Economic Update: What Socialism Needs to Succeed

Economic Update is now back to its regular programming schedule with a new episode released every Monday. We couldn't be happier, more relieved and more excited to get back to creating the show we all have known, needed and loved since 2011 and to celebrate, we're going to release a few batches of "binge-worthy" episodes you will only find here and on our website. So stay tuned, make sure you've subscribed to our channel, follow us on social media and of course be sure to sign up our website:
www.democracyatwork.info
And as always, we thank for your attention, support and solidarity.
The d@w Team
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[S13 E39] What Socialism Needs to Succeed
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"This week's episode features a discussion of (1) the crisis of today's real left; (2) the need to acknowledge, build upon, but also go well beyond the successful socialisms of the 19th and 20th centuries; (3) the macro focus on the state and the omission of a microfocus on the workplace; and (4) democratizing workplaces as 'what is to be done'."

[@Vieths184]

My greatest concern is how to recover from all these economic and global troubles and stay afloat especially with the political power tussle going on in US. The government has really called things more difficult for its citizens,and we can't sit back and bear all the consequences of the bad governance.

[@JockFloresca]

The wisest thought that is in everyone's minds today is to invest in different income flows that do not depend on the government, especially with the current economic crisis around the world. This is still a good time to invest in gold, silver and digital currencies (BTC, ETH.... stock,silver and gold)

[@Hofkins]

That's right because It's no longer a story that the world is experiencing a global economic downturn, I'm so happy that I've been receiving $64,000 from my $15,000 investment.

[@FanBastos-fe7ei]

​@@NickolBisaillonAs a newbie you'll need to invest in a company that is working towards sustainability, like that of expert Tara Elizabeth, and her abilities in handling investments are top notch

[@user-dr3rx2zr1m]

How can I get in touch with her, I'm in need of her assistance

[@Laughbaum]

I'm from Canada, how can I get in touch with Mrs Tara Elizabeth Stewart?

[@Lisaruthdecker.]

The economy is grappling with uncertainties, global fluctuations, and pandemic aftermath, causing instability. Rising inflation, sluggish growth, and trade disruptions need urgent attention from all sectors to restore stability and stimulate growth.

[@elease.eichersli]

Things are strange right now. The US dollar is becoming less valuable because of inflation, but it's getting stronger compared to other currencies and things like gold and property. People are turning to the dollar because they think it's safer. I'm worried about my retirement savings of about $420,000 losing value because of high inflation. Where else can we keep our money?

[@spacecadet6]

Well I recommend you make a diversification plan because it's been harder to build a good stocks portfolio since COVID. My colleague suggested I hire a brokerage Adviser, and I've actually made over $757k with their help during last market upheaval. They used defensive strategies to protect my portfolio and make profits despite the ups and downs.

[@emmaarmando]

@@spacecadet6 I find this intriguing. Could you please provide me with the means to get in touch with your Adviser? I am concerned about my dwindling portfolio.

[@spacecadet6]

*Camille Alicia Garcia* maintains an online presence. Just make a simple search for her name online.

[@RogerWatkinss]

Insightful... I curiously looked up her name on the internet and I found her site and i must say she seems proficient, thanks for sharing.

[@AlanVonShankster]

That was the best description of why socialism has stopped developing and spreading that I've seen. Great job!

[@Porelcaminitoyotellevare]

If there a future, you and your videos will be remembered with love, thank you Prof. Wolff

[@omayarushd6509]

A master economist with a soul, and a mind gifted with the power of rational analysis, compassion, and love for humanity!!! Bravo my brother!

[@afrivox]

A useless commie professor who has never had a job in his life, lives off of enslaving our youth with student's debts to read them Marx and Voltaire...and dream of shaping society in his onw image. 😢😂

[@robini.1338]

I love listening, watching and learning from you Professor Wolff! Thank you for all you do for the world! Robin🤗😊🌺

[@schloughed]

What does this man do?

[@hannibalb8276]

@@schloughed What all educators do. Educate their students.

[@schloughed]

​@hannibalb8276 this commie bastard is only good at telling others how to spend their money.

[@stevenhunter5799]

Thank you professor Wolff. You are truly inspiring and have been helping me to create my own socialist proposal that I believe will go live soon 🤘

[@Sarbatriks]

1. Political democracy 2. Workplace democracy 3. Gender democracy Infact none of this is possible unless the leadership of a revolution is willing to break with predefined dogmas and trust the people . Thats what Fidel and Cuba was able to do . Being a tiny economically deprived country , Cuba doesnt get the attention it deserves . Around 70% of future socialism already exists in Cuba since the revolution . Thanks for this wonderful video 😅

[@tafessegebruwoldeys2079]

Professor I always pray for your health and age to give us more lecture thanks so much

[@kuldipkumarsuri]

I find you are greatest amongst… I love watching you regularly… we owe so much to you for your insights. ❤️

[@KnowledgeaboutOurEarth]

Marx's idea is to let everyone be free and have liberty to do what he or she really wants. This issue should be conducted from workplace. Prof Wolff is so great!

[@ClaribelRamirz]

Sir, The New School Milano is my Alma Matter... I started years ago to work on my PhD with Dr. Aida Rodriguez but life got in the way and I could not continue.. I always wanted to study under your direction. I purchased most of your books and to this day I keep up with the goings of our World Economy through you. I wish you would update your book " Democracy Hits the Fan". It is a detailed record, a dairy of our Economy and the politics of this world and of our railures. I surprised that The White Hose or Congress are not coming sincere and informing us all that we are situated in point in timeuch worse than the Great Depression.... easy to see and experience. Sincerely Claribel Ramirez DeArellano.

[@salpetrarca]

We should bring the term "wage slave" back into every day use. Let them know we know what we are to them.

[@redpiller1099]

100% agree!

[@schloughed]

Is anyone forcing you to work for slave wages?

[@salpetrarca]

@@schloughed yup

[@schloughed]

​@salpetrarca who?

[@helengarrett6378]

