Economic Update: The Myth of Black Buying Power

[EU S14 E14] The Myth of Black Buying Power
This week’s Economic Update Professor Richard Wolff discusses how the capitalist political economy can explain the Baltimore bridge disaster, we explain why raising minimum wages helps big vs small businesses. We highlight the recent court rulings in New York and how cities can lower rents for their citizens as Kingston, NY just did, (if tenants mobilize to do so). Finally an Interview with Professor Jared A. Ball on the myths of black buying power and black capitalism and the role such myths play in supporting capitalism
Jared A. Ball is a Professor of Communication and Africana Studies at Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD. and author of The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power. Ball is also host of the podcast “iMiXWHATiLiKE!”, co-founder of Black Power Media
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[@tynettaballinger7530]

Racism in America is insidious. By saying a social program will help a minority group, the majority will allow politicians to eliminate the program but in Europe, they understand the program benefits them mostly and will not allow politicians to get away with it. If the 90% in this country could unite, we could have one of the greatest countries in history.

[@authenticallysuperficial9874]

Your 90% don't have the right to murder, thieve, and enslave the 10%.

[@jaymarcase9737]

Unite to do what? Continue the exploitative foreign policy of the USA. That chapter is ending.

[@crescentprincekronos2518]

​@@jaymarcase9737 You'll have to forgive his lack of knowledge about how exactly we get our standard of living. He probably believes somewhat in American exceptionalism rather than the truth of American economic and military coercion.

[@jaymarcase9737]

@@crescentprincekronos2518 facts.

[@snapshotsreviews4967]

News flash America is a cartoon and nothing makes sense

[@jordonbriggs1]

I’m glad I can feel like I’m not alone in my thinking that the myth of buying power for black people is not a path to equality. The media messaging is everywhere and it’s heavy. Thank you Dr Ball and Richard Wolff

[@Kinghercules]

Complete BS! This is one of the reasons I stopped listen to that MF. So we can't use our money to support our ppl but the Asians and Latinos can!!! That's complete BS!!! How many Black grocery stores in your city compared to the Latinos and Asian grocery stores???

[@onceagain6184]

"Equality " is a very vague concept! Black buying power can be used the same way it was used during the Civil Rights era!

[@paulomilan515]

I am so tired of hearing my people say we can keep our money in the community without critically examining why it's not happening.

[@paulomilan515]

​@@onceagain6184no it can't because the same conditions do not exist now. The 60's economy is long gone.

[@Kinghercules]

@@paulomilan515 We know why its happening. Thats why Amos Wilson wrote Blue Print for Black Power and Black on Black Violence. Combind those with Wade Nobles Island of Memes and apply the ideology and shit will get solved. But the main reason is that too many of us are worried about how white ppl feel and what they think.

[@cheri238]

Thank you Professor Richard Wolff and Professor Jared A. Ball.

[@rogerdorsey7823]

GREED DOES NOT AND IS NOT WILLING TO FACE REALITY AND RESPONSABILITY.

[@jerrellhoggard6599]

Black wealth is one half of one percent

[@teastrainer3604]

Almost every television commercial targets the poorest segment of society. It's virtue signaling by advertisers and nothing else.

[@Rusyn420]

@@teastrainer3604in the last 15 years it’s to make: Black and brown bodies seen. Give resources (paycheck) to black and brown bodies. Diversity. Inclusion. Equity. BLM and their Intersectional Allies put pressure on advertising companies to do so. So all those black and brown bodies you see on commercials was in large part them.

[@Egalitarianism_Secularism]

With 13% of the population??? What’s wrong with yall??? What’s the problem???? You live in modernity. No one else gets 12 years to DECIDE what they’d like to do with life. School is a luxury. Unstressed kids are a luxury.

