Capitalism Hits the Fan: Richard Wolff 

You are right. America is a class war plutocracy.

Handyman, are you suggesting that the means of production are not owned privately?

So the factories, machinery, and raw materials are not owned by private individuals/corporations?

The government doesn't own the private individuals/corporations. In fact, the reality is quite the opposite. The government is owned by those very individuals/corporations that own the means of production. What we have is Capitalism. This is what it has evolved into. Private owners control the means of production, hire laborers, extract the surplus value from their labor, and give it to themselves. That is capitalism. Taxes, regulations, or restrictions and Capitalism are not mutually exclusive. Each of those can and do exist within a Capitalist structure. Socialism, as compared to Capitalism, is often thought of as "government control," which is of course completely false. Socialism does not mean the government doing something. If you follow this false definition, you may be coaxed into believing that what we have is a "mixed" economy, in which we use parts of Socialism and parts of Capitalism. We don't. The means of production are not owned collectively, they are owned very very privately. The Western European nations are Social Democracies, and thus still exist within a Capitalist framework. Private individuals own the means of production. You may be confusing the terms "Capitalism" and "Marketism," which are not necessarily synonyms. Capitalism is private ownership, and Socialism is collective ownership. Within these two systems is "free market" and "controlled market." You can have a Market-Based Socialist structure, such as a system built on worker co-ops, which still follow all the same rules of a market except with collective control of production. You can also have Controlled Market Socialism, such as China and the Soviet Union, with large centralized planning structures and fixed prices (although some may argue this was actually a form of State Capitalism, as the means of production were arguably never owned by the mass of people, but simply by government officials). You can also have a Free Market Capitalist economic structure, and this is not what we have. What we have is a Controlled Market Capitalist economic structure. But do not be fooled, this is Capitalism. The rabbit holes certainly does go down deep.

Spartaculus Jones nicely said.

He wrote the books so he gets paid, YOU didn't so you don't..........troll

This argument is always pretty funny to me... Haaah! You protest environmental destruction, but I bet you DRIVE A CAR! Haaah! You are against Capitalism, but I bet you TRY NOT TO STARVE! Etc, etc, etc. It makes you wonder if these people even hear themselves, or if it's just been drilled so far into their heads they don't even recognize they're uttering sounds.

Amen Brett

Brett Leverett That's like saying you hate the monarchy yet you bow down to the king. You do what you have to in order to survive in the system you're in.

pyro 494 Of course you do. That was my point.

quinto190 Does that make you a Transismist? ;-)