Wolff Responds: Critique of Libertarianism and Crony Capitalism 

"libertarianism" are just Corporate apologists that champion unchallenged , unbridled Corporate rule. They're basically advocates of an economy where " capitalists" have no laws they must abide by. Consumers, workers , animals, the environment, etc will be at the mercy of "capitalists" and the Corporations they own.

The west point guy on rogans recent podcast is particularly upsettings when examing the facts. We have West point soldiers, whose entire lives have been soclialized. They get free meals, free cot, free health care, free housing, free college, and tons of money,. The soldiers live is complete socialism in the military-industrial-poltiical compelx. The military are arche-socialists, yet they decry socialism and say capitalism the answer. They are experts in living socially, yet they say capitalism and free market always offers the best solution? Isn't there life a counter-example. Surely the millitary would have capitalised every aspect, but they know that's bullshit. they know teams need cooperation not competition amongst the ranks.... I have lost all respect for westpoint. they produce idiot echo chambers.

libertarianism - pure corporate feudalism ;)

It's so frustrating to try and get through the heavily indoctrinated. They think capitalism is infallible, and ignore all of the problems.

Great info as always. Check the sound problems from around 9:03 until the end of the video. Something was wrong.

Liberals r already disliking 😂😂

Unfortunately all of this is true. It is no secret that in America it is Socialism for the rich and Capitalism for the poor.

There is no Capital without a State. Even “libertarians” recognize that, when they admit the need for an agency to enforce contracts. But they ignore material conditions, and never ask “who chooses that agency? who controls it?”. They always imagine two equal parties at the table, but that situation is nearly mathematically impossible even in principle, and in practice all such conflicts will always have a power differential. Courts today almost always side with the most powerful, on average. And that is in an environment where there is a strong state with a semblance of popular democracy. In a “libertarian” paradise, it would take less than a year for power differentials to be exacerbated, and another for the winners to own the contract dispute mechanism, whatever it may be. Even Adam Smith recognized this: “people of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.” - A. Smith, “Wealth of Nations” I, X. Smith was naive about the remedies, but not about the fact itself. Businesses will create the crony government if it doesn’t yet exist, by manipulating whatever “contract” mechanism exists to gain power over their adversaries, whether other businesses or workers themselves. There cannot be Capitalism without the State.

This is an ultimate thinker in the rank of Aristotle. Beautiful. I especially like his irony and gestures. What a powerful orator. All kudos to you prof. Wolff!

I often argue as a Democrat, that despite their own malfeasance and criminality, that the overall goal is the "Good Life and the Just City". This concept as explored by Plato, and others throughout the Enlightenment set the tone for the Founding Fathers creation of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It is there in the preamble of both documents. The idea of "Liberty" has been severely distorted to mean 'unfettered freedom'. In John Stewart Mill's view liberty is that natural state of the human experience that should only be intruded upon if in the act of expressing 'liberty' harm is brought to another. In modern Capitalism harm to others and the world itself is inherent. The entire structure of capitalism today is rooted in structural and institutionalized violence within religious institutions, public schools, academia, corporations, private and public contacts and in the home. Capitalism is simply antithetical to the Good Life and the Just City. This is not to say that capitalism was never beneficial, but I reject the notion that 'because of capitalism we all enjoy a better standard of living'. I dissagree, this premise is ontological wherein the root is actually human ingenuity applied to technological development. It is the technology of washing hands, the steam engine, and the microprocessor that have improved life. I believe that if we are to continue to progress towards the Good Life and the Just City, we have to embrace technology, manage resources and reevaluate our system of rewards to embrace intrinsic rewards rather than Capitalism's promotion of extrinsic rewards and mindless acquisition for momentary fleeting pleasures.

You don't give someone seven of the best years of your life and be expected to just sit back and take it. I have hated rich people since them. They are the scum that sits under the worm's belly.

Libertarianism has ruined some of the best people I knew. It turned them into heartless bastards who won't lift a finger to help their fellow human beings. Its been especially true for my friends who went in the military. It still breaks my heart to think of it.

