Richard D. Wolff

Dear David, You dedicate a lot of the time in your weekly broadcast and a lot of space is your websites to the issue of cooperative enterprises as opposed to capitalist, top down corporations that dominate the present economy. I completely agree with the fundamental importance of this issue and with your point of view. There's another issue, however, that I rarely see discussed explicitly, and that is the dogma of the need for unlimited economic growth, that seems to dominate present economics. I understand that individual democratically controlled enterprises may (and probably will) consider the issue of growth carefully, but I think that this must be treated as a systemic issue, concomitantly with the democratization of the workplace. I would like to ask you what is your take on the role of growth in the present economy: is it really needed for the well being of the whole population or is it an ideologically imposed drive that only benefits the top players in the present global economy? Do you think something should be done to actively curb economic growth? Do you think that an economy less obsessed with growth would be easier to democratize? Finally, would you recommend good resources for learning on "growthless" economies? Thanks!