Socialism For The Rich TAKEN APART

What if we told you socialism does exist - but only for rich people? The acclaimed Pulitzer Prize-winning author Matthew Desmond has a new book - Poverty, by America - and it answers big questions. Why do we spend lots on dealing with poverty, but without solving it? How has poverty become a profitable industry? Why is it so expensive to be poor? And can we really abolish poverty?
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[@OwenJonesTalks]

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[@pseudonayme7717]

Richmond has a face that says "Unhand me or I will do you in whilst you sleep"😄 He's gorgeous, show us the other one! 😁

[@theloveboxquartet]

And the UK poor still have to pay council tax and bedroom tax out of their meagre benefits...

[@paulfulton7968]

The Scottish government mitigated bedroom tax so that no one in Scotland payed it

[@garyhowtobluetoothjblheadp3583]

Less than meagre I'm afraid to say? I've seen how much seriously ill people in the UK actually get and it is reprehensible?!

[@paulgee1952]

No the poor get subsidies that go straight into the pockets of Landlords and Private shareholders of needs services, via taxation , thus by keeping wages low , the rich hold those working in a state of financial slavery. This is how Tory policy has worked in the UK and then 'sanctioning' those unable to work with financial penalties and rhetoric that suggests it is their own fault. The political establishment is turning on its own people for allowing wealthy companies and individuals to exploit peoples safety net s for capital gains and depriving the Tax revenue to be spent on social needs improvements and infrastructure. It is financial slavery at work, to further tax on those benefits is the sick joke of Tories , living off of poverty .

[@ryanrizzajones]

My poorest point was having £20 to eat for a month after bills, tax and rent.

[@garyhowtobluetoothjblheadp3583]

@@ryanrizzajones Britain for you?! Getting worse!

[@MM-wo5uk]

Loved Matthew's passion - we need more like him and you Owen

[@johnadams2198]

Spot on! I’d heard that the single biggest cause of family homelessness in the US was bankruptcy due to medical bills.

[@infidelcastro5129]

To paraphrase She Drew The Gun in their beautiful song ‘Poem’: If there was no poverty, would you still be happy working yourself to death for someone else’s benefit?

[@MartynThomas1]

@16:04 "Poor folks are paid so little because they have lost power. Unions are now weak, wages are stagnant and corporate profits have grown." THIS is the biggest problem we have in the UK right now. It's the cause of the "Cost of Living Crisis".

[@skyblazeeterno]

UK is run on a low pay high tax system pretending to be high pay low tax, while mainland European countries adopt a high pay high tax system which seems to work better

[@robertmaitland09]

It says it all when we refer to a section of society as 'the poor' in such a wealthy country.

[@pseudonayme7717]

'The people whose labour creates all of the wealth' would be more appropriate, but it's less catchy I fear🤔

[@akym82810]

Cos "Proletariat" is quite a mouthful and hard to spell.

[@gaye_alisir]

You can have a wealthy country and have poor and struggling middle class. The people don't necessarily own that wealth.

[@mauricerevelle8451]

That is one first class interview. I would like see you interview Gary Stevenson that would be very interesting. Anyone who doesn't know him, check out his U-Tube Gary's economics ..

[@jamalgking]

Seconding this, Owen please get Gary Stevenson on!

[@OwenJonesTalks]

Interviewed him a few months back, check it out!

[@CarolineFarrow]

OMG bank overdraft fees. I have an arranged overdraft here and yes i pay interest on it if i use it but that is peanuts compared to the overdraft fees I used to get in the states. Also here, if a payment doesn't have the funds to cover it, it doesn't go through, whereas in the States, it would go through because then they could pop you with a $30 overdraft fee per transaction, and that could snowball out of control very quickly if you made any sort of miscalculation. I'm not sure if there has been any reform on that since I left but you could get wiped out, lose your bank account, and not be able to ever get another bank account. This what drives people into payday loans and such, if the bank just took all your rent money... This is on top of absolutely insane food prices and oop better not need medical attention, even if you have insurance through your job because you might still have to pay several thousand out of pocket before the insurance kicks in, esp in low wage jobs where the benefits suck. The US system of pretty much everything is utter garbage, please please please let us not let the Tories turn Britain into the 51st State. Because if you think things are bad now.....

[@nataschavisser573]

In South Africa overdrafts work the same - you pay for the service if you want it and if you have not paid for an overdraft facility, transactions don't go through if there isn't enough money in the account. People with poor credit ratings also won't get overdraft facilities. I am not going to lie, bank fees are a bit high in South Africa, but at least the bank regulations here prevent customers from being screwed over totally like in the US.