[@DrJaylenPayne]

That's cause white folk had a BIG HEADSTART and other races get grants to open businesses in our black communities while we get denied business loans and other capital. I ain't mad, my ancestors were slaves so I feel like we doin good for ourselves considering most people hate black people 😂Is what it is 🤷🏿‍♂️somebody had to be the last in this Race stuff. I do often wonder what would have happened if my slave ancestors had gotten their promised 40 acres and a mile from the Govt

[@MsTy2908]

​@@Egalitarianism_Secularism13 percent not including the malotos, and other black "subcategories " ? Right😂 most people are checking other,.. so I wouldn't be surprised if the real diaspora isn't accounting 10% now

[@normadenemurphy7454]

Good to hear and see Dr Ball on your show. Thanks

[@Chengtan-rx9po]

Thanks for the live broadcast prof Wolff & Dr Ball

[@jackdolphy8965]

Fabulous to see Jared Ball here!!! Thank you Professor Wolf for hosting him. Definitely have him back soon. 🙏🏼

[@merovingian688]

Buy power? Having to spend your money instead of saving and investing is power?

[@jonathanwallace6667]

It's not power

[@Marxist2]

As usual, Prof. Wolff I'm glad you tackled with such an important issue & I thank you for having such an amazing guest as Professor Jared A. Ball.

[@AnActualDinosaur]

Loved the conversation with Dr. Ball. Short, but full of intesting ideas.

[@mpilonkambule6013]

Very happy to see Dr. Ball joining Prof. Wolf. I hope this symbiosis will continue. You both are doing great work educating us!

[@shawniquamcadams]

Please bring Dr. Ball ❤❤❤❤

[@nholth]

I work to preserve historic bridges and encourage maintainance of existing bridges and what you say makes perfect sense because time and time again we see bridges being left to rot and then be demolished and replaced when they can and should have been maintained for a longer service life or in the case of historic bridges preserveing their cultural value. Capitalism is as such now helping to destroy the transportation heritage that had enabled this country to prosper under capitalism. Its sad.

[@erikaarnold4780]

Wow. Your job sounds very frustrating, but somebody has got to do something. Now if only there we like 20,000 of you….we might get somewhere! Thank you for your work👍🏾

[@abelayele3130]

Very happy to see this collaboration. This is wonderful

[@leroitiaks]

Jared! Excellent guess, Sir!

[@eugene9446]

Great content. Insightful guest!

[@kidadel8]

Dr. Ball, thank you for your work in critiquing and dispelling these bourgeois notions of freedom that has taken over our thinking around Black liberation. I fight against these ideas everyday as an organizer.

[@MelissaHobbs-qm8wi]

The cost of living seems to be increasing every year, making it harder to keep up.

[@LeahLewis-ny9iu]

Indeed, it's becoming quite challenging to manage expenses.

[@WhitneyRoss-dj4rf]

I've actually managed to stay ahead of the curve. I'm even contemplating early retirement

[@ChloeCarter-kd7gz]

@@WhitneyRoss-dj4rf Impressive! How did you achieve that?

[@WhitneyRoss-dj4rf]

@@ChloeCarter-kd7gz That's where experts like Wendy Joyce Woods come in. Her predictions and guidance have been instrumental for many speculator during these turbulent times.

[@EricaWaters-lr6zw]

Wendy Joyce Woods? I've heard her insight and calls across forex, stocks, and crypto have been the best in the last five years.

[@willrouse82]

Dr. Ball!

[@greenvelvet]

Professor wolf please talk about the insane overreaction by businesses in California about the $20 minimum wage. They're claiming that they're going to have to raise prices on customers cut staff and close business

[@mikolowiskamikolowiska4993]

Do you have a business?

[@Lanceswizzle]

That's what is happening. When the cost of doing business rises, the cost of the product or service rise. What don't you people understand about basic math?

[@loisk6186]

“Counter insurgency propaganda” - yes. important ideas. Great guest. Great interview.

[@RochusMr]

Dr. Ball drops the truth on something very important

[@airaliteextinct5458]

Very productive 👍🏿 👍🏿

[@treeztop]

Ball and Wolff together. This is beautiful.

[@mattesparza2072]

Damn Dr.Ball really got a fucking roll there, dude’s spitting fire 🔥🔥 The idea of media as a weapon of counter insurgency, as physiological waefare, is something many of us understand intuitively. Dr.Ball just put it perfectly, as Professor Wolf perfectly described the state of doom at the conditions of the declining US empire.

[@vivalaleta]

Love this guest. A very valuable conversation. Thanks.

