a one. You're a treasure to us all. With all due respect, the problem is the system won't change; the greed of the few has been so successful that they're making more money making us suffer than ever before in history. They, and the politicians and lobbyists they support, don't care about the people. We're viewed as an unlimited resource (as they blindly pollute us to death). Workers make companies profitable, yet CEO's earn ridiculous salaries, stocks and golden parachutes.. Pension plan promises have been reneged on, even as prior to that, employees (United Airlines is one), took pay cuts, lesser hours, etc., only to have their sacrifices to save United betrayed. This is happening everywhere, including in government pensions. Now, employees are expected to become financial investment managers with 401k's and they're not equipped to do it, as they live their busy lives and now worry they'll have to work beyond 65 and eventually depend only on SS, if it lasts that long. Meanwhile, United's new CEO wouldn't sign on to help United work out a way to steal the pension plan, until United guaranteed him a trust pension of $4.5M, in addition to his huge salary, etc. IMO, he stole that money stolen from the employees' pension plan. How does he sleep at night with a clear conscience to justify his actions, as workers make less, work longer hours, have more responsibility to invest on their own (many fail even if they start saving while younger), and will be forced to work well past their late 60's to have a decent lifestyle? Tax loopholes plus those in plans created by Congress to "help" save pension plans only help companies stay in business. They do nothing for the worker/taxpayer except raise their taxes to offset what the rich refuse to pay. I'm no economist, but these are the two main issues that must be fixed to rein in capitalism and secure workers' futures. The rich will never agree to dismantling or changing the way capitalism works now. Right now in China, there's little electricity because rivers and lakes are drying up due to drought. Daily temps are so high, Chinese say even lowering A/C's to 80 degrees doesn't help much. Yet, Tesla asked for an exemption from electricity cuts, so they can produce their cars without interruption, and China said fine, proof Musk and others like him don't care about workers, w/China forecasted to have unprecedented low economic growth this year. I'd really appreciate your thoughts on this particular issue.

[@kenbou8892]

谢谢你wolff 教授

[@alexianemp]

My only regret is that I have but one thumb (up) to give to this video.

[@aaronblain6377]

Fun exercise: look up the history of recessions/depressions in the USSR or PRC.

[@bodrogo2585]

Capitalism is hell on Earth.

[@chuckleaf8027]

But communism was so great in collapsed 30 years ago...!!!!!!

[@gillesvaneeden3313]

Love the idea of capitalism as a threatening dark alley that you know is a bad idea to go into but do so anyway because you're in a hurry.

[@americanalah]

Ahhhhh mr the sky is falling back at it!

[@davidevans6618]

Time equality economics... By definition, IT'S FOR US ALL. Thanks for the video, I, as you can see, understand, without the servitude you wouldn't be able to share INFORMATION, money giving you and most of us on Earth the same thing, BIG PROBLEMS. TIME BANKS, AND WE OF OUR OWN AUTHORITY BECOME THE BANKS OF OURSELVES.

[@TC-uk2sg]

Governments should not allow privatization of any of its functions. Any function that supports the people and public infrastructure should not be for profit. People should be hired and trained to do the jobs associated with those functions. No way privatization can be cheaper when the privateer is there to make a profit.

[@premachokkanathan8053]

Problem fixed and solution identified. And for the suffering people to get the system changed through a political process.

[@digitraxanr]

Prof. Wolff, How does Marxian Economics relate to Modern Monetary Theory. Could MMT be part of a solution to stabilizing our Capitalist system's boom and bust cycle?

[@Tychoxi]

he has talked about it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rIKxpWCJjsanmMU kzbin.info/www/bejne/m6WyZ4inlqmXiKM kzbin.info/www/bejne/f4bYpKx-h6eFq6M

[@mohannair5671]

Unorthodox solutions!!!!!

[@imminenthope3939]

the D party is the knife; the R party is the gun. I choose neither. I will vote green--i will choose the greater good, not the lesser evil.

[@mrchristoph5674]

I felt like I just left church. Richard Wolff is the G.O.A.T.