The explanation of socialism in the first half, though simplified was clear. I absolutely agree and long for socialism as a better system than capitalism. The second half of this lecture was exactly what I advocate for. Call it communism or whatever you want to call it, democracy at work it is the most important part of any systemic change. Socialism wedded to democracy is the goal. When workers own the means of production they have a real stake in the success of individuals, the enterprise, the local community and the whole nation. Workers become self regulating and they cannot blame capitalists, or the state for successes or failures. I get frustrated when Professor Wolff trys to explain that China's success is so much better than the successes of capitalism. China's astounding success is due to its capitalist deviation. Capitalism works. No doubt about it. But over time the inconsistencies and flaws if capitalism accumulate. As Professor Wolf himself has said a million times, the boom and bust cycles keep happening. Speculation, monopolies and corruption rip at the working class keeping it in a constant state of stress. Wealth accumulates ever more at the tiny pinnacle of the top rich capitalists who either own or control the entire system. Capitalism ultimately is an unfair, uneven kind of growth and once it is established it must work to weaken the socialist sector. The two cannot coexist over the long haul. Socialism works to smooth out the economic, political and social inconsistencies and capitalism works to aggregate the wealth and privilege at the top for just a few. These two things are not designed to work together for a long time because inevitably the wealthy get their own way and they control government and enterprises and pretty much everything for their own self interest. Even in Scandanavia the distance between the richest and the poorest widens, but through state regulation it widens more slowly. China' s most recent problems are caused by the introduction of the capitalist system. Speculation and boom and bust cycles are emerging problems as is unemployment and corruption. But China has another pernicious problem. Authoritarianism has taken hold. The authoritarian-In-chief, Xi, deludes himself into thinking he can ultimately control the beast devouring socialism. Rich capitalists will buy their own security. They will control the economy from the ground up. The money is in their hands and they will do everything they can to keep their accumulated wealth. They aren't going to give up wealth and power without a fight. They will finally install an authoritarian leader who protects them. Only socialism wedded to democratic principles and practiced from the ground up can develop a society that provides for everyone in a way that does not allow for great differences in the way people live and develop their talents and abilities. A socialist and deeply democratic society won't allow anyone to be too rich or too poor but will enrich the whole community more smoothly and more equitably. The success of the whole community is built on the agreement of alll the individuals to move forward together starting in the home and at work. A constant acceptance of communally agreed upon ideas and bottom up leadership is a better idea but it requires education and constant work to keep it from relapsing into some kind of authoritarianism. Social norms must be developed and nurtured to control the desire of some to take over and impose their will on others. It takes work and it takes effort. It's worth the work, though.

[@Dustin_Bins]

Thank you for this wise and poignant statement and I agree whole heartedly. I would like to see Professor Wolff go over this statement to see how it comports with economics, it seems sound from what I've read, but I'm not an economist.

[@jgalt308]

Sad when you still don't understand the meaning of the word "democracy"...which is as authoritarian as you can get.

[@helengarrett6378]

@@jgalt308 Gault, you are trying to make democracy, consensus from the bottom up sound horrible, but you admitted you were a National Socialist. Everyone knows that National Socialism is another way of saying NAZI. Everyone knows that National Socialism was Hitler's way of selling dictatorship and violence to ordinary people by using meaningless words. He simply invented a brand and sold it, but beneath the window dressing it was authoritarianism and racism enforced by violence and fear. Gault, just stop trying to sell that smelly bag of you know what. My father's generation fought a war to defeat that immoral and vile philosophy. We pretty well hammered the Nazis thoroughly because Americans are basically decent and do not want to be governed by a Hitler. The current orange fascist who is trying to take over our partial democracy is going to fail. He's not going to end elections and become American's Putin Xi, or Kim. There are some foolish idiots who support him in a slavish way. But kissing the orange guy's behind isn't in our tradition. We don't have kings here or czars. We have free elections and we like them. We won't give up our independence for a small minded liar who molested women, orphaned kids by kidnapping them from their parents and throwing away any records of who those parents are and where they were sent. We are a proud people who have grown beyond authoritarianism. Black and brown people aren't going to give up the right to vote for their leaders or to be able, to throw the bums out if they don't behave like proper, respectable public servants. Working people are remembering that unions bring us safety and prosperity. The orange cult is doomed! Republicans have painted themselves into a corner and most of us reject your Nazi violence and authoritarianism. I think they will remember who we are and also that there is room and reason to improve and strengthen democracy. We aren't about to vote for some tinpot dictator who can't control his mouth and who has delusions of grandeur based on his miserable, unstable, fearful psyche. Our love of democracy and a new awareness of how socialism works can bring a better life to everyone from the ground up and will only bring a brighter future for working people.

[@paulschumacher1263]

Brilliant. I have long supported socialism, and have long thought it meant: more and more democracy. A few years ago one George W. Bush's appointees, I think it was Rumsfeld, said all our problems were coming from "too much damn democracy." The reverse was true. I'm glad you urged putting democracy into the workplace and the family. Democracy--freedom--means giving everyone involved a say, and an equal say, in what's going on and what should be done. One other field that needs more democracy: the school.

[@TacticalMayo]

Don't bring that commie junk into the United States.

[@shnibby12]

Democracy is just tyranny of the majority. Don't be so easily fooled like Richard has.

[@dinnerwithfranklin2451]

I completely agree. At the same time though a functioning democracy requires an informed population. That is a long way from the educational system they have given us. Let alone the ocean of commercial propaganda we exist in. But more democracy can indeed be the best thing we could have.

[@dbarker7794]

The new Speaker of the House said "Democracy is like two wolves and a sheep deciding what's for dinner." He is apparently not a fan.

[@dinnerwithfranklin2451]

@@dbarker7794 Well in the West he doesn't have much to worry about I guess.

[@catcaves]

Richard Wolff is such a good communicator and makes everything so easy to understand. Such a good teacher!

[@afrivox]

He spent his whole life in school, from kindergarten to the grave. True socialist... never work, just talk, write, and claim proceeds from productive people be distributed equally ONCE produced 😂

[@catcaves]

@@afrivox Richard has 10 years of schooling from Harvard, Yale. and Stanford. If they removed 90 percent of his brain he would smarter than you😄

[@afrivox]

@@catcaves you are just repeating what I said, that he spent all his life in school. As of smart I consider the following smart for having produced something of value to society: Louis Pasteur, Nicolas Tesla, Edison, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, see what I mean. Nothing smart about spending years and years in school without ever graduating and contributing to society. The plumber who came fix a drainage issue at my house is more useful than these useless liberal professors. Heck even in liberal arts, I have read Pascal, Sartre, Voltaire, Camus, Schopenhauer, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy... I don't know these dudes in college days even publish anything...anything at all. Now I give you this....they are smart in that they managed to milk society without adding value and to enslave our youth with crippling debts for just reading Das Kapital in the classroom. Brilliant and heading towards a very handsome retirement payout. 😀

[@catcaves]

@@afrivox ​ After reading your comment i wish to amend my comment. If they remove 95 percent of Richards brain he would be smarter than you. Can i ask this Einstein? Do not good teachers contribute to create all of the people you just listed who you feel are valuable to society ? If you don't answer yes i will amend my first sentence again.

[@afrivox]

@@catcaves hahaha. Maybe you are idolizing this dude so much.. what do you gain that he has a better brain than mine. Let us assume you are right. How about you? How does your brain compare? That's what you should be most concerned about ...unless in yout shared communist utopia, brains are also shared 😆 🤣 😂

[@thegreatdream8427]

I'd love to see your thoughts on anarchism, which has always been a parallel socialist tradition that is against the state, against all forms of hierarchy, and in favor of bottom-up direct democracy at all levels of society and in all areas - including the workplace and the home. Anarchism never made the mistake you're describing. But the state socialists who did sidelined it, denigrated it, and in the case of Soviet Russia, destroyed violently every attempt at it. I think if you look at the history of anarchism since its invention by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon soon before the French Revolution, you'll find that the real solution has been here all along - and was suppressed by people who wanted to use the state not for the sake of the revolution, but for the sake of their own power.

[@BingusDingusLingus]

But the anarchists do make the mistake of thinking that democracy/representation of the people is somehow bad. Anarchy is kinda like what he’s saying for sure but with the notable difference that socialism maintains the military, representative government and seizes the means of production, and makes such institutions democratic/representative of the proletariat and being managed by them rather than the state pr global capital; and in that instance of socialism, what’s the point of anarchy at all? Is what the anarchists want not achieved by making businesses owned by the workers and controlled democratically? And if so then vote socialist?