[@terryconley5580]

Thank you Prof. Wolff and Dr.Ball #StopCopNation ‼️

[@geraldmantel4955]

"Kick the Bridge Down the Road," even though the can is easier ....

[@suzanneharris8339]

The segment on the bridge/infrastruction problems really struck home for me. For almost a decade, the board of directors in my condo refused to raise association fees because too many owners claimed they were living on fixed incomes & couldn't afford an increase. "Deferred maintenence" on the 3 story, 90 unit structure was the way forward. Enough deterioration during that 10 years caused so many problems, we nearly lost our insurance overage. The solution was to raise owner's fees drastically & borrow several hundred thousand dollars. Capitalism at its finest. 👇 😡 👊

[@empowerman1]

Great guest and discussion of an overlooked issue that if not resolved will further degrade US. Kudos for you having Dr. Ball, a brilliant and unsung scholar like many other Africans in America.

[@pipster1891]

I find that the people who own small businesses tend to support the conservative policies that help big business. In old parlance, the petit bourgeoisie, the most reactionary of classes.

[@mikolowiskamikolowiska4993]

You don't find that ppl who own nothing prefer liberal policies that help no one

[@erikaarnold4780]

Facts. I see a lot of that with the business owning class. They speak and vote as if they are Amazon. They can also be very cynical about sustainability and corporate regulation. Voting against their own best interests=cognitive dissonance

[@BryanHagerla]

hit a home run with this one - great to meet Prof Ball

[@vivalaleta]

I think the system sees a police state coming.

[@kipwonder2233]

Fascinating discussion. Professor Ball is spot on with the concept of an ideological counterinsurgency via messaging. We see this in the consistent description of Russia's war in Ukraine as being "unprovoked". We see this in the constant framing of Xi Jinping as "authoritarian". We see this in the requirement that every discussion of Israel/Palestine start with an interrogation "Do you denounce the horrible acts of Hamas???" The messaging is coordinated globally. It is all pervasive. It is...creepy...honestly. Reminds me of the George Orwell quote from 1984: "The past was alterable. The past never had been altered. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia."

[@Dorian_sapiens]

I love the points you're making, and I agree that Dr. Ball's insights into the propaganda war being waged against us are some of the most important things he brings to the table. I just have to point out the irony of using George Orwell to make the point, since Orwell was an active participant in that war. Knowing what we know about Orwell, it's hard not to read his work as a sly confession that he believed no one would ever notice.

[@bertbaker7067]

Well said.

[@kipwonder2233]

​@@Dorian_sapiens Well...I know Orwell fought in the Spanish Civil War. Much of his writing was a thinly veiled critique of the propaganda associated with...that war specifically but also...war in general. Although, I don't believe that's the point you're making.

[@Dorian_sapiens]

@@kipwonder2233 Orwell collaborated with the Information Research Department, which wikipedia describes as "a secret propaganda organisation of the British state under the Foreign Office." One of the things he did for that organization was give them a list of communists and suspected communists. One of the names on his list was Paul Robeson, whom he described as "very anti-white". You can read about this in the wikipedia article called "Orwell's List". Another thing I highly recommend reading is fellow science fiction author Isaac Asimov's review of _1984._ It gives some great insights into the social and political context around the writing of both _1984_ and _Animal Farm._

[@Dorian_sapiens]

@@kipwonder2233 Orwell collaborated with the Information Research Department, which wikipedia describes as "a secret propaganda organisation of the British state under the Foreign Office." One of the things he did for that organization was give them a list of communists and suspected communists. You can read about this in the wikipedia article called "Orwell's List". One of the names on his list was Paul Robeson, and I'll leave it to you to go and see the quite racist way Orwell described him. Another thing I highly recommend reading is fellow science fiction author Isaac Asimov's review of _1984._ It gives some great insights into the propagandistic function of both _1984_ and _Animal Farm,_ in light of the social and political contexts in which they were published.

[@TimedTim]

10k views and 100 likes? Push that button people!

[@bungkusi2432]

London bridge is faalii down, faalii down. Wait, this is not London

[@vivalaleta]

Copy City singular? I've seen a map showing plans or current builds for them in almost every state. There's three planned in mine.