[@tinoyb9294]

Isn't it interesting that the date the professor states for the origin of capitalism is the same time frame used to predict the onset of global climate disruption.

[@jamesmorton7881]

Hip - - Hip - - Hurray Dr. Wolff share the wealth

[@Guitarpima]

The reason the monetary system fails every 4 to 7 years, it’s because we live in feudalism. Hammurabi saw this thousands of years ago and forgave everyone’s sins every five years or so.

[@freddieg7131]

Total nonsense. We have central planners in charge of the monetary system. And like all central planning it fails time and time again and on a larger and larger scale. The creation of the Federal Reserve was the greatest mistake in US history and we are doomed to suffer the full consequences of it.

[@Guitarpima]

Please read “forgive them their debts“ by Dr. Michael Hudson. Central planners? Sounds like feudalism to me.

[@paulmentzer7658]

It was more once every 50 years NOT every five years AND the discharge of debt did not apply to business debts. i.e. The debts most like today's Mortgages, Student Loans and Credit cards would be abolished but the debts of businessee to buy goods to sell were NEVER DISCHARGED.

[@Guitarpima]

If I recall correctly, Housing was a debt that was forgiven as well.

[@reasonerenlightened2456]

The only correct solution is perpetual redistribution of sufficient wealth to ensure the dignified existence of every regular citizen.

[@GhostOnTheHalfShell]

An important distinction should be made here, recession is a state particular to individuals and any collection of them. Recession is when your purchasing power declines and you must cut back in austerity. When enough people experience it, orthodox economics calls it recession. In a highly unequal society they will only do so if the financial class / sector is doing so. Austerity from price rises or loss of work (ie a loss of business activity from inflation).

[@GhostOnTheHalfShell]

Inflation and recession are not opposites, they only reflect the economic options of elements in society based on their finances. Stagflation only means some parts of an economy can and do raise prices (or get more income), while another cannot.

[@vanbraxton8422]

We call it last hired, first fired

[@my1vice]

This could easily be the theme music for GTA VI.

[@mibar5821]

💯 x 💯

[@karendalsadik7119]

I’m a widow and out of work again. I can’t take this anymore. Financial stresses drove my husband to an early grave. I’m h opting I can join him soon.

[@onebigzero5266]

👍👍👍👍👍

[@antimattv]

Don't forget to like and subscribe 😉

[@lewisrashe831]

Recession is the cure for unanchored price inflation. The reason why recessions are so unpleasant is because in the modern credit/debt based economy the boom times expand on credit/debt expansion and when said credit/debt expansion accelerates beyond economic growth in terms of real output inflation unanchores and to control it monetary tightening is implemented which decelerates credit/debt growth which creates huge instability as less credit money flowing into the system can cause a cascade of defaults as current loans for credit money outstanding are unable to be serviced. Basically the monetary system goes through leveraging boom phases and deleveraging bust phases. To understand capitalism at its core you need to thus understand double entry accounting which serves as the basis of the credit based trade finance system at the center of capitalism.

[@peterzimmerman1114]

I guess what we need is a far more capitalistic system with corporate states and social credit systems overlapping, for more efficient management and selfadjustment mechanics to cut lawenforcement costs.

[@tracyday6710]

Nope.

[@davidevans6618]

We're putting the value in the goods and services rather than in our time and skills creating and delivering/supplying them. We're The government, remember that.

[@5508Vanderdekken]

It should be pointed out that crashes aren't a bad side effect of capitalism that has to be dealt with - this just allows people to buy more assets at firesale prices

[@krasimirhristov4745]

Printing pres economy

[@Eric-ye5yz]

Strangely we change our ways, not because it is intelligent. With all the predictive capacity of the largest computers and the historical events to guide us, we still fail constantly badly and regularly. Change only takes place when we are hurting and that is what corporations have to fear most. We vote against what we don't want, not what we do. When the present system gets bad enough the pitch forks will come out.

[@waltdill927]

Confusing the label for the economic reality, we regularly refuse to read the cards as they were given us.

[@mikeobrien288]

Building tradesmen are whipsawed by the business cycle and boy it's really horrible to scrape by.