What do you get when you give a republican a lobotomy? A libertarian

Hello everyone.

For the algorithm!

The strange thing about these libertarians I would add is that they only want to be liberated by the people with the money. For some reason these libertarians think that a government is bad (when it gives everyone a voice) and allowing people (with the money) to do what they want to do (serve self interest) is good. That's not libertarian. That's taking a voice away from the poor and giving all the voices to the rich. Liberated is the system of governance that gives everyone a voice. I don't even understand what these so-called libertarians are supposed to be getting at.

Crying about crony capitalism is the equivalent of the whole "that's not real socialism" argument used by the right to invalidate any left of center economic argument or critique.

👍🏻

The freedom that libertarians worry most about is the freedom to exploit their lessers - which to them is most everyone else.

The cronyism within capitalism is not a bug infecting capitalism. It is its feature. Capitalism is not an idyllic system that has been helplessly victimized by those in power using the government to tip the scales. No. Far from it. Its a system that engenders this asymmetry in the market place and capitalism requires asymmetry to flourish and sustain itself. Cronyism and capitalism go hand in hand as honey and beehives go together.

Libertarianism: "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of my happiness."

Socialist & Liberation Party Gloria Estela La Riva for POTUS & Sunil Freeman for VicePOTUS, on New Jersey ballot. Madelyn R. Hoffman (Green) for US Senate/Senator, against Democrat Cory Booker, on New Jersey ballot.