[@tony538]

I'm a trucking company owner, i been every where in a america, i would give the infrastructure in america an F, from louisiana to mississippi to indiana and on and on, tolls are very expensive for example 76 from pittsburgh to philadelphia is 375$, indiana i80 it's 90 ml for 54$ it's total peace of garbage hwy but it's revenue for the state, indiana needs to start over with their hwys, 59 hwy in texas is third world hwy and it's a major hwy my advice never drive on it, every one is after the working man, i got pulled over being in the wrong st in brooklyn, 2300$ tickets and 750 $ attorney to protect my license, I'm trying to sale my business and move out of america, you can have it

[@luizamorim1626]

Prof Jared A. Ball reminds me a little of the great Malcolm X. He's got the charisma!

[@wilmars9146]

MALCOLM X was much more than " charisma ".

[@moety2]

A somewhat interesting conversation. I would have liked to hear some statistics to go along the myth of black buying power.

[@garyz92]

Professor Wolf Tukwila is pronounced - Tuck Will Ah I live in Seattle, Tukwila is a very interesting ,and ethnically diverse city. Good to hear the minimum wage has set a record as highest in the country.

[@denyce2288]

Great show!

[@theresapelham1918]

Phenomenal .....

[@mudpiemudpie785]

The politicians seem fine with taxing the middle class.

[@abelayele3130]

Go Prof Wolf 7 Prof Ball/BPM

[@courtlaw1]

Thanks!

[@StevenPhelps-sr8co]

Very few podcast networks like this one on open dialogue, without Deflecting and avoidance not hurting it's sponsorships . Hearing a different topics from the wealthy to consumers diversity based on the economy is explicable contents. Awesome!

[@rubennordberg8133]

Great work Prof! Pleasure as always! ❤✊️

[@poppysunsettlingstories]

Excellent. So good to see Dr Ball getting to speak here. Serendipity baby!

[@smurfmama2020]

No one ever mentions that capitalism actually gives people PTSD. Erich Fromm eluded to capitalism/ mental illness authoritarianism and or capitalism. One must groom and prime their children to participate and conform to a capitalist economy. Especially middle class progressives who once rebelled as hippies decided to participate in commodifying their children by sending them to universities and competing for slots in those schools. There’s little to no room for self expression, self exploration, time to relax and thrive. This is a highly abhorrent system. There’s no community to fall back on. Not to mention it encourages very toxic people like narcissists and sociopaths to show their true colors with no shame. Which makes any hope of community, family, extended family absolutely impossible.

[@yahyaraz4617]

Well said!

[@tminusmat]

Taxes r not used for spending

[@saul2007t]

A great and enlightening interview. 👍

[@AdventuresnTyland]

We can do group economics and politics…. They go hand in hand

[@tonybarnes2473]

Been watching Wolf for years Excellent content.

[@jaiyabyrd4177]

🔥 This is such an outstanding conversation. Thank You for pointing out the reality of this propaganda. Great Show

[@anneclarke1598]

Great Interview with Jared .Learned loads thank you for great show

[@idontlikesand1346]

🔥🔥🔥

[@BryanHagerla]

IRRATIONALITY of market-based capitalism; love it!

[@mikolowiskamikolowiska4993]

Where had socialism ever worked

[@howardfox6660]

Great. Thank you

[@WarrenHolly]

New Sub. Xcited to be here 🙏🏾

[@JG-dy2hk]

This was a terrific dialogue!

[@bukikkimuzzas254]

Wow finally !

[@eddiekulp1241]

My rent tied to income on S.S , at least its controlled . Most peoples are not

[@mikolowiskamikolowiska4993]

Why did you depend on SS. You had 40yrs to figure out out

[@gannibalof21st]

Gotta love anecdotes and conspiracy theories as people's rebuttals. Murica right. Doesn't matter that the guest has whole list of sources and references in his book, but it's all about mi daddy and what mi daddy says says. By the way, Great guest and conversation.

[@andrefarmer7948]

Hoorayyy!!

[@OneLovePeace]

Thank you!