[@nothingtoseehere5760]

Why are my subtitles ON??

[@MIDixons]

How about another streaming platform? I'm not a content creator, but I use other platforms as an alternative to KZbin. I'm not sure the level of complication of just adding content to these other platforms, but I'd love to have less reasons to come back to KZbin.

[@bucknado9748]

Recession, and inflation are not products of capitalism. They are products of Central banks. The US economy is not even a capitalistic system. People are not free to operate as free agents, in control of their own labor. You must get government to allow you to operate or start a business and then give them how ever much they determine you owe for privilege of letting you labor. The government controlled economy is the problem. The idea that central banks can create money out of nothing and then charge the government interest on every dollar they pluck from air, as promoted by Keynes, and this gentleman are the responsible for the debt based system people call capitalism in this country. No other system, capitalism, not what we have in US, has ever allowed the upward trajectory of the bottom. I also am amazed at the belief that people in other communist systems don't suffer from greed, manipulators, and caste systems of haves and have not that eliminate the ability of anyone trying to climb out of the depths of poverty.

[@saramuhumphries9225]

👍💐

[@RobotTed]

Really tight explanation done in under 30 minutes. The pugnacious Prof. Wolff does it again! Yes! Retraining! Right now, there's about 3 millions Cashiers and about 1 million medical Doctors. Cashier is one of the most unfulfilling jobs I can imagine, yet the economy produces such jobs in abundance, while Doctors, Doctors!, are at a 1 to 350 populace ratio. I'm no expert, but that seems low to me. Waiter is also a rather bland job, but there's 2 million of 'em. Get up and get your own damn food at the counter! We can conclude that the system splurges on creating Cashiers, Fast-food workers and Waiters, while Doctors are left in the lurch. People just aren't given the resources to develop their talents. Instead, they are forced by the necessity of life and will of the rich into menial jobs. How many Cashiers and Waiters would rather be Scientists and Doctors? Most, I'd wager. You're supposedly free to do what you want, but can't study the finer things of life. No no, underwater basket weaving is a bad degree to get! You should be... well, you're not smart enough to be a Doctor, so how about being a Cashier? Meanwhile, the mathematics of knots goes unexplored by millions of would-be basket weavers! I have a happy story. Me and my dear mum were going down sinuous country roads one night, returning from a camping trip. We wanted the scenic route, and google maps told us this was the fastest route too! But at night, you can hardly go fast with all the twists and turns. Yet, suddenly merging into our lane was a truck. And this guy knew the route like the back of his hand. We sped up, driving not far behind this long haul, and he knew every twist and turn. With this foreknowledge, we could navigate as well as he could! The expertise he displayed got us safely home, and snug in our beds, before midnight. You never know when your knowledge of something and skill can help out, sometimes unknowingly. This is why the tragedy of Cashiers, full minded, able bodied people, stuck in a dead end job, should be worked against. It is why we must all be pugnacious, just like the good Prof Wolff. Full employment, yes, but intelligently done! We must work in places that let us develop as people, and gain expertise and skill. And, most of all, places were we develop friendships. It's not for no reason the rich are always throwing parties! Yes, friendships. I am thoroughly alienated, but not in dire want. But my history is no different than most western millennials, exploited and lied to by the system. The mannered Prof Wolff appeals to me, while the slogan making SecondThought leaves me uncomfortable. Perhaps because I am privileged, due to the work of my parents. So... my analysis is that there's too much fear and rage and greed. I've found meditation, the experience of awareness, to be... not freeing, but good. It is good to sit, and follow the breath back and forth. I must breath, of course, so I am not "free", but I am usually hardly aware of it. The Buddha, by making awareness and love the focus of meditation (and not clouds or candles, as Yogis did before him) brought a tremendous gift to Humanity. With sustained awareness, anyone can accede to a better place, where things transmute under the light of mindfulness into precious insights. By finding this path, I think I've become a friendlier person. Fall into the sky of yourself. Become the gardener and the garden. Meditate. It costs nothing but a few breaths and a moment of time. You can watch SecondThought on KZbin for more socialist goodness, or Dr. Jon Kabot-Zinn for an intro to meditation ( kzbin.info/www/bejne/aZ_aqH6YgsSpgMU ) Hope you all have a good week. I rate my own little essay... 7.5 pickles out of ten. Not enough numbers, focus shifted halfway through to meditation, and no mention of booms and busts. Good links to explore at the end however, so a bit of a boost.