The argument for or against capitalism is extremely simple. If mankind has to work to survive, what is the best way to get the most people working the hardest and the smartest? 1. You can create co-ops and try to democratize the workplace. This may work. It certainly works in most families. There is nothing in a free society to stop you from doing this. You can institute an internal democracy, and elect an executive group to plan and control sales and production. All profits to be split equally. You may have trouble keeping your best talent in such an arrangement. Elon Musk may have to clean toilets for a week. Some may take advantage of their fellow socialist, by not working much. I doubt any innovator would work here long. I personally predict inefficiency, indecision, and sloth, the larger the group gets. Sort of like Congress. You will need to somehow figure out how to make products people actually want. I think the Quakers are already making baskets this way, so better to choose another. I don’t know how you will get access to capital; I guess you could borrow it from an evil capitalist banker. But again, nothing is stopping you. This is your only choice for true equality. No need to complain or advocate. What are you waiting for? Go for it. Today. 2. You can try society wide pure democracy, where the 51% majority has total control and can implement any policy as they see fit. There would be no real property rights, in fact, there would be no rights at all unless the 51% want them. Your name may be on the title, but the taxes and controls on you are nearly endless. They can elect whomever they want, to implement whatever mixed system they want, of production and distribution. This is where the lobbyists, huge multinational corporations, and politicians really get excited. Corruption is greatly rewarded in such a system. Power and control are the currency. Nothing is off limits if you have the influence and money, but without it, hordes of regulations stifle small business. Everyone seems to barely keep their heads above water, except those at the top of the pyramid: big business and big government; always hand in hand to keep out the competition. This is where is US is headed today, and in many ways, we are already there. Half of the people either work for the government, or don’t work at all. The other half has to carry them. The people are given money in exchange for votes. The politicians are given money in exchange for influence. Due to the confusion and split among the people, everyone thinks they have to pick sides when really there is no alternative. Both parties stand for the same thing: All powerful government that can only get bigger and more intrusive every year for centuries. Goofy arguments abound like men being women if they feel like it. A messy free for all, where everyone is angry and points the finger at everyone else, while simultaneously always having their hand out. Sound familiar? Democracy at work. Oh, yeah. Lovely. 3. A King can take over, or be appointed ruler. This is where you can sometimes get you some really good, full bore socialism. Some would call it communism. He plans and controls everything. You work where you are told, and everything is distributed according to him. This can be quite efficient, and with a lot of equality as well. Everyone is equal except for the Czar and those in his inner circle, of course. Equally poor. Not a good system for producing enough to even feed your own citizens, must less innovate. Instead of the fear of individual starvation that you would have in a pure free market, here you get the fear of mass starvation along with the fear of a government death camp. That is your incentive to get out of bed. This system sometimes works for a while, until the people have had enough and rebel, or they bump up against a truly productive society and run out of money. This system of dictatorial rule is as old as dirt, but is sometimes marketed as something new and clever, like the people are going to share in the spoils or something. Right. Nevertheless, it has been tried many times recently with catastrophic results. 100 million dead in just the 20th century alone, with mass starvation going on right this minute in Venezuela and elsewhere. There is really no need to try it again, unless you are truly hard headed. The further you stay away from it the better. Don’t walk, run, from anyone who tries to convince you to even partially implement anything that resembles this. If what they advocate for involves force and control, and they promise you something for nothing, you will know this is what they really have in mind. They need you for it to work. Your property, and your labor. But they won’t ask you nicely, or offer you anything in return like a capitalist. They take what they want like a three-year-old throwing a tantrum, only with deadly intentions. They can often be identified shouting slogans like a three-year-old as well. 4. Or, you could have a system where rights are guaranteed such as property rights, and no amount of democracy can take away your property. There are strict limits on the power, size and functions of government. Your rights are guaranteed, in writing, never to be taken away by the 51%. There is no central planning. People buy, sell and produce how they see fit. This gives you the incentive to profit if you succeed, and the fear of starvation if you don't. This is an unequal system, where you survive on your merits. This is where you have the freedom to choose where to work and how hard. No force is needed. There is very little government corruption because the government doesn't have the power to do anything, except stop crime and invasion from the outside. Any business that tries to lobby is wasting its time. The government has strict limits on its powers, and therefore most of what it does is really of little consequence. The government is cheap to run, because the Nation keeps to itself and it doesn’t need much military anyway, because the citizens themselves are all armed. This is how the US was supposed to be. The poor who are unable to work due to age or disability, are either taken care of locally or by their families. The working poor here are richer than the middle class in many other places. Dynamic opportunities are everywhere, without the dead weight drag and disincentive of citizens being paid to not work. This is how great civilizations are built without force. Highly productive. Innovative. Free. Unequal. The first 2 minutes and 36 seconds of this video are spot on. The rest is pure nonsense. Capitalism is not evil, and it is not altruistic. It is freedom. It seeks to maximize profit. It can profit from good things like iPhones or corn, and it can profit from bad things like tobacco. There is good and bad, because there are good and bad people. Capitalism has always been infested by government intrusion because that's what governments always do. Take away the power of government, and capitalists won't lobby it and run to it with requests for handouts or favorable regulations or restrictions on its competitors. It is the fundamental condition of man that he must work, or convince his fellow man to work for him, to survive. You can either be forced to work, force others to work for your benefit, starve, or voluntarily produce and sell in a free society, with profit and fear of failure as your incentive. There is no other way.

Here is something I would like to know the answer to: If Prof Wolff hates Capitalism so much and thinks it should be abolished, then why does he personally profit off of the same system that he hates, by selling his own books for high prices? I understand paper and such costs money to produce. However, he could, for example, make all of his books available to download for free in electronic .pdf and/or audiobook formats. So *why isn't he doing that, exactly?* Is the fact that he doesn't mean he is failing to practice what he preaches, and he secretly loves the benefits that Capitalism bring to him on a personal level?

So true. Libertarianism is Barbarism.

I liked the video. But you hit the mic and after that it kept popping and fuzzing out which hurt to hear. You may want to look into it.

The fact that we continue to have these discussions is a sad sad comment on the education system. Thanks for your work Professor

Try and be careful to not touch or interfere your microphone during your talks Richard, as the resulting noise and distortion, as near the end of this video, is very bad for listeners. Apart from that advice, I'd just like to say that I agree with you 100%.

To all Americans: VOTE HOWIE HAWKINS / ANGELA N WALKER for POTUS/VP 2020. Green Party USA! or Charlie Kam / Liz Parrish U.S. Transhumanist Party for POTUS/VP 2020! Make the White House Green or Transhumanist in 2021! You can't blame Greens, Transhumanists, Marxists, Socialists, Communists, Anarchists, or Libertarians. They're not the ones in power.