[@thegreatdream8427]

@@BingusDingusLingus Worker ownership is part of what anarchists want, but not all. It's not enough. The state is a coercive institution which exists primarily as an instrument for capitalists to use to oppress everyone else and only secondarily to uphold the law. As long as it exists it can and will be recaptured again. There is no such thing as representative government. No other human being can represent me, as no other human being knows what I want except me. "Representatives" are humans who want power and thus want to maximize the votes they get, which means they will use whatever power they do have to manipulate and brainwash people into voting for them while their actual legislative activity is entirely geared towards serving their own interests as part of a political class. See: the entire government of the United States. Furthermore, democracy is in itself a form of a tyranny of the majority. I do not want the wishes of even 99% of other human beings to have any effect on ME except where what I am doing is personally affecting them. Anarchists are people who value freedom and recognize that democracy is just another means for some people to rule over others - but disguised. As for the military: much of it is unnecessary, and what is necessary is *obviously* necessary and there will never be a shortage of patriots wishing to defend their homeland, or other patriots donating resources to those who are doing so, even in an anarchist society. In fact, the number of people who wish to serve in the military would likely *increase* due to how much greater the social cohesion would be in a free society. So the state is not necessary for that either. It is nothing but a parasite, exactly like the capitalist class that controls it.

[@someonenotnoone]

​@@thegreatdream8427the fundamental idea of democracy is exchange of ideas, listening and reaching consensus. It's not "majority rules."

[@Whatintheworlt]

@@someonenotnooneTyranny of the 51% always ends up killing the other 49. But hey, we all voted to do it! So it’s fine! Hard pass on socialism and pure democracy period. It’s horrific.

[@someonenotnoone]

@@Whatintheworlt No one has any say in how they're ruled, got it.

[@anopinionatedlaymanappears9052]

Thank you Richard for your dedication to a better world. You've done more than enough for us and deserve a pleasant retirement.

[@afrivox]

Socialists do not retire. They believe they have answers and only them ...and will "work" or rather talk cause thats all they do all the way to the grave. 😂

[@reasonerenlightened2456]

I challenge Prof. Wolff to a debate on the subject "Democracy at work is not a sustainable idea." Why should anyone work with anyone if we see things differently in respect to wealth and power distribution? Only through dictatorship and competition things get done, and when those fail then cooperation and sharing of Power emerges....but once the circumstances change everything goes back to competition and dictatorship.

[@anopinionatedlaymanappears9052]

@@reasonerenlightened2456 Because cooperation has been done throughout human history. The idea that we can have democracy outside the workplace but can't have it inside is a glaring contradiction that once inspected is clearly designed to benefit a certain group of people. There is nothing natural about it.

[@reasonerenlightened2456]

​@@anopinionatedlaymanappears9052 The market is a battlefield where, ultimately, there can be only one winner. In the Wolff's world, that would be the one co-op to own everything and destroy any other presence on the market.

[@anopinionatedlaymanappears9052]

@@reasonerenlightened2456 The market is a construct and can be whatever we want it to be. Coops are an old idea and the beginning of social change not the end.

[@nancyhirsch7768]

Another wonderful breakdown of where our futures should be heading. Thank you Prof Wolff!

[@stevenhopper-hj5uh]

Prof. Wolff: "Socialism, the People", are actually more of concentrated power than the "capitalists"! Capitalists are at least individuated, while The State is utter monopoly. We haven't really transcended cultural and human problems of contemporary organizations!

[@reasonerenlightened2456]

I challenge Prof. Wolff: to a debate on the subject "Democracy at work is not a sustainable idea." Why should anyone work with anyone if we see things differently in respect to wealth and power distribution? Only through dictatorship and competition things get done, and when those fail then cooperation and sharing of Power emerges....but once the circumstances change everything goes back to competition and dictatorship.

[@peterboytRaKs]

The underlying juggernaut of this scenario is, you cannot serve two masters. And, Social Democracy and Capitalism are two distinct ideologies that do not play nice together. EACH are antithetical to eachother.

[@ClassicalTraining]

@peterboytRaKs Social Democracy?

[@peterboytRaKs]

@@ClassicalTraining ? You don't know how 'Social Democracy' works because you're living under a crony, fake capitalist ideology.

[@ClassicalTraining]

​@@peterboytRaKsSocial Democracy still operates in a Capitalist system. Providing some reforms will not ultimately create change, as the system has found ways to transform. Change should be radical. There is no point in keeping a dying tree--you need to uproot it.

[@peterboytRaKs]

@@ClassicalTraining Gradual transition to a real Democracy starts from the grassroots. Only if that seedling is allowed to be nourished and cared for. But the system was 'gamed a long time ago and the criteria for Social Democracy is continually being undermined and disrupted by Capital itself.

[@AdmiralBison]

4:20 "so much time, energy and money has been devoted to demonizing it [Socialism]..." Yes, I also like to a point out Religion in the U.S. having done that with 'Atheism' and 'Secularism', yet in the last 15 years more and more people have become comfortable with 'Secularism' and 'Atheism' that the dominant system of Religion is fast declining, I am confident this will be the same with Capitalism fast losing favor when more people learn Socialism.

[@DavidJohnson-ce9bx]

With respect, record at higher levels of volume so those of us challenged by hearing and caption reading, can listen with sufficient volume? Thank you.

[@rustylidrazzah5170]

I’m a few steps to the left of anyone the Professor mentioned. Rehabilitating the word socialism in the USA is less important to me than holding the word capitalism accountable for the damage it’s done. People should feel about capitalism the same way they feel about the current economic situation. Too many still find room to blame leftist ideology for capitalist policies negative issues.

[@AdmiralBison]

Rich 1% shareholders = own ~54 percent of all corporate stocks in the country Rich 9% shareholders = own ~38 percent of all corporate stocks in the country Rich 10% total = own 93% of all corporate stocks around ~$42.7 *trillion* dollars Bottom 90% = 7% of all corporate stock .....and the acute concentration of wealth will go ^^^ wards at the top.

[@stevehurysz6331]

Extraordinary and inspiring insights Richard. I hope to learn (and relearn) more from you and others as I wash away some of my capitalist biases induced over many years of cultural programming. ✍🏽

[@afrivox]

Please do not learn from these lazy liberal professors who have never had a job in their lives. From kindergarten to the grave, they never left school, never lived in real life, never had a job and didnt even apply what they preach... look at how they have burdened young people with life crippling debts for reading Marx and Schopenhauer in the classroom 😢

[@reasonerenlightened2456]

I challenge Prof. Wolff to a debate on the subject "Democracy at work is not a sustainable idea." Why should anyone work with anyone if we see things differently in respect to wealth and power distribution? Only through dictatorship and competition things get done, and when those fail then cooperation and sharing of Power emerges....but once the circumstances change everything goes back to competition and dictatorship.

[@ClassicalTraining]

@stevehurysz6331 Have you read Marx?

[@reasonerenlightened2456]

​@@ClassicalTraining Marx is not useful. His teachings do not provide engineering solutions for organising a society.