[@ericc.2770]

What you tought about Yanis Varoifakis solution to that situation? Can we fix capitalism "neofeudalism" ? And what would you do bether if you are not agree??

[@Shaddowkhan]

👌🏾

[@pauladams1829]

We must end our addiction to fossil fuels many people who have skills in fossil fuel production have transferable skills that do and can help in the inevitable transition to sustainability.

[@jgalt308]

So what is "capitalism" and its history from WWII? 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.

[@jgalt308]

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.

[@jgalt308]

WARNING!!!!!!! for the "willfully ignorant, functional illiterates" who will respond to this. 1.) This was written by Michael Hudson. 2.) It is the factual history, as well as an accurate definition of "capitalism" and indirectly the role of "money", in this case "fiat" and its effects, as well as the the U.S. governments choices to rely on "financial" and "military" dominance, rather than the "industrial capitalism" that was responsible for its ascendency as successor to the British Empire, which it had effectively replaced after the end of the first World War. 3.) This narrative is in complete disagreement with the narrative of Richard Wolff, and if one seeks to invoke the "argument from authority" there is also no comparison with regard to the career experience that exists between them.

[@thomaswikstrand8397]

Holy crap, Johnny, I did not expect to see you spit, essentially at least, truth! I do not have a rosy picture of industrial capitalism either, mind you - it was an absolute atrocity too, but not like the current horror show.

[@jgalt308]

@@thomaswikstrand8397 Who's Johnny? Nor is Johnny the author? Now I am the author of the WARNING but still not johnny. And prior to the advent of "industrial capitalism" 95% of the world lived in poverty...also the "point" of the "truth" that you believe is evidenced here...is the clarification of the meaning of the words used to determine the causes of the actual problem...or more directly who is actually in control of "the system". That answer in order to be congruent with the "truth" is that it is not "capitalism".

[@ExPwner]

@Account NumberEight and you are the resident actor for a Preparation H commercial with all of that butt hurt.

[@krasimirhristov4745]

Eight on

[@jonemery8324]

I love it, what's with thinking it's all left to its own mistakes. Lol. How can people making acute decisions be so naive. How can anyone watching be so naive ... It is a bag you are in and someone is capable of kicking it when they feel like it. The cycles are not natural it's controlled, failure is the control. The people failing you are not suffering ... That's control. The pretence is democracy and your feeling of fairness, naivety.

[@wetrucken1689]

Change the system Rage Against the Machine thank you 😊 thank you Mister wolf 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@joeysunshine1709]

"a republic if you cab keep it" says the man

[@davidmooten6646]

oh yeah..lets do what wef proposes....😨

[@frankcolumbus3330]

The big fish eat the little fish.

[@bigbandguru]

Politicians don't want change in the system. They could not 'blame' the other party for the present problems. With too much money in too few hands, the system will never change. Rich don't want money leaving their hands. The rest of the population has no cushion for these feast and famine swings. And when we bring in worldwide markets there is complication for beating each other.

[@lorenzoortez64]

There's a dynamic, that's not being mentioned. God who sees everybody's personal behavior & thoughts & intents of the heart has a big factor in the ups or down, or blessing or cursing in our temporal & spiritual lives, no escaping this, even if you don't believe in Him, that just makes the downs longer or chronic in duration.