Our objective as thoughtful persons ought to be how to find the just balance between rights to property and rights to a decent human existence. My own journey attempting to find the answers began a half century ago when I first read Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man." Paine, more than any other person living through the last quarter of the 18th century, realized that a social democracy required law that recognized nature as our commons, access to which was our birthright, but a birthright that also recognized the existence of advantages given by nature. How to recognize such advantages? Paine accepted the arguments presented by the political economists that a ground rent charge, paid to the community or society and determined by market forces solved the practical problem of security equality of opportunity to land and natural resources. The revenue from collecting ground rents would become the primary source with which to pay for democratically-agreed upon public goods and services. At the same time, Paine embraced private property in the tangible goods we produce. The system he embraced and argued for was not the capitalism described by Richard Wolff that causes so many problems. The phrase that best describes what Paine was working for is "cooperative individualism." Paine asked and answered: "What are the socio-political arrangements and institutions that secure and protect individual liberty within a cooperative societal framework." In "Rights of Man," "Agrarian Justice," and his other writings Paine provides a blueprint that deserves our attention and consideration today. Edward J. Dodson, M.L.A. DIrector School of Cooperative Individualism www.cooperative-individualism.org

"Poor people don't make campaign contributions."

Professor Wolff, great content as always. Any chance of cleaning up the audio issues towards the end?

05:16 - Agreed, but isn't that true of pretty much all systems? Because hierarchies are human nature, governments will always exist in any system eventually.

Few people realize that capitalism was perfected as early as the 19th century! 19TH CENTURY CAPITALISM IS BEST CAPITALISM! MAKE AMERICA 19TH CENTURY AGAIN!

I deeply respect Mr Wolff . That is all.

“When the world looks at America, what it sees is an Israeli colony.” 
-- Paul Craig Roberts

I live with a Chicago-school, libertarian economist. He spends his free time stumping for libertarian candidates and decrying the evils of government.... while his salary (about 5x the local household average) is provided by the government.

Right On Bro !

A great talk explaining all the reasons behind why you always knew Ron Paul was a half-wit.

" Those who refuse to recognize individual rights are necessarily obliged to seek to destroy individual intelligence. How else would they obtain unthinking obedience ? " -Ayn Rand-

I enjoyed it. But am now also slightly deaf.

This is a great summary and one you don't hear enough on the left as an answer to popular Libertarian trends. But of course it is complex enough that it can't be reduced to a sound bite. It is also objectively true if one considers reality so it is right in front of our faces. Libertarians seem to think humans have changed since feudal times. But look at society right now, money accumulates in massive quantities for a very few. How is this any different from feudal times?

Cameron Rielly book gives examples of what Richard is talking about. The Physcopathic Epidemic

The "capitalists" would abuse government, and yet you would not, Dr. Wolff.

Maybe I'm being overly paranoid, but some serious static around minute 9, just when the major point being made. Been battling liver-tearing-ism ever since 2004, when I moved to the Birmingham of the West, Reno NV. Internal illogic, circular thinking, rebranding exploitation of labor as mercantilism, so it doesn't sound so bad... all as loopy as it gets.

Ya there's basically 1 family of Libertarians, it's their "brand" in the political "marketplace". Hey watch that lawnmower buster, whadaya think this is, Plants vs Zombies?! : D

if one views capitalism as a whole and by its behaviors it, capitalism is given appropriately fair descriptions such that we can form a personality profile we might very well see behavior profiles consistent with Terrorism, Cannibalism, Gluttony, Narcissism and Homicidal/Suicidal Tendencies. Does that at all sound or seem like anyone you might know or heard tell of? The enslaving, punitive commands from the Corporate Imperative serving severe penalty for slightest infractions of: due diligence, creating value for the share holders, greed is good, zero/sum game. Seemingly the only way to 'win' is to own all that there is by yourself, alone without community, without competitors or rivals. These Patterns are ancient. is this a cautionary tale for which there is no one left remaining to be cautioned? Is it possible that capitalism might be a gentrified, normalized Organized Crime. the motion picture The Godfather in which one higher officer in Corleone crime family member who was given control of some NYC territory after the capo, Michael invaded Las Vegas, the old Lieutenant complained to Michael, "there is nothing left to build on here". the old story: The parasitic Crime Family draining the host then moves on to another host in Vegas, Moe Green and we know what happened to Mr Green.

