Interview with Richard D. Wolff

[Rajiv]

Richard D. Wolff is an Economist, Author, and Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and New School University. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Paris I (Sorbonne). He has authored or co-authored 10 books including The Economics of Colonialism, Bringing It All Back Home: Class, Gender and Power in the Modern Household, and Rethinking Marxism. His recent work has concentrated on analyzing the causes and alternative solutions to the current global economic crisis.


Will Obama's stimulus solve the crisis? Part 1

8 1/2 min

A house of credit cards Part 2

6 min

30's style jobs program needed Part 3

8 1/2 min

Also

Capitalism Hits the Fan A Marxian View

Richard Wolff a professor of economics at UMass Amherst talks on the current "financial" crisis and capitialism in general. A form of socialism is presented as a possible alternative. This talk was presented by the Asociation for Economic and Social Analysis and the journal Rethinking Marxism

39 min

[LargoWinch]

Re: Interview with Richard D. Wolff

Mr. Wolff's view regarding real wages is rarely addressed, which makes this interview quite refreshing.

I am unsure about Mr. Wolff's solution to the problem: a bigger government employing more and more citizens.

Reducing prices to what people can afford appears to be a more sensible solution in my view.

[Rajiv]

Re: Interview with Richard D. Wolff

Actually Wolff is not proposing bigger government -- see all 39 minutes of the last video I posted

To understand his background, see this interview with Harold Channer

58 Min

[LargoWinch]

Re: Interview with Richard D. Wolff

Will do. Thanks Rajiv.

Edit: Watched for 2nd time. Brilliant man this Mr. Wolff.

[Rajiv]

Capitalism Hits the Fan - Richard Wolff on the Economic Meltdown

Also a low Fi version of Richard Wolff;s DVD

With breathtaking clarity, renowned University of Massachusetts Economics Professor Richard Wolff breaks down the root causes of today's economic crisis, showing how it was decades in the making and in fact reflects seismic failures within the structures of American-style capitalism itself. Wolff traces the source of the economic crisis to the 1970s, when wages began to stagnate and American workers were forced into a dysfunctional spiral of borrowing and debt that ultimately exploded in the mortgage meltdown. By placing the crisis within this larger historical and systemic frame, Wolff argues convincingly that the proposed government "bailouts," stimulus packages, and calls for increased market regulation will not be enough to address the real causes of the crisis, in the end suggesting that far more fundamental change will be necessary to avoid future catastrophes. Richly illustrated with motion graphics, this is a superb introduction designed to help ordinary citizens understand, and react to, the unraveling economic crisis.

Richly illustrated with graphics and charts, this is a superb introduction that allows ordinary citizens to comprehend, and react to, the unraveling crisis.

Link here in case embed doesn't work

58 min

[cjppjc]

Re: Interview with Richard D. Wolff

Was there a part 4 to the Real News interview?

Btw: It is socialism. The idea of a new jobs program, when we don't have any money, is just as bad as giving money we don't have to the banks. If I party hard and never sleep, drink all day eat garbage food. There will be a day of reconing. After the doctor stiches me back up, he can tell me how to live. But it's a little too late now. I've taken years off my life expectancy and my future health will always suffer.

[jtabeb]

Re: Interview with Richard D. Wolff

Mr. Wolff's view regarding real wages is rarely addressed, which makes this interview quite refreshing.

I am unsure about Mr. Wolff's solution to the problem: a bigger government employing more and more citizens.

Reducing prices to what people can afford appears to be a more sensible solution in my view.

No this actually makes sense as a response to Marx's (correct) view that technology would put an unrestrained downward pressure on wages due to increased productivity and mechanization/automation of many jobs (he forgot about outsourcing). But the point is this a logical response to capitalism's inherent nature of reducing labor requirements.

If you look at the recent history of the US many see big government for no reason, I see a policy response to a decreasing utilization of labor. (not saying there aren't other ways of doing this, but the gov appears to have been and is actively pursuing policies to employ people displaced by productivity games and to give them a useful standard of living. (I should know, I'm one of em).

V/R

JT

[jtabeb]

Re: Interview with Richard D. Wolff

Was there a part 4 to the Real News interview?

