Richard D. Wolff

Please help me make sense of the Economic Policy Institute data that you mentioned in the most recent Economic Update. In 1952, corporate profits were 5.5 percent of GDP and corporate taxes were 6 percent. Does this mean that all corporate profits were eaten up by taxes in 1952? That doesn't seem possible. Today, corporate profits are 8.5 percent of GDP. If those profits were spread out among the millions of workers in the US, it doesn't seem like it would be of much benefit to them. In other words, 8 percent doesn't fit with the concept of the corporation making huge profits and screwing the workers. My bigger question is, apart from the obvious improvement of making economic institutions democratic, would having workers decide what to do with the surplus really generate a substantial increase in pay for the workers?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWDRNH67Ql8 this is a weird one. i mean maybe it shouldn't be surprising, but this guy oddly is sounding a lot like Wolff

Increased productivity and mechanisation was supposed to free us from labour. Instead we work longer and longer hours, and the "real economy" of important workers, such as health care workers, teachers, transit operators, et al., are relentlessly attacked, while the ballooning "bullshit economy" (pardon the term) of useless jobs like managers, finance capital, administrators, PR consultants, et al., is increasingly insulated from erosion, attack, or even criticism. Why? An interesting article from an anthropologist on the matter: http://evonomics.com/why-capitalism-creates-pointless-jobs-david-graeber/

Dear Richard, I listened to your Economic Update: Higher Ed Class Struggles of Sept. 26. You mentioned the success of the Left Party (Die Linke) in Berlin. Unfortunately in the rest of Germany the results of this party in the elections are decreasing. Instead a new right wing party (AFD - Alternative fuer Deutschland) is getting votes north of 10 %. The reason for this are the refugees that are coming to Germany. Many people of the middle class and such that are in precarious jobs are scared about this. The capitalists use the immigrants to put pressure on the working to keep the wages down. The AFD even wants to abolish the minimum wages and to cut taxes for the rich and the companies. But this has no negative effect on their success in elections. The left party has the problem that in the opinion of most germans they are the successors of the SED (Socialist Party of the former GDR). After 1990 the other parties in Germany were able to demonize socialism as something bad by pointing on the GDR, that collapsed in 1989. Germans think that socialists want to controll everything and everybody. This kind of brainwash was really successfull. Even the SPD (Socialdemocratic Party) cancelled the word socialism in their party program. You are currently not able to get a 30 % vote for a politic that is advantageous for 80 % of the people in Germany.. We have to do a lot of work here in our country to convince the people that it is crazy that 1 % has as much money as the lower 50 %. The OECD stated that the chances for kids of industry workers in Germany to enter a college are the worst in all of Europe. Let us try to change this. Bill

I was getting into Democracy At Work's videos for a while, but it no longer makes sense to me. "Cooperate within the business" (so that these cooperative units can then compete with one another.) It won't be as bad as what we have now, but is still far from a moral scenario. Once a few likeminded crooks get together, they can cut corners and act as mini-mcdonaldses. A cooperative workplace is just an impediment on the havoc that can be wreaked but in no way a deterrent. Just as the "democracy" we have now politically doesn't translate outside of politics. Having even real democracy in the work place would have no reason to translate outside of that particular business. They could still fuck over the environment, the consumer, and one another just as businesses do today, albeit to a lesser extent: this is nothing to get too excited about. I do believe in cooperation, but what we need to ask is cooperation for what. The goal in this case is going to be the same as in the capitalism we have now. Make as much money as possible so we can worry less about waking up with nothing. Even if measures are taken to prevent single employees losing their jobs, if the business fails, everybody loses their job. And in order to not fail, they're going to want to make stuff or provide services at the lowest cost possible to the business and highest to the customer. This save the changes of a greater feeling of investment and say in the company and benefits of those is business as usual. People under this system will be working together in small groups. But the groups and virtually everything that is around them will not be working together. Please correct me if I am wrong here, I would very much like to be.

Dear Richard, I am located in Germany and recently signed in at your website. I heared several of your statements and I truly tell you that this is excactly my opinion. Do you already have something going in Germany? You mentioned that many americans are earning less than 15 $ an hour. In Germany about 12 million working people are earning less than 10 $ an hour. I really would like to establish democracy at work in Germany. Best regards, Bill Schulte

Dear prof. Wolff, as you will have heard Josepth Stiglitz recently spoke about the Euro and the EU (https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/aug/10/joseph-stiglitz-the-problem-with-europe-is-the-euro), and during an interview on Dutch TV he said that it might be necessary to abolish the Euro in order to set up the institutions needed to save the EU. On the other hand, Janis Varoufakis helped created an organisation called DiEM25 in an attempt to democratize and, as a result, save the EU. On multiple instances he claimed that abolishing the Euro will cause humongous crises and problems (like a rising of the extreme-right) throughout Europe together with an explanation that made sense to me, someone with virtually no knowledge about economics. I'm curious to know what your view is on this matter. Thanks in advance! P.S. Love your weekly and monthly talks! You've really made me able to see some of the logical fallacies a lot of economists use!