Mince & Tatties Step by step Heat the oil in a large, deep frying pan or casserole. Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook for 5 minutes over a medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until starting to soften. Add the mince and brown over a high heat for 5 minutes, stirring to break up the meat. Peel and roughly chop the potatoes. Cook in boiling, salted water for 15 minutes or until tender. Mix the flour into the mince mixture, then gradually add the stock, stirring to combine well. Bring to a simmer and add the Worcestershire sauce and season to taste. Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. Drain the potatoes, season, and mash with the butter. Serve with the mince. TipSlim it down Use just 1 tbsp oil, and 5% fat beef mince. Mash the potatoes with milk or low fat soft cheese. Make it veggie Replace the beef with Quorn mince or a can of lentils, rinsed and drained. Use vegetable stock instead of beef, and 1 tbsp each of soy sauce and ketchup in place of Worcestershire sauce.

Nice critique my friend. In Europe from Constantine in the 1st century to Napoleon in the 18th century the Catholic Church was the Greed and corruption that ruled this era. When Napoleon knock the Pope off his pedestal the new Greed and corruption was a secular Government and has always had close ties to wealth And has reigned supreme to our current situation. The fallacy that we live in a democracy and our vote counts when we only have a 2 choices in that they are both to continue business as usual, more greed and corruption. No matter what you wanna call Leadership communism, religious, secular, libertarian, Socialism or capitalism the fly in the ointment will always be greed and corruption. So what the evil world leadership does not want And will fight it vehemently Is a true and more pure democracy to where we the people can get to have one person and 1 vote. This will be the only thing that can bring a world back into balance. Don't you just love a 2 party political/vulture corporate capitalist Partnership's? I AM a fierce independence along with many of my fellow citizens. Tell me where are our candidates and where is the independent headquarters that can coordinate other state headquarters and navigate To some better choices that truly represent different segments in our society. Diversity and inclusion with informative participation. Social equality was always what America is to become. A shining example where the world can strive to be.

It's nice to relay your viewpoints without Peter Schiff yelling at you with his corny 1950s small downtown version of capitalism which is just a bunch of propaganda to prop up the oligarchs

1837 Illinois legislator Abraham Lincoln speech in the Illinois legislature against bailouts for the capitalists quote : "...These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people, and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves we are called upon to appropriate the people’s money to settle the quarrel. .... " click on link to read entire speech lincolnabraham.com/speech-in-the-illinois-legislature-1837/

Millennials have spent most of their life with the head down looking at their devices. They don't know anything different and always with a full belly. It's natural enough they are intrigued by different economic systems & societal constructs. If they are really curious about benefits of socialism in the absence of capitalism, check out what's going down in Venezuela or North Korea.

Capitalism and Socialism come in cycles. When leadership is honest and good and the consciousness of majority is good then Capitalism gives prosperity but when corruption sets in, poverty ensues for masses then Socialism steps in. Again Socialist leadership like in some Latin American countries with enlightenment can fix the problem but again leaders have their cronies and rot sets in. Then countries like China and Russia are back to cycle of Capitalism. All rich countries survive on exploitation whether Capitalism or Communism. US, Russia China are best examples. US on one side of Vietnam/Cambodia and Communists on other side raping the same nation, supplying them with arms and revolution and utopia. And Richard Wolf and other capitalism economists like Friedman have a field day defending their religion. If leadership is good than sometimes with even with the worst bureaucrats things can be fixed but it only gets better and more stable if bureaucrats are better, but remember your awareness and consciousness saves you end of the day. from all government idiocies.