Btw: It is socialism. The idea of a new jobs program, when we don't have any money, is just as bad as giving money we don't have to the banks. If I party hard and never sleep, drink all day eat garbage food. There will be a day of reconing. After the doctor stiches me back up, he can tell me how to live. But it's a little too late now. I've taken years off my life expectancy and my future health will always suffer.

If what we have now is capitalism, I'll take european style socialism anyday.

[Rajiv]

Re: Interview with Richard D. Wolff

Another partial solution to this is proposed by Richard Cook -- who takes a modified "Social Credit" view, and suggests a "Basic Income Guarantee" as a way to reduce capital rent extraction,

As you point out, government employment programs are going to happen anyway -- it is just that I would rather have them be used for purposes other than that of increased muscle flexing internationally or domestically.

[jtabeb]

Re: Interview with Richard D. Wolff

Another partial solution to this is proposed by Richard Cook -- who takes a modified "Social Credit" view, and suggests a "Basic Income Guarantee" as a way to reduce capital rent extraction,

As you point out, government employment programs are going to happen anyway -- it is just that I would rather have them be used for purposes other than that of increased muscle flexing internationally or domestically.

Agreed. I like the concept of Social Credit MUCH better than the "filling holes by digging holes" government works jobs projects idea.

[World Traveler]

Re: Interview with Richard D. Wolff

I read an article a few years ago, in a mainstream news publication, that this is exactly what happened in England. As England de-industrialized as a result of Margaret Thatcher's programs of re-privatization and large numbers of workers were let go, the government payrolls kept going up and up. Not just "the dole", but actual government jobs.

[LargoWinch]

Re: Interview with Richard D. Wolff

If you look at the recent history of the US many see big government for no reason, I see a policy response to a decreasing utilization of labor. (not saying there aren't other ways of doing this

JT, that is exactly my point; I am simply against the governments' squandering of human labor (I assumed at first that Wolff's was advocating for bigger government, but as Rajiv pointed out, he is clearly not).

Regarding the author, I have found this great clip, which does a great job at summarizing Wolff's views:

One thing remains unclear to me, even after reviewing several more clips; what is Wolff's solution to the problem? Employee-owned units of production? :confused:

[Rajiv]

Re: Interview with Richard D. Wolff

I think it boils down to businesses being run more as startups are run. His suggestion is that employees be on the boards of corporations. But the logical corollary (which he does not state and maybe does not even intend) of that really boils down to the breakup of giant corporations into much smaller business entities and much greater employee participation in the board level decisions.

His major contribution to economic thought is that soviet and chinese communism was really state owned capitalism and western capitalism is privately owned capitalism. The communism envisioned by Marx implies a greater control of the worker/owner over the businesses.

Doesn't that appear to be almost an ideal libertarian society? ;)

[jtabeb]

Re: Interview with Richard D. Wolff

JT, that is exactly my point; I am simply against the governments' squandering of human labor (I assumed at first that Wolff's was advocating for bigger government, but as Rajiv pointed out, he is clearly not).

Regarding the author, I have found this great clip, which does a great job at summarizing Wolff's views:

One thing remains unclear to me, even after reviewing several more clips; what is Wolff's solution to the problem? Employee-owned units of production? :confused:

I think the answer is that every citizen share holder of the US gets a payment on the business. Think about the Telecom specturm and other national resources the country has an where that money goes. It has largely been privatized in the form corprate profits. If these funds (profit sharing if you will) were returned to the public vs sent to the gov for a one-time transaction fee (the rest of the profits are all totally retained by the owning corp), well, you might have something to get us out of this mess.

The problem with selling off a resource like the telecom spectrum is that it lasts forever but you only have to buy it once. sure companies put money into to developing the tech that makes the system work, same thing with drug companies that get gov funding to do research but then get to turn around and privatize all of the profits of that research. If the gov instituted a profit sharing plan on these types of activities, one could very well provide a national income to every american from this revenue w/ just runing the printing presses or giving people jobs to dig holes and then fill them back up again.

[Supercilious]

Re: Interview with Richard D. Wolff

Wolff pinpoints the moment when the unsustainable wealth extraction process (generated after the abandoning of the gold standard) has began to create the illusory wealth. That part is good. IMHO his solution is wrong. The opposite to crony capitalism is not orwellian/illusory socialism/comunism, but truly free open and fair markets (aka good capitalism).
If your car has a flat tire that doesn't mean you should dump it and get a bicycle. That is the fallacy of a limited two option system.