[@PriusOmega]

Richard, do you see any connection of the failings of today's capitalism with the pure fiat global standard? We were on a gold standard for the great depression, it's true, but gold was repriced from 20 to 35 dollars an ounce afterward. I interpret this as too much credit had entered the system and had to be stabilized but done so in one discrete jump. Today, a more continuous revaluing of currency can be performed electronically, but there isn't even an agreed upon collateral unit to accurately assign risk. Surely the inflation of the 70's was directly connected to the detachment from gold? The capitalist elite certainly have a say in raising prices, but the dollars they're denominated by have no accountability for creation. As for today, M2 increased 27% in 2020, by central bank intervention. If there are 27% more dollars in the system, it seems like lunacy to not attribute that as the main cause of inflation. In summary, do you think the unit of trade that capitalism is built upon has any link to the effectiveness of the capitalism as a societal structure?

[@zna9297]

Not really, capitalism is a system of global oppression and imperialism. If you bring the gold standard back unequal exchange and colonialism still exist, those have to go too and capitalism will fall apart without them. It all has to go, i’m a millennial and a ton of us are communists. Gen Z even more than us. We all hate the “free” market so much we talk about planned economies and replacing money with contracts

[@PriusOmega]

​@@zna9297 The centrally planned economies of the Soviet Union were even more oppressive and inefficient. China is communist only in name. I am not a defender of any economic system currently - capitalism has many major flaws. I agree with Richard on many things. But the communists I've talked to (and you it seems) want to do away with money. Money _is_ contracts, just a very useful technology for assessing relative value. Money only seems to be the root of so much evil because its fiat combined with capitalism - fiat is a terrible form of an otherwise useful tool. When the plutocrats in charge steal societies wealth through printed inflation, it seems like a naive solution to get rid of money. We just need BETTER money.

[@zna9297]

@@PriusOmega who gave you your information on those countries? The same people who tanked the united states and looted the rest of the world. You should go watch the videos on the youtuber Hakim’s channel. Wolff was actually on the show that H is a part of. 6.3 million soviets died in world war II. 30 years later they had invented satellites (1957 for sputnik) and beat the US in the space race, along with providing universal housing and healthcare. Socialist countries actually have better nutrition on average than capitalist countries do, check it out. The cold war rotted straight white america’s minds (marginalized people never had the liberty to pretend). Plenty of issues in other socialist experiments but the good parts are (intentionally) completely ignored.

[@treefrog3349]

In conjunction with your vilification of Capitalism's destructive up-and-down cycles, I wish you would share your views on the phenomena of Neo-liberalism and its "contributions" to our current economic dysfunction and malaise. I realize that an expose opens a "pandora's box" of unpleasantries but far too few "every-day" people are aware of its corrosive excesses.

[@thunderinaspic]

He does every other day

[@kobked-x]

you forgot one "flation, ShrinkFlation

[@DSGLABEL]

I couldn't stop thinking about UniEnergy and the vanadium redox flow battery. American tax money paid to research and develop the technology. And because "investors" didn't see 10X or 100X ROI. We gave the tech to China who immediately started large scale manufacturing. Americans greed has know bounds. Even quadrupling the money ain't good enough. It's leading to the loss of prosperity. How many other opportunities have Americans squandered?

[@ColeCoug]

America's economy boomed during and after the second world war. America wouldn't be provoking other countries to make the economy boom again would they? Or can we even expect that another large war would benefit the wealthy as much as it did in the past? Genuine question as I have lost all sense of understanding the motivations for political actions in the US.

[@tracyday6710]

Industrial Military Complex runs our government with the assistance of most corporate giants. Politicians are bought and paid for. No representative of the citizens remain. Welcome to End Stage Capitalism as it devours a democracy.

[@davidevans6618]

You can't do anything about recession simultaneously in servitude to the inanimate objects which are a recession among other things.

[@JasonLastName]

#capitalismisracism

[@davidevans6618]

Recession, dis-functional, not working, on break , sleeping 😌 Then suddenly it's a crazy time.. Servitude to inanimate objects other people control is is depletion of humanities, totalitarian governance ? all you need for that is global servitude to inanimate objects other people control. Time is mine to value. Equal value of our time regardless what we produce is going to become invaluable, time can assure, like when there's a disaster, nobody is asking that VOLUNTEERED to be of service rather than servants, don't question how much they're getting paid.

[@sashahazel5314]

Greedy is evil.