Richard D. Wolff
"America's most prominent Marxist economist." http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/magazine/economic-doomsday-predictions.html?_r=0
I just had a great time studying a lecture by Marxist economist Richard Wolff. A really bright guy, the lecture was without notes nor teleprompter.
According to Dr. Wolff, every current ill of society is because rich guys cheated their workers.
Following are some of the things Dr. Wolff said in his lecture...
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZU3wfjtIJY]Capitalism Hits the Fan - Richard Wolff - YouTube[/ame]
If he is correct....we on the Right are wrong.
Here's an interesting exercise for those on the Right; see if you can find the glaring errors in his thesis.
1. Starting with 1820, until 1970, the average level of real wages, based on what you got for an hour's work, rose every decade. This included during the depression...because prices fell. No other capitalist nation in the world can boast of a record like that.
For 150 years, the rest of the world learned that in America you could earn more, buy more, than anywhere else on earth.
2. In the 1970's that ended....it hasn't resumed since. Working harder, working longer....but not earning more in earning power. The end of rising wages.
3. You are producing more goods and services, so the employer is happy. But he isn't paying you any more. This is a dramatic turn of events....but nobody talks about it. We pretend it isn't going on.
4. How has the worker tried to solve the problem? By working more hours...and by sending the wife out of the home to work, too.
Right now, the average number of hours worked by an American worker is 20% more than the number worked by a Swedish, French, German or Italian worker. These people have the time for leisurely dinners.....we invented fast food!
a. The largest change: in 1970 40% of American women worked outside the home for income....today, double. The fundamental change: they may have thought of it as women's liberation...but they had to earn that money to maintain their standard of living.
5. But did it work? Did the extra hours provide an improvement in standard of living, allow us to give more to our children? Actually, no...mom had to get another car to get to her job, more extensive wardrobe, no time to cook, so bought prepared food, so the extra expenses took away the extra income.
6. So....to keep up the consumption, to provide for the kids, the American working class went on a borrowing binge no working class in the history of the world every undertook. Starting in the 1970's, the savings rate collapsed. And we invented the 'credit card.'
a. In 1929 the average debt for an American family was 25-30% of annual income. In 2007 the average debt for an American family was 125% of annual income.
b. The Federal Reserve keeps this statistic: what percent of your income is used to pay off your debt...in other words, cannot be used to buy anything. Today (2009) is about 17%. The lenders are no longer interested in lending to these borrowers.
So, because employers refused to continue the earlier design....sharing the profits via raises, the dynamics of the traditional American family has been destroyed.
No mother at home to raise Johnny, no father with free time to instill values.....
All of the breakdown can be traced to the greedy business owners and employers.
And the nature of capitalism.
"America's most prominent Marxist economist." http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/magazine/economic-doomsday-predictions.html?_r=0
I just had a great time studying a lecture by Marxist economist Richard Wolff. A really bright guy, the lecture was without notes nor teleprompter.
According to Dr. Wolff, every current ill of society is because rich guys cheated their workers.
Following are some of the things Dr. Wolff said in his lecture...
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZU3wfjtIJY]Capitalism Hits the Fan - Richard Wolff - YouTube[/ame]
If he is correct....we on the Right are wrong.
Here's an interesting exercise for those on the Right; see if you can find the glaring errors in his thesis.
1. Starting with 1820, until 1970, the average level of real wages, based on what you got for an hour's work, rose every decade. This included during the depression...because prices fell. No other capitalist nation in the world can boast of a record like that.
For 150 years, the rest of the world learned that in America you could earn more, buy more, than anywhere else on earth.
2. In the 1970's that ended....it hasn't resumed since. Working harder, working longer....but not earning more in earning power. The end of rising wages.
3. You are producing more goods and services, so the employer is happy. But he isn't paying you any more. This is a dramatic turn of events....but nobody talks about it. We pretend it isn't going on.
4. How has the worker tried to solve the problem? By working more hours...and by sending the wife out of the home to work, too.
Right now, the average number of hours worked by an American worker is 20% more than the number worked by a Swedish, French, German or Italian worker. These people have the time for leisurely dinners.....we invented fast food!
a. The largest change: in 1970 40% of American women worked outside the home for income....today, double. The fundamental change: they may have thought of it as women's liberation...but they had to earn that money to maintain their standard of living.
5. But did it work? Did the extra hours provide an improvement in standard of living, allow us to give more to our children? Actually, no...mom had to get another car to get to her job, more extensive wardrobe, no time to cook, so bought prepared food, so the extra expenses took away the extra income.
6. So....to keep up the consumption, to provide for the kids, the American working class went on a borrowing binge no working class in the history of the world every undertook. Starting in the 1970's, the savings rate collapsed. And we invented the 'credit card.'
a. In 1929 the average debt for an American family was 25-30% of annual income. In 2007 the average debt for an American family was 125% of annual income.
b. The Federal Reserve keeps this statistic: what percent of your income is used to pay off your debt...in other words, cannot be used to buy anything. Today (2009) is about 17%. The lenders are no longer interested in lending to these borrowers.
So, because employers refused to continue the earlier design....sharing the profits via raises, the dynamics of the traditional American family has been destroyed.
No mother at home to raise Johnny, no father with free time to instill values.....
All of the breakdown can be traced to the greedy business owners and employers.
And the nature of capitalism.