[@susanjeynes1712]

They did that in the UK, then they did a cap

[@MrTimg12]

Bernie Sanders in his new book tells us about the perils of the UK emulating US capitalism ( which Thatcher instigated and is turbo charged by the Tories today) and particularly about the stealth privatisation of the NHS.

[@clickbait007]

Amazing amazing interview! I have never heard a discussion this deep around the subject of poverty. That probably exposes my lack of curiosity around the subject but could also be seen as an indictment on main stream press who simply don't care. Thank you, Owen!

[@dianacasey6002]

If more ppl looked at sociology they would understand that societies are constructed and don’t just happen. Unfortunately opening one’s eyes doesn’t really change anything but at lease it makes ppl more aware of why things are the way they are and how deliberate it is. Perhaps the seeds for change, which was what gave us the unions in the first place. When you have an economic system that fixes inflation by raising interest rates and creating massive unemployment to solve the problem. It might be time to have a change of system. I know pie in the sky nonsense but one can still dream it’s still free.

[@hilaryporter7841]

That was a very thought provoking and upsetting point that Matthew made in regard to the profits to be made out of the exploitation of the poor. Sounds like it's almost an industry in itself. I'm surprised the rich don't put it onto bill boards, the poor are really easy pickings for their schemes. Our politicians have encouraged the growth of zero hours contracts, where for example hard pressed gig economy workers have to pee in bottles so that like slaves working on the pyramids they don't actually stop work. There are many such examples, the theme is rife in 2023.

[@garyhowtobluetoothjblheadp3583]

Actually...slaves did not build the pyramids? This is a myth? However, slavery is very real today more than ever?!

[@jujutrini8412]

The poor have to exist for capitalism to continue.

[@garyhowtobluetoothjblheadp3583]

@@jujutrini8412 Yes..but another irrefutable argument would be that humanity allows capitilisam to exist? Change comes from within"! Subsquently that change must come from humanity to change and progress the system? Our option is to become extinct?! So ...what will be?? :-))

[@Tulkash01]

Nice interview I’ll make sure to get the book. The only thing I would have liked highlighted more was a more in depth analysis of how the difference of wealth between classes is actually a tool meant to perpetuate the social status quo

[@learningtofly3116]

Excellent show yet again Owen, if only the bosses would listen……

[@gretareinarsson7461]

Brilliant interview. I think I might have to read this book. Recently had a very strange discussion about poverty in my gay group, focusing on poverty among gays.

[@bodricthered]

It really seems bizarre to me how many people wilfully close their eyes to the cost of inequality crisis we're going through, how VAST the differential between rich and poor has become and how the 99.9% who don't benefit from it that keep voting for it.

[@hayleyanna2625]

This was brilliant. I will buy his book immediately.

[@DecMurphy]

Excellent video, we have to end our hyper-individualist culture which places the blame for poverty on the poor and create a new culture of class consciousness and solidarity. Systemic problems require systemic solutions.

[@markscript5746]

Blair is thought to be worth about £50 million so it certainly worked for him

[@veronicalynch1862]

Thanks for another excellent - saying it as it is interview

[@theworldaccordingto4555]

Love the show. Thanks for being a light in the dark.

[@jaay96]

Interesting watch, thanks for posting this

[@johnburrows3385]

Meanwhile Jeff Bezos has so much dosh he intrigues himself with sending rockets up into space .

[@cyntiacyn1]

Wonderful broadcast! Thank you ❤

[@elliotlambert3817]

Bailing out the Silicon Valley Bank will not cost the American people anything they will simple print the cash required all it will cost is the price of printing and the printers will be on a no hours contract.

[@rubybarker791]

Great interview

[@philomel1000]

Excellent, spot on. However ( I presume that you can’t cover it in a short podcast) it is essential to extend this analysis to the infamous migrant crisis “suffered“ by the West. Superpowers, just like their colonialist forerunners, leach poorer countries of resources, while outsourcing menial tasks and paying off corrupt leaders.. And, as a mirror image of what is happening in the increasingly impoverished sectors of their homelands, this leads to a collapse of belief in political processes and the rise of extremism, intolerance and fundamentalist militias. And of course we get refugees fleeing intolerable situations. Meanwhile the climate crisis, for which these affluent countries are largely responsible, is resulting in desperate climate refugees who are labelled 'economic migrants'. These are the scapegoats on whom the Home Office Is willing to spend billions while running down the the asylum processes And creating bottlenecks to be decanted into substandard, isolated accommodation.Even better this money can be taken from the International aid budget which might have been used to improve things at home so that people did not have to leave at the first place.

[@Dreyno]

As usual, the people who need to hear this never will.

[@cdean2789]

“You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest.