[@philipzaccheus8398]

Informative information for knowledge seekers listening is an important asset. Continue listening for the leading narratives noting whose interests these belong. Collecting information for better understanding knowledge learning TO OWNING OWN good knowledge for the better knowledge satisfying own knowledge lasting conclusions.

[@isaacashurov365]

Well a little correction politicians don't really need to raise taxes because they already way too high it just need to be reconsidered where they spend their tax money because we constantly in the war we have some other expenses that we should never have

[@lloydglyn6831]

Thank you mr wolff i really enjoyed your study regarding china

[@KandyGTV]

Interesting video, especially because Mr. Wolf has expressed in the past that he doesn't believe in reparations for ADOS 🤔

[@philipzaccheus8398]

Informative information for knowledge seekers listening is an important asset. Continue listening for better understanding knowledge for learning Owning Own better knowledge learned from collected informative narratives for lasting satisfying knowledge conclusions.

[@JusticeObsession.]

What say you Richard? How is the path?

[@allonesame6467]

Thank you

[@lisaflores8801]

Dr Ball!!!

[@LaLasta]

YES! 🔥🙌🏽❤

[@rcmrcm3370]

❤❤❤

[@Jasmin.M-hz5ty]

Recently i have see on youtube video named,living from paycheck to paycheck.So i would like to ask few questions,1.What problems company and owner have if they keep employees on paycheck to paycheck.2.What it should be done to make bouth owner of company and his employees happy.

[@joshuapouncey8111]

I thought the worker's on the bridge that drowned were administering maintenance when it collapsed

[@loisk6186]

I hate being called a consumer. Especially as related to healthcare. It’s demeaning. It is presumptuous. It makes you complicit in the abuse powerful corporate and political entities are perpetrating on you.

[@marthazziwa1273]

When I can I’m gonna buy his book

[@iondowman273]

c10:00 The United States (and the Anglophone West following suit) is run like a corporation - a corporation whose management is milking the plant that produces the goods. To increase profits short term, you skimp on maintenance, work the machinery until it busts. If you time it right, you will have moved on and up, and the poor schmuck who takes over will be saddled with the costs (a) of repairing the damage when the plant falls over, or (b) recreating the maintenance and preventive maintenance programmes, more than likely, from scratch. Just by the way, more than 40 years ago I worked for a US based international corporation. One thing that was very notable: its strict adherence to regular preventive maintenance and to that other oft neglected programme: internal training and professional development. In many respects, this was an outfit that commanded respect, and of which to this day, I have fond memories.

[@timothytibbits7942]

Corporations are very concerned about balancing their budget. Not only that but they are very concerned about being in the black. How can you say the government is run like a corporation?

[@iondowman273]

@@timothytibbits7942 For a start, that governments should be run in a businesslike manner does NOT mean governments should be run like a business (or a corporation). In fact if a government is running a financial surplus (a profit), it is taking money out of the economy; if running a deficit, it is putting money into the economy. Of course, go too far either way you damage the economy. The 'balancing the budget' principle can cover all manner corporate virtues, sure. But it can also mask all manner of sins, such as what I have been describing. Some corporate top executives may simply be parasites, feeding off corporate largesse (salary, benefits and bonuses) by looking good (reducing expenditure, or increasing output), whilst actually damaging the corporate body (e.g. milking, or even thrashing, the capital assets). And I'm not even talking about predator businesses - corporate raiders and suchlike. It can be a 'small' thing. About 40 years ago in this country, a prominent manufacturing company lost a lucrative oversea account by short-weighting a major component of the product it was selling at the time. This saved money on raw materials, but when the customer (a hotel chain) eventually noticed, they at once terminated the business. If that customer chose to let others know of the fraud, and/or sought compensation, the net cost overall must have cost the manufacturer huge. Just for the sake of skimping a few bucks. This sort of nonsense happens ALL THE TIME.

[@timothytibbits7942]

You make some good points but your examples seem only vaguely applicable. There may be some negative results of running the country in a businesslike financially responsible way but my prediction is that running the country in the irresponsible way they do is going to crash the greenback and our descendants will end up being poor when they could have been affluent.

