Richard D. Wolff

"Violence In America" Revisited: Back when I was in school there was book called "Violence in America". It provided some interesting insights, but it stopped short of providing a sufficiently full enough economic explanation, within the Capitalist ideology, that could explain why so much violence, as documented in the boo, and subsequently, is so tolerated and why so little is actually done to eliminate the real problems at a root cause level. Why so much that is done actually causes more violence, as a further catalyst, as in the case of the Florida school shooter, rather than being more effective, as it could in theory be made to be. There is a very fundamental problem in that and here is my take on the reasons for it....... it is not what the mass media are getting right, but maybe they are not allowed to get it right. That too can be a factor of how governments serve their purpose, but realizing that their purpose is not always or inevitably what is seems to be. Government cannot do anything to reduce the violence in America because that would harm the profits of the health care industry. It would also harm the profits of other industries, such as those that provide security and surveillance services. Etc. Billions are being made on the basis of government supported violence. You cannot expect that to be put to a stop. Violence is far more than the instances of shootings that make the mass media news. There are literally armies of security guards, surveillance companies, security consultants, psychologists, therapists, trauma teams, health care suppliers, rehabilitation workers, and much more, largely and in some cases entirely dependent on the profitable growth of violence in America. It is big business in America. Without violence you might eliminate a big part of American GDP growth. In fact you could, in theory, throw America into a recession simply on that one factor of its dependence on violence.