I was hoping that a professor would more objectively analyze the benefits of the system that he advocates. All i get from this video is his anger, his resentment. He views the world from a victim-oppressor framework. But i don't buy that premise. Actually i am surprised of his one-sided view on things and his lack of analyzing his frame to start with. He is a professor right?

Sorry to be that guy but I just want to point out you were covering and brushing against the microphone at the end of this. Just in case you didn't know. It was a bit distracting and made it hard to hear some of your very important words. Thanks a lot though. The message you communicated here is crucial. Libertarians are the ultra-orthodox gatekeepers of capitalist ideology. I'm not convinced the proposed utopia of capitalism isolated from government is possible, and if it was, I don't see how it would be ideal.

Who are the "capitalists"? It's an absurd term. Capitalism is a social phenomenon, it exists in all societies that have currency even in the animal kingdom. Capitalism existed in ancient times, it existed in USSR and it exists in North Korea, and actually it is the only thing that drives prosperity and progress. Let it free and society flourishes, suppress it and you conclude a dystopia.

Can you please not mess with the microphone. I felt my eardrums explode!

Be a victim, be a whiner. I'll tell you how in this easy to digest YT video of speak talk. What I'm saying is let the CCP strategy take over. What I'm not telling you is to get a job and make your own way through the world.

David Graeber writes in his book Debt that the market is never born out of nowhere. To have a advanced market system it always needs someone to create it. And the one who does that is the one who issues money.. that is the government. So if market needs government to be even born then how could it survive without government? Also Jane Mayers book Dark money revieals us who the libertarians really are and what they are after. I am puzzled though that people who do call themselves libertarians publicly... are they completely oblivious what it truly means? I recommend everyone to read the Jane Mayers book.

Is this guy on TikTok? Wasted opportunity if he isn't. Talking to you CCP intelligensia.

Yes, this is a very important one

Indian capitalism is called communal capitalism as is based on Hindutva Religious tenets. So Indian capitalism is to be categorised as communal capitalism and not crony capitalism.

Noticed how Richard is wise enough to never utter the phrase "Never will be" I am on the hand, is bot arrogant enough to utter those words... Perhaps I should not.

Live like an ant, be like the ant. The ant colony is the perfect model of life. Know your place.

Capitalism and Oligarchy is the something basically

The "free market" ideal is a concept that can only exists within the abstracted and idealised models of Economics 101. The markets that exist in the real world are dynamic systems that exist within and is inevitably influenced by and at the same time influences society and it's power dynamics. Time and time again capitalism has shown, as an invariable consequence of concentrating wealth and power into the hands of a few, that it distorts and corrupts state institutions into the service of enriching and concentrating wealth and power into the hands of the wealthy and powerful ever further. This isn't the fault of an "imperfect" capitalism, it's the natural conclusion of it's market dynamics in the real world existing as part of a real society, where _people_ set and change the rules of the game, and where ultimately power, of which wealth is it's basis, is the lever that influences those rules. It's inevitable that self-interested people with the economy's wealth concentrated in their hands are going to rig the economic game in their favour no matter how "pure" the game might have initially been.

Can you fix the sound mishaps so we can better share this with people?

Reshoot the damn video and fix the mic.

In capitalism democracy is on sale

Same can be said about socialism. Always around the government to do what they want.

Libertarianism is astrology for men.

Where did those terrible sounds come from?

1) Extreme inequality. Nope definitely caused by capitalism. Compound growth does that 2) Instability in the business cycle. Natural effect of variance. True in all real world economic systems. 3) Immense power concentrated in a hand full of firms. Once again true in all economic systems provided you are actually referring to the individuals controlling those firms. However thus far democratic capitalism has produced the least concentration. 4) Domination of government by those firms/ Capitalists donating the money. Once again true for every form of economic system. Giving money is how one buys power in any society seen so far. Its how the nazi government controlled their party. Its how kings controlled their vassals. Its how communists controlled their party. Please offer a counterexample if you can. The idea of communism is that government could fix these issues. Point 2 it absolutely can't. No system has ever done so or could conceivably do so short of super AI controls literally everything. Point 3 and 4 yeah it could probably solve. Problem is every time they have simply moved the crown to their own heads. See "Under new management". Thus far every attempt to fix problem 1 has massively stunted or halted growth. You know the part of capitalism that actually helps everyone.