[@ClassicalTraining]

​@@reasonerenlightened2456 "His teachings do not provide engineering solutions for organising a society" My friend, he did, but that wasn't his first aim. Marx's aim was to thoroughly recognise, understand and analyse the political economic system that we live in. That's why he spent decades analysing the political economists of the time. The first part of overcoming the problem, is to recognise that there is a problem.

[@AdmiralBison]

Socialism CAN succeed as its name suggests AND is starting from the ground up. Communities like in Conrad, Iowa have created "Community" owned Grocery centers to address the needs of locals and to fight back against corporate consolidation. Some local governments are creating local & government co-op shopping centers.Socialism starts small, but can grow rapidly when more people get on board at the bottom, pool resources.

[@vivalaleta]

This is how you taught us that the only way for the masses to maintain power is for them to have the power in their workplaces.

[@timc1604]

Wise, wise words. Power must ultimately be with the people, not with a small minority of very wealthy people OR the government. Government plays a role in society certainly, but workers must have economic power as well as political power.

[@reasonerenlightened2456]

How?

[@timc1604]

@@reasonerenlightened2456 How can can the power be with the people, instead of a few wealthy people or the government? By having way, way more worker and consumer cooperatives and far fewer corporations and wealthy people running our government

[@reasonerenlightened2456]

​@@timc1604 Once the market competition takes place all co-ops, in the Wolff's world, will be reduced to One single winner that owns and controls everything. How do you intend to maintain indefinitely the vast number of co-ops that you suggest to be created?

[@timc1604]

@@reasonerenlightened2456 I don’t agree there will be just one co op running the whole world, but there may be a relatively small few like a relatively small few corporations control so much of the market currently. However, the difference is, with co-ops, the workers collectively would make the decisions of what to produce, how to produce, and many other decisions that currently are made by a very, very small number of people. In other words, the power, economically speaking, would be with the people.

[@reasonerenlightened2456]

​@@timc1604 The wishes of the voter do not have effect on government policy. The same applies for any size group of people, because the few who will be the leaders in Wolff's world will choose royalty over merit in 9 out of 10 cases, therefore during decision making the "workers" who decide will be the loyal employees, not the most deserving employees. Leader seeks to surround themselves with loyal followers first. Wolff does not understand that the workers CAN NOT collectively make the decisions of what to produce, how to produce, and many other decisions. The few emerging "leaders" over time will choose to destroy everything than to share power. It will go this way, "You have to give me, the leader, more power to decide because the current situation is so bad that we must act now and swiftly if we do not want everything to fall apart"!

[@bertbaker7067]

Solidarité 🇵🇸✊

[@sunnersky5996]

Great work

[@Gary-zq3pz]

Socialism requires an all-powerful Central authority to micro-manage every part of the economy and society.

[@typeviic1]

What it needs is to not have blockades, sanctions, embargoes, unilateral coercive measures, etc.

[@danmcqueen5295]

Not to mention actual wars!

[@ClassicalTraining]

END ALL SANCTIONS NOW🇨🇺

[@leftnotliberal]

" Slavery of Wages" was a particular term used by Frederick Douglass as well

[@Whatintheworlt]

Yeah because slavery with no wages or ability to own property or have a family was so much better. And that’s the only alternative.

[@Jacob-hv7jz]

I dont know what it is about new england leftists, but they make me feel very safe. like my dad is home from work

[@afrivox]

All leftists cities, from Baltimore to Chicago to San Francisco are getting safer and safer because of socialt policies. Even Auckland, New Zealand, which used to be one of the most dangerous cities on the globe, has gotten safer over the last few years with a leftist government in power.

[@lordk.gaimiz6881]

I'd love to see more ideas of how to revolutionize the household, i haven't seen that much of that yet.

[@kirstinstrand6292]

Design one yourself! 😅

[@lordk.gaimiz6881]

@@kirstinstrand6292 ya know, I'd love to have examples to build upon dearie. And i don't right now.

[@hankyou]

Like the dad said to his daughter who wanted money for some piercings: you'll have my permission to do whatever you want with your body and take part to any decision concerning our house when you'll be wise enough to pay your share of the costs of living in this house. As long as I pay all the bills, I make the decisions. Now, that's a nice way to apply democratic principles into the household. Same as in real life, you don't provide your share of the work, you have no say in our (worker owned) industries, coop or social enterprises and soon... households! hehe I bet this method would help a lot of kids get up their a** by finding, inventing, creating ways to be a full member of the group once they realize that democracy is not a free concept. One have to share with the group so he can enjoy personal freedom.

[@lordk.gaimiz6881]

@@hankyou thank you ^^

[@reasonerenlightened2456]

I challenge Prof. Wolff: to a debate on the subject "Democracy at work is not a sustainable idea." Why should anyone work with anyone if we see things differently in respect to wealth and power distribution? Only through dictatorship and competition things get done, and when those fail then cooperation and sharing of Power emerges....but once the circumstances change everything goes back to competition and dictatorship.

[@sharonmassey2923]

The only presidential candidate talking specifically about "systemic change" is Democrat Marianne Williamson; it's what her entire inspiring platform is about. Mainstream news and the White House behave as though she does not exist, which isn't surprising. She also clearly understands that "the system" is at the root of how authoritarianism has gotten its hold, and Biden clearly does not. Marianne Williamson talks about everything talked about here, and she's the only one.

[@bma1955alimarber]

Very interesting. Thank you very much

[@jeanetteberwick2434]

Thankyou professor wolfe xxx

[@loiswilcken1758]

Prof. Wolff's clarity is unparalleled. Digestible food for thought.

[@challe535]

Its important to make clear when we talk about the state, that what socialists mean with "the state" isn't what most people see and know as the state today. I.e. the state under socialism isn't the bourgeois democracy or the facist autocracy, its the democracy of the proletariat (of the majority). No socialist is advocating to abolish private property only to make unaccountable state officials the de facto private owners of that property. The framing of the debate as "more state vs less state" that happened and is still happening was a capitalist tactic to discredit socialism. The meaning of "the state" changes when the mode of production changes so that comparison falls flat. But not only that, the capitalist system ironically depends on the existance of a powerful capitalist state. The capitalist state acts as a tool for oppression of the working class, essentially uniting around the capitalists common interests of supressing the working class and thereby necessarily adopting violent means. Without the capitalist state, those violent means would have to be distributed among specific capitalists that can and would use those means to fight and weaken eachother (like what is the case between capitalist nations). Without a powerful state, capitalism would quickly devolve into an armed struggle between the classes and the capitalists themselves which would destabilize the whole system.

[@nthperson]

A central systemic cause of our social and economic problems is the failure to distinguish between nature and what we produce from nature when we establish rights to property under law. Nature is our commons, the birthright of all persons, equally. Ideally, access to and control over any part of nature should be allocated by competitive bidding for a leasehold interest. This was the plan put forward by Henry George in the late 19th century. Rolling back the clock to eliminate deeded control over nature proved to be unachievable, which is why he accepted as a second-based solution the public capture of the rent of land via taxation.

[@jgalt308]

@@nthperson If only "nature" cared what you think...or could be made to conform to your desires.

