Economic Update With Richard Wolff: Can Worker Cooperatives Challenge Capitalism?

[@PortlandsTransport]

Always excellent commentary. Thanks Mr Wolff

[@Nine-Signs]

Thank you as always, from the UK.

[@Alkis05]

This is interesting, but I would like to hear more about the contradictories coops face, like: hostile competition (economic and political) with big corporations; how they deal with problems common to other small business; work-owners vs worker-non-owners as the coops grow; internal politics (where there is democracy, I would guess there is politics) and so on. Most of all, a gradual creation of cooperatives doesn't seem to provide a path to the hegemony of a cooperative economy. What happens to the big corporations and franchise chains and the workers working in them.

[@s.r.howell1297]

Essential viewing for all people.

[@Pro-tanto]

Wow, there are videos of Dr. Wolff's Economic Updates available, too. Awesome! I thought that most of episodes were released only in audio format.

[@FrogmortonHotchkiss]

Doesn't get around to cooperatives until 30:30 Great vid and all, but sheesh, I mostly already knew what was covered in the first half and could've done with a ref in the description so I could go straight to the topic/content I clicked for. Friendly advice. :-)

[@RobertMOdell]

I've got a GREAT IDEA! Mr Wolff should start a small town somewhere and test his ideas out. Form a town, start a bunch of worker cooperatives (which is a great idea) and see how it goes.

[@MENDLER1]

RobertMOdell This has been tried many times.. Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela, etc etc.

[@RobertMOdell]

I don't think those were dominated by worker cooperatives. I think they were more like military central planners.

[@james192599]

Splugen pass those were not worker cooperatives those were top down state managed industry trying to pretend to be socialism when it was infact authoritarian statism and state capitalism.

[@timcuencaaarum2690]

the greatest man alive

[@pnachtwey]

When Wolff stops teaching and starts doing successfully, only then will he have credibility in my eyes. I am a successful small business owner. Wolff is a marxist. He never has anything good to say about capitalism even though capitalism has got us this far even though government has successfully made pure capitalism impossible. The median household income has declined because the people in the US are competing with foreign workers and automation. This is where Wolff is an idiot. "The workers have improved productivity." This is BS. The machines that the workers use have made US workers more productive. It is the machines and those that own them that deserve the returns for the increased productivity. On top of that, the same machines are available to those workers over seas. Now is is simply a matter of whether a US worker can produce more than the foreign worker using the same machine. If not then how can the US worker justify his higher pay? You do not have a right to reproduce at other people's expense. Where is that written in the US Constitution? Look at the welfare queens. My mother told me early on that the world doesn't revolve around me. The world does owe me a living. Wolff make a good complain about Obama care. My company has a deductible of $2000 a year but this is to get the health insurance down. My/our company contributes $100 a month to offset the deductible. This means the employee/me is only going to be out at most $800 a year. 65% require SS, These people did a poor job of raising their kids. In many other societies the kid take care of their parents which is why the parents invest so much in their kid, Wolff thinks we all should be reliant on government for everything. What did people do before? About collectives. Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google etc, and even my company wouldn't be founded with out the dreams or desires of just one person. These guys are idiots. When these idiots have made a few million dollars being productive then they will be worth listening to. I/my company has not got government subsidies. We DON"T NEED subsidies. We compete with some of the biggest companies in the world successfully. Why can't these economist acknowledge that there are some people/companies that are just that good? These economist in this video can't image that because they are not entrepreneurs. They are marxists. The real problem is government officials that can be bribed by big companies. Capitalism is not the problem. Corrupt government that is bought and paid for by big companies is.

[@timcuencaaarum2690]

Peter Nachtwey The thing is that you are missing the point. the point is the nature of capitalism, to make profit the labourers have to get paid less than they produce or to make the product more expensive for the consumers than it was to produce the product. When it comes to the competition between workers there is no discussion to be had over the subject, its straight forward. The market competition works both ways and that means that when you move jobs abroad you increasse unemployment in the original country which means that the workers will compete for jobs by allowing the companies even cheaper labour. End of conversation.

[@pnachtwey]

I miss nothing. You are absolutely right but that is the way is must be. Take away the capital, take away the machines and business organization, put the workers in the middle of the Sudan desert and see what they can produce. Zip point squat. The capitalist need to get a return on investment or else there will be no capital, no jobs, nadda. On top of that where do the machines come from if the workers get all the money. Even in a coop the workers would need to give up some of their pay to buy new machines to remain competitive. On top of that where is the creative genius of the workers? Would a socialistic/marxist society develop the airplane, phonograph, telegraph, radio, TV, light bulb, transistor, Microsoft, Google , even the toilet, penicillin,aspirin etc? These are the results of individuals, not government.. I am smarter that you and that stupid Marxist professor. When you guys make your first million dollars in business you will know the other side of things. The reality. The Marxist professor lives in a dream world. I would love to debate him.

[@timcuencaaarum2690]

Peter Nachtwey what the honest fck are you talking about? anarchism has worked repeatidly, for example in catalonia before the spanish civilwar. it seems that you dont even understand how innovation works, almost all of the innovations in the modern world comes from the workers not the capital investors. in syndicalism you get the entire value of what you produce which means that productivity increasse, the only difference is that the workers have a higher quality of living and a democratic workplace. I am correct and you are wrong.

[@pnachtwey]

Can't you read? I never said innovation comes from the investors. There are a few people that have an idea and a drive like Jobs, Gates, Bezos, Musk etc. What group/coop of workers founded a major company? You dodged my comment about workers getting all the value they produce. It can not be. Where do the tools/machines the workers use come from? What about marketing? Come back after you have run a company for 10 years. Most don't last that long.

[@xcscasas5765]

Ex Yugoslavia, not Cuba, first introduced worker cooperatives.It finished in blood.

[@hai101277]

Tùy theo mô hình nào có sự sống sót cao nhất.