H

I see on the wall versus from Quran :)

Libertarians should watch this video. Very honest critique, and though I disagree with your view that capitalism is some sort of parasite, most libertarians need to understand that the capitalist utopia is just as flawed an idea as the idea of a socialist utopia. But acting as if there are no cons to govt/central bank policy is no different than acting as if there are no cons to capitalism. The important thing is that govt does a cost benefit analysis before it spends money. This does not happen on a federal level because the federal govt has no price incentives. They can just monetize debt to pay for anything. Money is "free."

Adam Smith’s invisible hand is usually flipping you the bird.

I like your plaid, Rick.

Capitalism will go down in history as the biggest lie ever. And I saw this guy elsewhere don’t remember where maybe a messaging system. I see him for the first time here came through my feed he’s hilarious

A free market is not run by a government, not saying that prostitution should be legal like it has been under the United States government

Thanks for all your videos Professor Wolff. I’ve wanted to learn about these topics for a long time but struggled for various reasons. You present things clearly and in a way that holds my attention. Thank you so much sir.

For the algorithm!

You should move to Cuba, Venezuela or North Korea.

Somehow and somewhere your family came to Usa a capitalist nation looking to improve their lifes, either economically or religiously . HERE you are criticizing the reason why many immigrants come to this country. If you don't like capitalism go to France or.other socialistic countries where 35 % of your salary goes into paying taxes which .my brother does I lived in France and belonged to the Trotsky movement.I learned that while they criticized the French government and their capitalistic ideology at that time, they also desired to have luxury and wealth , contradicting what socialism and communism standed for. I respect this country and its constitution. So. Viva capitalism where immigrants come to find jobs and better opportunities! I am an immigrant who became a USA citicizen.

Yes

Nice framing & branding of the relationship between government & capitalism Professor, btw, your speaker got loose or knocked around in the last few minutes.

Good video. I always learn something when I watch Prof Wolff.

Prof Wolff is my go to expert for explaining and articulating the details in way that people can understand. The Carl Sagan of of his field. (with mic problems in this video)

How can America be capitalist if its own currency isent public but rather private? No mention of the Banking class, without banks you have no markets.

But is the problem not that the government, the industrial military complex and even the public all have been consuming heavily on credit and now this debt exploded, after saving the banks, to a level where everything seems at lowest energy or maximal entropy everywhere to use a analogy from physics. The spring has lost all it's elasticity.

The soho forum debate brought me here, I’m glad I found out about Richard Wolff.

But.... but... the government!!

College advanced civics class. Economics, government and you.

Imagine a world with Everything is transparent (which we are going towards - and some Glassdoor-like platforms exposing all corruption/wheelings and dealings (of individuals and governments) will be made) - and imagine everything being decided based on Systemic Analysis platforms (such as www.kumu.io) and Public Debating platforms (such as www.kialo.com) - and imagine Republics based on Liquid/Delegative voting... do your research please - even prof. Wolff still has a lot to understand and imagine/dream forth ;)

Throughout your video, you keep talking about and using the term “capitalism.” But where is the capitalism? When I looked at the current American political/economic system I don’t see any capitalism. that is, I don’t see any free market. I see the exact opposite I see a highly taxed and regulated market. Our current system is deeply flawed. But those flaws are not the result of any “free” market. They are the result of its opposite: a highly taxed regulated market. I think it is either naïve or disingenuous to point out all of the flaws, which are valid by the way, and then attribute them to capitalism. The system we currently have is statism. The flaws we are seeing are the flaws of statism.

The whole point of libertarianism is you do you, I’ll do me, do I agree with most (basically all) of the things they agree with? No but they respect my right to have that, and that is why I like it

Careful, Ear rape around the 9:00 min mark

00 hv

Love Prof Wolff

RIP to my ears