[@nthperson]

I am at a loss to understand what you are getting at. We all need access to nature to survive. The laws in most countries have allowed for nature to be controlled by a minority of wealthy individuals and corporations. Is that not a fundamental injustice?@@jgalt308

[@kaceykelly7222]

Your insight, intelligence and wisdom is needed now more than ever. I hope you tell us the specific, daily steps we can each take to move this nation away from the corporations & billionaires that seem to control everything.

[@afrivox]

They dont have any practical solution. They are theoretical professors who never left school and have never had a day in their lives. If they know how a factory should run, why dont they start one, give everyone equal share and equal decisions making, distribute proceeds equally, take care of the environment... all of these things...and show us how it is done? Even their academia, which is 99.9% run by socialists still have a lot of bureaucracy, lot of hierarchy, lot of wage disparity, charge enormous amount of money to our youth who get nothing out of them that they couldnt learn from a book or YT😂

[@murraymadness4674]

Simply Abolish the Stock Market. No more shareholders that own the corporation, make it owned by the employees who control the management and can hire/fire them. There will only be a bond market, you can earn interest but it gives you no say in how the business is run. If you still have shareholders and investors and a stock market, then democracy at work won't change who employees are really working for.

[@kaceykelly7222]

What a good idea...I think we need to lean on our representatives to do what you recommend!

[@player627]

What happens to all those pension plans funded with these stocks?

[@murraymadness4674]

@@player627 They become bond plans.

[@player627]

@@murraymadness4674 so where do these trillions in bonds come from? And what about foreigners who own 40% of the stock market? What do they get? And what about investors like me who own stocks in taxable accounts? What do I get? I don't want bonds which will go to near zero with the new supply hitting the market?

[@murraymadness4674]

@@player627 We will solve all the details in youtube comments, don't worry.

[@alfred-vz8ti]

what socialism needs, and never talks about, is democracy. when the people rule, socialism will follow. until the people rule, the rich will own the politicians. just look around you.

[@jgalt308]

but the rich don't own the politicians...POWER corrupts...and those that have the actual POWER don't have to waste their money protecting themselves from those who actually have it. hell, the money isn't even "money" anymore... shame that such a simple concept that has ruled since the beginning of history is still not understood by those who have been subjected to it.

[@geraldmantel4955]

Socialism ... now, that's a good idea!

[@mariewray446]

Excellent -

[@peterboytRaKs]

We 'get it' Prof. Wolff. Capitalism is still slavery vs Social Democracy. Question., Where's Lincoln now when we need him the most? Anti-socialism is in effect, the same as slavery in other terms but identical in today's socio-political, economic and cultural environment. Socialism is an arbitrary term used by the power elite who want to defend the status quo. And so is 'Democracy' for that matter.

[@bostjanpalcic832]

Hvala.

[@carmenlajoie2719]

BRI Forum in Beijing last week, 140 leaders attended. Cooperation in Agriculture-Infastructure Poverty allieviation-STEM... Templates tried & true, CGTN The Point-Hub-Heat, Einar Tangan-Martin Jacques. Reporterfy...

[@Gerhardium]

Capitalists to fund it and cooperate apparently, at least that's the excuse they give for Cuba and Venezuela being such marvelous utopias.

[@nigelthomas8315]

What your view on Murry Bookchin's democratic centralism

[@bellavelascco]

brilliant

[@dbarker7794]

To succeed in the USA, socialism would need smarter citizens. We're too stupid. But most of all we are too greedy and selfish. There will never be real socialism in the USA because of who we are and how we live. We enjoy seeing others suffer and we live feeling superior to the poor and homeless and sick. We worship money. I don't ever hear the Professor discuss the antisocial character of the American people.

[@doilyhead]

That character hinders the cooperation needed to run a successful company. Even more problematic is correctly predicting and planning environmental impacts.

[@jgalt308]

What "money"?

[@inusual11]

great. thanks for the wisdom

[@sidikifofana1140]

Thank you very much professeur I hope people all a round the world listen to you. You are the professeur the world needs ❤❤❤ ❤❤ ❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@EramisGoodspiel]

We need to give grants and loans to communities to start worker cooperatives! End loans to capitalist businesses now! Convert all for profit banks to either credit unions or municipal banks

[@aemilianvs]

Mr. Wolf, the elected president of Argentina is apparently considering offering total control to public company unions instead of privatizing them. They have already rejected that idea, stating that it is just a way to lead to bankruptcy the companies for a subsequent sale at a lower price. Isn't this an opportunity to demonstrate how empowered workers can effectively manage such a complex endeavor and promote socialism as a viable approach?

[@schloughed]

Socialism needs all your money.

[@AdmiralBison]

Capitalism needs all your money to go to the rich 1% that owns everything. i.e. Shareholders.

[@annohalloran6020]

When I found myself a single homeschool mom I embraced the farmers markets in my area. I tried many product lines and make a good happy very modest living. I am my own boss. We grew the market to outdoor year round during CoVid. The town embraced us. Many new entrepreneurs of small cottage industry have made a vibrant fun event every week. The food stamp double dollars and WIC helps us too. You can do this anywhere.

[@afrivox]

Food stamp is the key here. What u did, majority of people in developing countries are doing it. Nothing magic except they dont have the food stamps and social welfare and medicare to fall back on. Who pays for those food stamps btw? And who produce the infrastructure you use from this device you are using to the power, water, roads, tools that help you do whatever you are doing ?

[@cleopatra3206]

Thanks

[@greghunt5591]

Perhaps use the tax code. For instance, worker coops could be taxed at 10% and non-coops would be taxed at 25%

[@ClassicalTraining]

@greghun5591 Taxing doesn't ultimately work. Yes, it could be a measure to help the working class. But, it would just put some aspects of capitalism in hiding. So, you would still have capitalism. The point is to seize the means of production.

[@tjsmith5477]

Socialism: To Satisfy the needs of those in Power! Professor Wolff Preaches Socialism but made his Millions as a Capitalist! Socialism for us Capitalism for him and his Family!

[@afrivox]

Exactly... and by enslavinv our youth with crippling debts, just to read them Das Kapital and highlighting a few words in it.😂😂😂

Totally agree work you. But need, in my opinion, that work for improve the living conditions of the working class. We have to va work too build the three types of socialism, not only one of them!!

[@ClassicalTraining]

@RoqueCarreon isn't that what the NewEconomicPolicy and the Five Year Plans actually did? I mean, they were successful in that.

[@nigelthomas8315]

But work shouldn't be the only place I live? Less profit less useless output less work! Socialism is freedom from work

[@leifurthorleifs9869]

Make a word for something to twist everything and you control the world.

[@bobwilson3980]

It need what every political system needs, resources, Capitalism uses up resources and climate change says it. Karl Marx said that decades ago.

[@jaanikaapa6925]

What Americans see as socialism here in Nordics is actually modern liberalism that came to forefront right after WW2. The thing is that the classical and then neo liberals were able to take things back. It's sad watching USA where the idea of public is always bad, it's not. Sure we have problems with our schools, but they're actually good and working.

[@challe535]

The reason classical and neo liberals were able to take things back is because at no point did the Nordic countries get rid of the capitalist system. Nordic countries are just as capitalist as most other places and the primary reason that such a thing as the welfare system is even possible is because these countries much like other late stage capitalist ones necessarily make heavy use of imperialism (i.e. plundering the fruits of labour from other places in the world) which allows capitalists to "buy the social peace" - for example through higher salaries and welfare - locally while exporting the oppressive authoritarianism that is inherent to capitalism overseas.

