Richard D. Wolff

The following comment is my New Year’s Greeting (Rant) for a Socialist Economy, that was posted as a comment on the World Socialist Web Site www.wsws.org article: “Trumka on Trump: AFL-CIO chief urges president-elect to work with unions to save capitalism” linked here:

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/12/30/trum-d30.html

Here is my comment, which I think d@w supporters will find of interest:

Jeremy Wells comment:

Workers, forever exploited by capitalists and their politicians, often bitterly understand, from their daily life and work experience, that Trumka’s “democratic capitalism” is a fraudulent myth, an oxymoron. Barbaric, anti-democratic economic inequality is the inevitable result of every capitalist economy organized to maximize the private profit and wealth of the tiny minority of capitalist owners of the economy.

A socialist economy, organized to provide a universal minimum standard of living for all, ends the ecological devastation that capitalist owned toxic energy industries (oil,coal, gas, tar-sands, nuclear, etc.) has produced. A socialist economy means the social ownership, democratic control, and workers’ management of the democratically managed economy.

The understanding of capitalism and the imperative need for a socialist economy for humanity to survive in the 21st century, should be the focus for building the SEP parties in every country. The SEP party building efforts and electoral campaigns are to organize all the different sectors of the working class towards taking economic power away from capitalists at every level possible.

These are small steps towards building the socialist consciousness among millions of workers essential to a socialist revolution.

These small steps to end capitalist ownership and power can become SEP socialist demands.

• Demand that all capitalist owned economic enterprises that shut down, move overseas, or otherwise layoff and impoverish workers, should be seized under eminent domain laws as a public nuisance and converted into worker managed co-operative enterprises.

• Demand that ownership and control of the Federal Reserve be taken out of the hands of private banks and become socialized. The economy must be operated for the economic benefit of the working class majority, and not the private profit of a few.

• Demand universal health care for all with socialized medicine.

• Demand universal tuition-free public education from kindergarten through high-school, university and adult education.

• Demand an end to wars for profit. Demand a foreign policy that promotes a globalized socialist economy to replace the globalized capitalist economy.

While I generally agree with Dr. Wolff ; would be interested in clarifying his observations about the Trump ability, promises , and strategy. Does Trump recognize the errors of the past, as must his appointees, and will Trump have them develop a strategy to not repeat the last 40 years. My point is: “There is no one better to avoid a past error than the person who made the error.”
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Regarding the company adjustment to automation and reduced need for worker employment in manufacturing : Instead of merely reducing the employee hours. Why not compensate those workers for spending a few hours educating themselves or their children or the children of others? Why not improve the employees lives who have helped create the income stream, by having them improve their own lives and those of others and get paid for it! This isn’t purely my idea. It is extrapolated from Adam Smith’s observation of market saturation and how to resolve it.

Imagine a Mayor who could pull from a pool of worker “fallow time” (that is the time liberated by the above described Company Employee Self-Betterment Policy)
and use that as a resource or “Infrastructure” to keep low income population motivated to be educated and physically fit through gaming. E.G. professionally facilitated recreational activities that have educational benefits. It’s fun to build and/or repair houses. Pres. Jimmy Carter has a blast at it ! Same thing could be applied to hospital care and vastly reduce the costs of Medicine.