I have listen to a lot of your lectures and to me it seems like you advocate a system that Edvard Kardelj wrote about and that the former Yugoslavia had i want to know if you have read the works of Kardelj or looked the Yugoslav economy and if yes i would be really interested in finding out what you think of it

Prof. Wolff - Listened to your and other's recent interviews with Prof Hochschild and need some help putting her study into context. While she worked hard to not denigrate those she discussed - I unfortunately came away from her discussions even more convinced the Tea Party folks she talked with were just plain "bat-crap-crazy". Having a hard time seeing a way to really reach across and work together - when from what Prof. Hochschild described - so many of our fellow Americans have wrapped themselves in delusions she calls "deep story". From watching your discussions - if her subjects were high level politicians - I can't help you would kindly refer to them as "cuckoo". I don't like to think badly about others - but to be honest - Prof. Hochschild didn't leave me with much hope for the future - other than the lower life expectancy - which would mean waiting for the Tea Party - Right Wing to die out. If you feel comfortable with covering the issue - please triage and give us the positive aspects - or if you get a chance to interview Prof. Hochschild - please ask her to give more specifics on how she manages to see hope in the situation for the future.

Hello Dr. Wolff, I stumbled across an article I thought you might find interesting: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-video-games-jobs-emploment-20160923-story.html Unfortunately I was not able to find a direct link to the study, but the authors seem to propose that video games be blamed, at least in part, for the desire of young men to not enter the workforce. It is apparently beyond them that perhaps work should be rewarding rather than a drudgery we force ourselves to put up with and that the system is the real problem here. Any thoughts?

As a union apprentice electrician, I have a pension, annuity, and 401K accruing. However, I'd like to invest some of my savings into supporting the kind of world I'd like to live in, as opposed to oil companies and other corporations, while still hedging my bets so to speak and preparing to retire someday in this fucked up system we currently slave under. How can I invest in supporting worker cooperatives, green energy, etc?

Hi Prof. Wolff. I live in Canada, and suffer under the Fraser Institute, among other right-wing "think tanks" that despite efforts to counter their spin, continue to be taken seriously by mainstream media, including the CBC, our public broadcaster. This article on how the median household income has actually "increased by 56%" since the 1970s reeks of spin, but I'm not economically literate enough to explain why. Can you counter these arguments? https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/the-myth-of-middle-class-stagnation-in-canada

Due to the deteriorating situation in Venezuela, and because all countries that call themselves or are labeled as socialist bear the unhappy burden of having all of their failings immediately attributed to socialism, I've been seeing a lot of reporting on Venezuela that lacks nuance. I'm not sure how familiar you are with the situation there, but I think it would be great if you could speak about it and go into some depth. It would provide a nice counterpoint to your criticisms of capitalism institutions to hear something about an ostensibly socialist state (which I guess you consider to be more along the lines of state capitalism than the sort of socialism for which you advocate) to help us learn not just why the economic system we're stuck with sucks but also learn from the mistakes of people who tried in some capacity to break away from capitalism.

Ask Prof. Wolff: Hi Professor Wolff, firstly, thank you so much for your explanation of what socialism really is, and how it wasn't what the Soviets did! My parents were socialists, but they never explained it to me. My dad taught Marx, but either he didn't understand it as you do, or didn't bother to explain it. However, I do think you are FAR too generous to Stalin, in explaining why he declared that State Capitalism was Socialism. You seem to think that he was a well-meaning person, a regular politician, who was limited by historical circumstances, when in fact he was a sociopathic dictator, who had NO interest in empowering the people of Russia, so of COURSE he would be determined to keep control of economic activity, and had no intention of democratising the economy! Hence the murder of all the original revolutionaries, who would be able to tell the population that the system wasn't Socialism! But I agree, and have been inspired, by everything else you've said. I would like to join the action group - would that work with me being in Australia? (And, btw, could you include us when you list the western, capitalist countries? I know people forget that we're here, but we do exist, and are living with neo-liberalism just like the people of North America, Europe and Japan! All the best,