[@FiasaPower]

That's a mainstay of American thinking and apparently even professor Wolff can't think outside it. As Scandinavians, we Latins conceive public spheres such as the government, labor unions and associations not as intrinsically "socialist" things. It's a matter of civilization and I understand that. For Anglo-Americans, a "bigger" government necessarily means socialism, but by seeing things that way you must recognize the Brazilian or Portuguese "Estado Novo" dictatorships as socialist governments, which wasn't the case at all. Even I, a Christian conservative, could be a left socialist by that definition. The Social Doctrine of Catholic Church and the French positivists too, as both pummel down the profit-based capitalistic society as something immoral. But in the American thought context, more government automatically equals socialism and that's why the Scandinavian societies are socialist by their standards.

[@jaanikaapa6925]

@@challe535 Yes and no. In Nordics there's been an unwritten rule about the government: it's by the people for the people and together we take care of each other. With the end of WW2 the liberal movement did appease the millions of people suffering and things got better. Trouble is that this was taken as granted, people forgot that what's been given can be taken away. You always have to take it, that's the thing we have to learn over and over again through labor force. Once again here we're being told that the workers wouldn't be able to succeed without the high paid bosses... Who're there to just make sure that the owners of the companies get more money, f* the workers. We've all bought into the American Dream, which in reality is the American Nightmare. Our civilization has been from the get go been a very social system, we've always taken care of each other on village, town, community level. Everyone pitching in where they can and everyone's been taken care of. Then came the imperialism to us and suddenly we had classes, etc. And we're still living in that way. We know, everywhere on the globe, that working together we'd do better but somehow that never really succeeds since someone always wants to be the boss and command. I guess it's human nature. As for Wolff's notes about socialism having not changed how work is done... Well. It has. Unions have forced owners to listen to the workers, we also have co-op companies that literally work together very much like the socialist idea. As for not doing away the capitalist companies? Well, that would be called theft. Just nationalise a company? No, in a real and proper system the nation (ie everyone) owns the utilities and transportation, lots of industry and whatnot. However, we've had the non-social ideologues come in through elections and destroy these things, sell them off. Always in a disastrous way, because "national and public things can never be as efficient or good as private". A sentiment that's been proven wrong all over the world.

[@challe535]

@@jaanikaapa6925 But having an unwritten rule or a socialistic tradition doesn't change the driving forces of systems like slavery, feudalism or capitalism which create and maintain a ruling class. All of these systems reward those that act out of self interest and punishes those that don't, creating a selective pressure in society. So when somebody wants to be boss and succeeds in doing so it isn't because of "human nature" it is because there is a systemic pressure for people like that to be selected for. What communists should aim for is to reverse that selective pressure, to systemically make selflessness be rewarded and selfishness punished. About what you said "what's been be given can be taken away" this is exactly what I mean when I say that the Nordics never got rid of capitalism. That is the consequence of still having a capitalist class whoose interest and resources is going to be spent in undoing any concessions that where given. Not only that but the appeasing of people through these concessions wouldn't work without imperialism. Without capitalist being able to focus on increasingly exploiting the working class abroad they would have to put all their focus on exploiting the working class at home, and that would mean that no concessions would be made and the conditions for working class people at home would just keep deteriorating (like it is now as the global south is becoming increasingly independent and western imperialism is loosing its hold). Only by undoing capitalism, and thereby ridding yourself of the capitalist class, can long term progress be made.

[@nthperson]

It is important to remember that the system of law established by the framers of the U.S. Constitution and those who formed the state constitutions is essentially that which existed in England. All of Britain was then and still is dominated by a landed aristocracy. European-Americans had already established the basis for a landed aristocracy and speculation in land as a central part of the economic system. George Washington was one of the most successful land speculators of his era. He had plenty of company. Speculation in land and natural resources has from the very beginning been central to the redistribution of income and wealth from producers into the pockets of rentier interests, both individual and corporate.

[@gregorysouthworth783]

Thank you, Professor Wolff for an honest informative evaluation of the, for lack of a better term, the journey of socialism, and it is a journey. A real socialist society has to be bottom-up, not just top-down.

[@user-pq1ik1vo1s]

Every word in English can become objects when speak with partner or without on oneself.

[@piku5637]

(Guaranteed liveable) Universal basic income, strong labour unions and co-ops ftw.

[@player627]

I fear too many would accept the universal income and set on their asses.

[@bobbafett1849]

​@@player627billionares do it all the time

[@weaddictedtoperception]

he said all this but then yall didnt like the video. 13k veiws - 1k likes. showing we didnt get it, or didnt care, or life ya know, thanks prof.

[@xanadurising7978]

The ghost of Benjamin Tucker.

[@roughhabit9085]

“ The principle reason for the discontent of our times is that you have been encouraged to believe, by a demagoguery of the left, that the Federal government is going to take care of your life for you “ ~WFB

[@ClassicalTraining]

@roughhabit9085 the capitalists are already taken care of, by the profit they gain on the backs of the proletariat. Take your bootlicker ideology elsewhere.

[@bluewater454]

Question: How do you create a “community of equals” in the workplace when you don’t have a workforce with equal work ethic, equal skills or equal abilities”? Can the state force this kind of equality?

[@mitu5492]

Equality of power does not mean equality of skill, work ethic, pay or whatever. If people in a democratic firm are payed the same, it is decided collectively. It means workers have an equal say in what to produce, in deciding their inner structures and how to use the fruits of their collective labor, instead of having the owner decide over everything and extract profits out of them, while allocating the labor in what is most profitable for him or his shareholders than what is wanted by the workers or needed by a community.

[@queztocoaxial]

To each by their need, from each by their ability. You see, the key is to stop being a dick about whether someone isn't capable of doing the same amount of labor as you, or the same quality, etc. It's selfish. Neoliberalism has been indoctrinating people into being selfish individuals for the past 45 years or so. Bootstraps and all that shit. Steering society toward the idea that selfishness and "rugged individualism" is a good thing, so that people won't band together and fight back against the ruling class. Socialism requires people to go back to helping each other in community. If you can carry more wood than One-Arm Joe, does that mean he should starve while watching you eat? No. You do what you can, he does what he can, and everyone eats. Feeling salty about someone who does less than you is selfish and gross. That doesn't mean that there isn't room for incentives for exceptional work under socialism. There are several different theoretical models that allow for this. But it would require delicate handling so as not to create another class division of elites and commoners like we have now.

[@bluewater454]

@@mitu5492 So what I am hearing is that you want “equal power” without equal responsibility. As I said in another post, Marxism is at war with reality.

[@skynet4496]

We already have a system where the useless executives, traders, and politicians (and their "scientists") have only one skill: lying. They produce nothing. Even the guy next to you who is slow at work has more skills than these sociopaths

[@bluewater454]

@@queztocoaxial Creating false dichotomies is not going to help your argument. If you can’t carry as much wood as Joe, it doesn’t mean Joe thrives while you starve. It means that Joes pay will be equal to his work, just as yours will be. You think that getting more pay for more work is gross. I think that believing you should deserve anything other than what you have worked for is gross. That makes you a parasite. If you aren’t good at collecting wood then find something you are good at, but don’t tell me that you are owed anything other than what you have earned.