[@jonathaneffemey944]

Thanks for posting

[@Jamal-Ahmed786]

Capitalism for the poor and socialism for the rich.

[@cdean2789]

Up to seven million people in the UK are missing out on benefits they're entitled to, according to MSE founder Martin Lewis

[@phchmogh]

Fantastic talk Owen. Well done on your efforts

[@jonathaneffemey944]

The Nordic/Scandinavian model is that the answer?

[@michaeladkins6]

Massive Greed!

[@farinshore8900]

Being welfare dependent lowers your chances of escaping the trap. Policy change - fair wages in particular, are the only way to allow people to maintain their autonomy and escape poverty. Affordable post-secondary education is also necessary.

[@katherinecollins4685]

This was great

[@MZ4thJuly]

Owen 💗💗

[@domhart9046]

I'd like to see a politician live on £750 a month. I've seen some of their expenses, £390 for breakfast (i can only imagine was caviar and champagne) plus £90 cab fare to the next street charged to taxpayer. Yet they will whine about people on dole. USA had 90% top wealth tax and saw the largest growth and infrastructure investment the country saw plus all the rich were still dripping with wealth. So it always comes down to just taxing people and making it a point of patriotic pride to pay your taxes. After all its the most patriotic thing a citizen can do.

[@chrisjames1924]

His comment about $55k a year being disproportionately low was surprising to say the least. Especially to British ears. But then I checked UK/US wages. In 2021 the mean national average income in the US was $69,500, whereas in the UK it was $38,000. Even with health care costs that's a huge difference. Don't know about you but I'm still waiting for this high-wage economy the Tories have campaigned on for the past 13 years. They have run this country into the ground through rampant privatization and wholesale theft of taxes, infrastructure, services and more recently, our civil liberties too. In France people protest. In the UK protesting is outlawed, draconian surveillance measures are increased and the corporate media deploys misdirection hoodwinkery by overloading you with stories about Gary Lineker and people in small boats. Are you not entertained? They used to give us bread and circuses, but now it's all circus. People have been so effectively anesthetized that they don't even notice the bread's been taken away.

[@pec5187]

I really rate your programmes Owen. However why do you always have split screen. I do not need to see your face whilst listening to your guest speakers.

[@hatfullofsky2470]

Absolute power corrupts absolutley

[@cdean2789]

“If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him.

[@franktreml3145]

For 70 out of the last 100 years in the UK the population have voted for the Tories under the unfair FPTP system which has enabled the Tories to do great damage. Unfortunately the Tories have been able to do this by attracting a huge section of the working classes! If we don’t change it will be too late.

[@garrett2439]

The phrase "socialism for the rich" doesn't mean anything. Socialism does not mean 'when the government spends money on things'.

[@jorriffhdhtrsegg]

translation of the term would be corporatism, something espoused by the likes of Mussolini and Hitler.

[@mango4ttwo635]

socialism is worker power and/or ownership of business. It is not government does stuff nor is it bailouts for anyone. This uses the indoctrinated US mindset of what socialism is. The US has been indoctrinated into believing capitalism = free markets. It does not equal that. Capitalism is a form of ownership, free markets is a form of trade. the two may often co-exist. they are not the same. And equally, the US has indoctrinated its people into believing that socialism = government intervention. it is not. The two can co-exist and often does with social democracy. But they are not the same thing. But eliminating 100 years of indoctrination is near impossible to displace

[@josefinacupido9872]

Re ‘welfare dependency shy’! I know a 90 year old neigbour, who will not challenge the landlord for repairs! she does it herself , does not was to cause a ‘fuss’ same for pension credit & utilities benefits, she does not want to be seen to ‘need help’ !

[@ChrispyNut]

This is my comment. There are many others like it, but this one is mine.

[@joanneburford6364]

Australian population is 26 million not 38 million - do you even know where Australia is Matthew?

[@ally11488]

26 million in a vast land.

[@kjertenskarsgaard]

Socialism, the bane of the sane....

[@cdean2789]

The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender

[@cdean2789]

Biden is always talking about the middle class

[@RS-np8cu]

The bottom line is GREED>

[@davidforman2937]

Beautiful moggies.

[@jeff__w]

“And you're going to say ‘I talked to some very desperate people and then I zoomed out and it make me realize that the problem was low pay, landlords, and financial services.’ And it’s like ‘Well, then, you just made a mistake, man. That’s not how you should have done this.’” -Matt Bruenig “Response to Matthew Desmond's ‘Why Poverty Persists in America’”

[@LindaLee-xn8bb]

What’s this got to do with the UK?

[@adriftinaboat3452]

Are you a bit thick

[@pinksuze]

I can't cope with all the ads 😫 5 in this video. 5 ads 🤬