[@iondowman273]

@@timothytibbits7942 From what I've been hearing, the examples I have given of corporate (mis-)behaviour are very applicable to the US 'body corporate'. Consider the nation's infrastructure as it's 'plant'. What has been happening to it? What HASN'T been happening to it? Donald Trump came up with an idea of tackling infrastructure breakdown by employing the jobless - not a bad notion, though, after being pilloried by media and political opponents, it never made it into policy. Instead, vast amounts of treasure - tax-revenue - is being poured into the military industrial complex and foreign military adventures, for no discernable national benefit, and some very discernable (even at this distance) national harm. I reckon 'milking the assets' is not so inapt a description of what is happening. Just ask the people of Michigan, Ohio, Baltimore, New York, California...

[@iondowman273]

Reading back your comment and my reply, I think we are actually in broad agreement. By 'businesslike', I mean 'responsible', with due diligence for the health and well-being of a given enterprise - of a nation as well as a private corporation.

[@jonathanwallace6667]

Sir, since we know that wealth isn't gonna be redistributed or trickle down we need to live on written budgets, save and invest our money, start our own businesses and stop buying their (S) and start buying shares of ownership (stocks) in these companies. Yes, it is smarter to go to the discount house. Why pay more than u have to?

[@JMoroccoMisterBoy]

Tks. much.

[@user-bh6pq9oj9l]

Black buyin gpower is not the same is black wealth accumalation. I remember reading the same title articles in Black Enterprise. No other race/cultures prides themselves on being liquid and exporting their dollars to purchase, they pride thmselves on accumalating wealth aka assets.

[@BryanHagerla]

can you do something about high rents???? YES, you can!!!!

[@vanbraxton8422]

All the contractors who wins the Bid ( oooooyea bidless contracts) Will be very HAPPY 😅

[@vanbraxton8422]

Why,why Richard of all people you known the Answer, WAR, WAR, & More WAR. Thats where the money goes😮😢

[@JusticeObsession.]

Worried about a few high ups

[@ivomedic5745]

Who must investigate catastrophic incidents in Baltimore on bridge?USCG or transportation officials maybe som other peoples.

[@crescentprincekronos2518]

Like always with discussions, there are things i agree with and there are things i don't agree with. Overall, good discussion.

[@51isALL]

Antonio Moore or Yvette Carnell would be great to speak about the wealth position of ADOS people in America.

[@ithajean]

Mind blowing truism

[@ernstthalmann4306]

It's always been psychological warfare against working folk. To make us give up. Never surrender!!!

[@markbulmer5227]

I agree Professor Wolff, think the world is spinning towards a super nation, and empire is no longer that attractive ... physical distance is what created different people , the distance is no longer there, the synergistic outcome is going to be the better option.... the frictions to that combination will be resolved over time, I think there is a dormant intelligence in the species

[@c.a.6972]

✊🏿✊🏿✊🏿 Word yo

[@vps1948]

You can tax all you want, it will be spent by politicians unwisely and bridges will continue to fail. Federal government borrows money so much why didn't they fox the bridges with that money?

[@MrDXRamirez]

Well, all I see is that in the past people never worked machines bearing value ( i.e., AI, EVs, Cell Phones, Video Gaming, Trucks, Cars, Ships, Bridges, Tunnels, Buildings, Cities, Land, Water, Air, etc.), people made value by working and whatever machines and tools they used were just that, tools. Tools and machines were not capital investments when modern infrastructure projects were built. Only when technology shrank them from the size of windmills to the size of a digital microchip processor did tools become investments for speculation. Everyone is divided as a manager or a worker not only because it was seen as better than being socially divided into masters and feudal slaves or serfs but more so because the technology and machinery was getting smaller in size and more specialized that it accommodated more people be involved in employment than a small limited population of slaves or serfs doing all the work. Now that technology and machinery has become smaller and more portable it made work lighter and less skilled. The smaller the technology the less skilled the workforce became to the point that nobody knows how to fix a door or a leak and only knows how to repeat a task and never go outside of the boundaries of their particular task never mind make a decision!

[@user-sz1rk1jj8j]

💙

[@b-rainwash410]

👨🏼‍🎓👩‍💻👨‍🏫

[@user-sz1rk1jj8j]

❤

[@drb215]

call that black man by the title he earned....he is Dr. Ball!