[@susanevans1294]

Prof, you’re leaving out an important dot for people trying to connect these dots. All these years that socialism attempts to correct the problems of capitalism, they leave the few, the private ownership of corporations with the money and the power to influence our government and write rules which keep out new socialist attempts. While you speak of stronger and more unions of workers you’re missing stating out loud the main reason the capitalists win. Go ahead and say out loud from your revered lips, that we must prohibit the corporate leadership from interfering with government. Strong unions are one answer to curbing this power. Citizen owned coops, cooperative stores, are also ways to change the system by giving buyers a choice to keep their money in small retail boutique stores, local coops, and thereby denying their money to line the pac-power capitalist pockets. Until we stop them at that game, we won’t see real systemic change n the USA. For example, here in Albuquerque, NM we have a five-store collective of women entrepreneurs owning small boutique consignments stores. I will do all my seasonal shopping and gift buying in this type of place. Let’s take our money away from the Walton family and others who wish to keep us all as wage slaves. I listen to you every day, sometimes I replay older videos. Brilliant! The fact that you are rising in popularity is no surprise. Keep ‘em coming. ❤

[@nthperson]

Decades ago I struggled to find answers to the issues raised here by Professor Wolff. Then, in the early 1980s I was introduced to the writings of Henry George. George had come to the organizational principles he believed would lead to just law, justly enforced. Was his system capitalism? Socialism? Or something else. The answer finally came from a lecture by historian Paul Gaston on the origins of the utopian community called "Fair Hope" established in the early 1900s on Mobile Bay in Alabama. Fair Hope's founding document called for "cooperative individualism" to guide the relations between the individual members of the community, a community in which all of the land was held in trust.

[@hankyou]

Have a look at : The Mondragon Corporation !! ;^)

[@dogchaser520]

Georgism is a very interesting possibility. We need more people pushing at the boundaries of how we might organize economies and ultimately society. And more people looking in to the many possibilities that have been proposed over the years.

[@nthperson]

I know Professor Wolff thinks taxing land values is a good idea. That said, I don't think he agrees that its adoption would bring about systemic reform. I agree that even Henry George's full-blown elimination of all taxation except for the public capture of nature's rents is not a silver bullet. That said, it would make other reforms all the more easier to bring about.@@dogchaser520

[@reasonerenlightened2456]

​@@dogchaser520 Georgism is yet another half-baked attempt at wealth and Power distribution that serves only the interest of the Wealthy. The same goes for "democracy at work". I challenge Prof. Wolff to a debate on the subject "Democracy at work is not a sustainable idea." Why should anyone work with anyone if someone believes they are more deserving than the other in respect to wealth and power distribution? Only through dictatorship and competition things get done, and when those fail then cooperation and sharing of Power emerges....but once the circumstances change everything goes back to competition and dictatorship.

[@philipdamask2279]

Another thing he does not understand is that even union members want to have more pay based on their skill level. I do not know any union supervisors or crew leaders that consider employees working under them to be slaves.

[@afrivox]

Nobody in the west considers their employee as slave. Only us who have never experienced real slavery throw around this word like it is out of fashion😢

[@reasonerenlightened2456]

The Unions are an invention of the wealthy to keep you disoriented. If the government we vote for is doing its job correctly then charities and unions WILL BE obsolete. The correct laws will eliminate the need for unions, the correct spending of our taxes will eliminate the need for charities. IT IS THAT F-ING SIMPLE. The voter is to blame for being so easily bamboozled by the Wealthy.

[@sl-lz3dw]

I love hearing your messages, though I often strain to hear. Volume full up I can hear in so long as not in a noisy place. If you would record with a little higher volume I would appreciate it and believe others would too.

[@kaceykelly7222]

I had to get an external speaker for both my laptop and my cell phone. What a difference!! Give it a try...

[@al2642]

Amen, comrades

[@afrivox]

Aye comrades.😂

[@DCastro9mm]

Good to see you back..professor!! ✊️♥️🚩

[@kathryntate6809]

Dr. Wolff, why can't we drop all "..isms"? Call it what it is--"better business practices".

[@ShaedeReshka]

Because words and definitions for those words are critical to be able to understand what was, what is, and what could be. We could get rid of "ism" and use other words, but they would end up with the same problems as words that end in "ism", and if we abandon words altogether, then we give up on all pursuits of understanding.

[@helpanimals-]

China and Russia are both authoritarian which is what you're not saying. Chinese unemployment is high among graduates generally. There's a difference between communist 'socialism' and democratic 'socialism'

[@jirotomiyama5589]

If we acquire a Socialist government, my hope would be that there would still be an viable opposition party. Most of the models we've had in the past haven't had opposition parties to call the failures of the sitting government into account.

[@jasondashney]

100% a countervailing force is needed. Everything needs one. The right needs the left and the left needs the right. Parties need opposition as well. To me the big problem Socialism is that it's still absolutely requires hierarchies. Everything does. Your friend group absolutely has a hierarchy. And if your friend group is tasked with something, you will naturally formed into a hierarchy based on your competencies and ambition. Socialism seems to want to deny that we are all like this. Every socialist and Marxist group or political party definitely has a hierarchy. The workplace will have a hierarchy because some people are more skilled than others and more knowledgable than others and obviously you want the most knowledgable people directing things. In the government, you want the people who know the most about economics to deal with economics. Who decides? There's either one person at the top or a small committee that would ultimately decide everything and you're right back to having a hierarchy. You simply can't have everyone decide on everything for 2 reasons: one, that would be chaos because people wouldn't have the time to learn about each thing and decide and vote on absolutely everything. And two, by no stretch of the imagination is everybody equally knowledgeable. You'd have people that know absolutely nothing about something with an equal say as everybody who is an expert on it.

[@sizzla123]

Much appreciated. If Nothing Changes, Nothing Changes

[@DylanHamilton-lh4rk]

Abolish the wages system

[@player627]

And replace it with what?

[@shainfarah3433]

Thank you Dr. Wolff: Nothing is more debilitating than lack of knowledge and misunderstanding about a subject matte, which turns the humanity to his on animi.

[@jgalt308]

Not true...as what is even more debilitating is believing you are being given knowledge, when it is simply "selected instances or unsupported claims" whose veracity can be dismissed when what is being said is understood as "lies of omission". In terms of knowledge, Wolff has taken you from simple ignorance to willful ignorance.

[@ClassicalTraining]

​@@jgalt308where in this video did you find any instance of willful ignorance? Where?

[@jgalt308]

@@ClassicalTraining The question isn't where is it? It's where isn't it?

[@ClassicalTraining]

@@jgalt308 'Willful ignorance' can be found nowhere in this video. All of the things that he said are facts.

[@jgalt308]

@@ClassicalTraining And that statement demonstrates the transition of simple ignorance to willful ignorance. Thanks for the confirmation.

[@Paradoxisthefingerprintofgod]

Number Two: Nationalization of Resources.

[@TylerTrestik]

thank you proff. wolf

[@florianhofmann7553]

Decent people are needed for Socialism to Succeed and I'm afraid we are educating the opposite.

[@clarestucki5151]

We definitely need more socialism in this country. After all, everybody knows how much more successful and how the standard of living of socialist places is better than our standard of living, right?

[@player627]

But the standard of living will be the same for everyone. That's the desired outcome, right?

[@psikeyhackr6914]

It is curious how neither Capitalism nor Socialism needs mandatory accounting in the schools. Double-entry accounting is only 700 years old. If you search the internet for: 5th graders accounting collegians You will find an article from 2003 claiming that 5th graders can learn accounting as well as college students.

[@reasonerenlightened2456]

Accounting and management is for the kids of the Wealthy. The kids of the poor have to be made smart enough to operate the machinery called a business but not smart enough to question the Ownership of the Wealth and the control of the Power.

[@SedikoRakolote]

Please talk about Marxist Theory in Social Conflict

[@whiterabbit2932]

Perfectly explained 👏

[@gutot8786]

Prof Wolff - changing the dynamics of inside the factory and office under socialism would simply mean that people become resentful as they would do different tasks compared to others (i.e time spent differently) whilst earning the same share of the wealth. Unless we break-free from a scarcity mentality, socialism can never work. The only way to begin changing this dynamic would be to vastly deploy technology and automation for the most basic needs and scale the services across the whole of society - housing, food, clothing, water and electricity. Only once the core material infrastructure is fully established we should begin to remap social values not to abolish private property, but simply make it irrelevant under the eyes of a reformed bourgeois class

[@ClassicalTraining]

@gutot8786 Who told you that everyone would earn the same? That's absolutely not true. The problem with capitalism is that CEOs and Capitalists that own the means of production, make profit, without actually producing, right? Well, when *private* property (let's be careful now, *private* property, *not* *personal* property) is abolished, all that is produced will end up in the hands of the producer. This means that the producers will gain the equivalent of what they produce. *Equivalent*. That is not the same with saying "they will all get the same pay".

[@gutot8786]

@@ClassicalTraining thank you for the message - this goes to the very essence of the problem. Means for production is one part of the equation, we also need to account the natural resources to produce (i.e. why should company x own the oil in any country provided natural resources should be owned by the state hence the people). Production does not come only from input of time and effort, but mainly efficiencies deployed via technology. AI can be a much more efficient COO than any executive in America today. Under those circumstances, what justifies a C-suite earning seven figures whilst your average workers earns 40-80k a year when AI can out-produce both of them? True socialism can only work if the wealth generated from the natural resources but also the tech (which is the key point) is widely distributed in society diminishing the importance of private property whilst still securing personal property rights (which should be based on individual production only)

[@benardpatrick9482]

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[@thanyalakbandatang-lh7cz]

These strategies are quite rigorous for the regular. As a matter of fact, they are mostly successfully carried out by pros who have had a great deal of skillset.

[@justinajoshua9369]

I’ve been on b0th end of the spectrum, I was investing on my own for about years, did my own study and analysis before actually buying, things became rather difficult not until a colleague introduced me to my current financial advisor. He has helped me convert my $50,000 portfolio into $250,000

[@daveminsch313]

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[@peternyc]

In a way, Prof Wolff's worker coop idea completes the 18th/19th century ideal of liberalism while also creating a bridge to socialism. The individual in the worker coop is sovereign, and the coop is made up of all these individuals, each sovereign. Fraternity, equality, and liberty all make sense in this context.

[@peternyc]

The worker coop is key to a real dictatorship of the proletariat.

[@jgalt308]

Actually, the worker/owner is NOT sovereign but subject to the majority... and the one thing he can never be is an "owner".

[@peternyc]

@@jgalt308 If the worker coop makes decisions according to consensus, as is done by Quakers, then a single worker can object to a proposal and hold out indefinitely. Consensus decision making (for Quakers at least) demands 100% approval.

[@peternyc]

@@jgalt308 As far as "owner" goes, nobody in their right mind would want to be "the" owner. The whole point of socialism is to take full advantage of economies of scale. "The" owner is a malignant concept.

[@jgalt308]

@@peternyc What does consensus mean in human behavior? The consensus is a collective, majority agreement. Consensus theory is based on an assemblage of consensual values, norms, ethics, and shared experiences. Consensus theories each emphasize the importance of the majority agreement. A person who does not hold these collective ideals is considered deviant. One of the interesting phenomena of the socialist rhetoric is that it is completely reliant on the distortion and misrepresentations of the meaning of the words used, historical ignorance, and the denial of the reality that governs the conditions of existence to which we are subject. That people do not want to be owners or rulers is directly contradicted by the history of civilization, while failing to recognize the rather singular possibility it enabled which had not been available prior to its emergence. What was that singular possibility? Also, what was the malignancy of J.D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil or Andrew Carnegie? Or any of the "other" so-called "robber barons"? If, according to Wolff, employers raise prices because they can, and this is the cause of inflation...is that claim a valid one confirmed by the evidence for the previous question?

[@rap36case]

This title would seem to focus anti-socialism on blocking the needs.

[@pauldebruijne64]

are people worldwide maybe to cruell,to evil to egoistic to shaire things to bid,and if NOT,dont we need indeed a dictature of the poor working class,worldwide?

[@AlexKai739]

Though far from perfect, I think the PRC's socialism is the most pragmatic, least dogmatic and solutions oriented. It does not deny private ownership and even capitalism for as long as they deliver benefits that the society needs. Unlike West politics which are forever adversarial , it does not take not even its own political system as the "end of history:" Rather it strives for continuous reforms and breaking down barriers to changes.

[@user-bp2zj7yu5f]

Dear Professor Wolff： I am a fan of yours for quite some time. Respectfully, I do not agree with the main theme in this lecture of yours. You advocate the idea of changing "the basic organization of production". You want there to be a revolution inside the workplace." You would want all the workers to be a community of equals" I don't know how far in "equality", and what kind of "equality" would you have in mind? It is by nature, that everybody is born with different endowment in talent, drive, and capabilities in different areas. Any enterprise, any organization, any group, is consisted of people with different talents and capabilities. There would be leaders and followers by nature and by necessity. The workplace, even the world, works in a way that requires each and every one does his/her own part, be it to lead, or to follow. Yes, there are, and should be, mechanisms for each and every one to change his role, to make advancement in his career, by making contributions and showing the capabilities that commensurate the advancement, but not before. Everyone should enjoy an equality of equal opportunity, but not an equality of decision-making, which would surely lead to chaos and bring on anarchy. I subscribe to the Confucian idea of: "大道之行也，天下为公。选贤与能，讲信修睦。。。。。“ In English, it means that: "When the Great Way is practised, everything under the sky belongs to the public. The virtuous ones are elected, and the capable ones are empowered [to be leaders]. [Everybody] honors his/her promises and be harmonious with each other. ........." (I would assume that you would be familiar with this quote." Yes, this would be Utopian, but it is also Socialistic!. Very difficult, but should not be impossible to reach. What is the most important element, and which is rarely seen, would be that those who have become leaders need to be selfless, not only in their deeds, but also in their souls. The prevalent philosophy of "everything for number one" would not even exist. With best regards, Kuang F. Lin, Ph.D., FAIC, age 88 minus 3 months, Wilmington, DE.