Occupy Harvard.

[Unkotare]

The conservatives or this board need to realize that their fringe political opinion does not even resemble the opinions of "Regular Americans".

Just because you want it to be so does not make it so, lefty.

 

[Oldstyle]

Professor Wolff replies:

"In the early 1960s, I sat as a student in that same Harvard large lecture class.

"With many fellow students, I grumbled then at its narrow, technical celebration of the status quo. The interests we brought to the course -- to understand the causes of economic instability (recessions, depressions, inflations, crises), how economic change shapes political and cultural history, why so many are poor and so few rich, and what alternative economic systems might be preferable -- were largely evaded, ignored, or trivialized.

"Without an OWS movement, we did not walk out. We sat and endured..."

Richard D. Wolff, "Harvard Students Join the Movement"

As I understand Wolff's article, students are walking out because they are not getting both sides of the argument.

As a graduate of UMass and having taken Macro-economics with Professor Wolff I can assure you that he seldom concerned himself with giving both sides of the argument. I had to "sit and endure" his views about the evils of capitalism which is why I find his view now on what is being taught rather ironic.

You obviously have some views of Wolf the rest of us don't.
Did he encourage debate on contested issues, or was it his way of the highway?

Has anything you learned about Marx during that time proved prophetic?

"Marx predicted that companies would need fewer workers as they improved productivity, creating an 'industrial reserve army' of the unemployed whose existence would keep downward pressure on wages for the employed….

"It’s hard to argue with that these days…. The condition of blue collar workers in the U.S. is still a far cry from the subsistence wage and ‘accumulation of misery’ that Marx conjured. But it’s not morning in America, either.'

"Bloomberg Businessweek seems unaware that Marx viewed the reserve army of labor as applicable not just to developed countries like the United States, but also to labor throughout the globe.…"

Monthly Review, An Independent Socialist Magazine

The UMass Economics Department back in the 70's was about as liberal as they come. If you dared to speak up and argue that capitalism wasn't a failed system, you would be summarily ridiculed and you could kiss a high grade goodbye. I took 3 Economics classes in college and they were all taught by left wing radicals who literally loathed capitalism.

 

[Unkotare]

"Occupy Harvard" is a pretty funny concept when you consider that you cannot pass through Harvard Sq at any time of day or night when some group or other isn't parked there by the T station enacting whatever happens to be the drama of the day,horrible street performers try to impress themselves, and self-indulgent kids from comfy suburban backgrounds lay around 'playing' at homelessness as performance art. It's always freakshow central there, so there's really no difference.

 

[Unkotare]

As a graduate of UMass and having taken Macro-economics with Professor Wolff I can assure you that he seldom concerned himself with giving both sides of the argument. I had to "sit and endure" his views about the evils of capitalism which is why I find his view now on what is being taught rather ironic.

You obviously have some views of Wolf the rest of us don't.
Did he encourage debate on contested issues, or was it his way of the highway?

Has anything you learned about Marx during that time proved prophetic?

"Marx predicted that companies would need fewer workers as they improved productivity, creating an 'industrial reserve army' of the unemployed whose existence would keep downward pressure on wages for the employed….

"It’s hard to argue with that these days…. The condition of blue collar workers in the U.S. is still a far cry from the subsistence wage and ‘accumulation of misery’ that Marx conjured. But it’s not morning in America, either.'

"Bloomberg Businessweek seems unaware that Marx viewed the reserve army of labor as applicable not just to developed countries like the United States, but also to labor throughout the globe.…"

Monthly Review, An Independent Socialist Magazine

The UMass Economics Department back in the 70's was about as liberal as they come. If you dared to speak up and argue that capitalism wasn't a failed system, you would be summarily ridiculed and you could kiss a high grade goodbye. I took 3 Economics classes in college and they were all taught by left wing radicals who literally loathed capitalism.

UMass hasn't changed in that regard at all.

 

[georgephillip]

So... the students were protesting 'Harvard's complicity in the nation's extreme inequality of income and wealth.'... essentially they were protesting against themselves then, as they are Harvard students, which would make them part of the problem, or at the least, complicit with Harvard itself.

Morons.

What makes you think all incoming Freshmen at Harvard are part of the problem?
They are not all from the 1%.
Some will oppose the rule of the few and some will sell out to it.
The problem lies with a political economic system that values property rights over political equality.

Well, if they don't come from wealthy backgrounds then they must have epic student loans which they're demanding shouldn't be loans at all but free tuition..

And these kids are supposedly intelligent people yet it's obvious they know nothing about economy, obviously lack morals and clearly demonstrate ignorance to the history of legislation and the ideas that are responsible for them protesting in the first place..

I'm not sure if anyone's demanding free education at private universities; however, student loans at the same interest rates that Goldman Sachs gets from the Fed seems reasonable. Can you cite any specific examples of these protestors lack of morals?

The 70 students who walked out of the intro econ course were protesting the bias of capitalist development in this country over the last 25 years, the complicity of Harvard in hiding or rationalizing that development, and how OWS is opening new space for "long overdue criticism of capitalism."

Clearly they are not too ignorant to ask the right questions.

Richard D. Wolff, "Harvard Students Join the Movement"

 

[georgephillip]

As a graduate of UMass and having taken Macro-economics with Professor Wolff I can assure you that he seldom concerned himself with giving both sides of the argument. I had to "sit and endure" his views about the evils of capitalism which is why I find his view now on what is being taught rather ironic.

You obviously have some views of Wolf the rest of us don't.
Did he encourage debate on contested issues, or was it his way of the highway?

Has anything you learned about Marx during that time proved prophetic?

"Marx predicted that companies would need fewer workers as they improved productivity, creating an 'industrial reserve army' of the unemployed whose existence would keep downward pressure on wages for the employed….

"It’s hard to argue with that these days…. The condition of blue collar workers in the U.S. is still a far cry from the subsistence wage and ‘accumulation of misery’ that Marx conjured. But it’s not morning in America, either.'

"Bloomberg Businessweek seems unaware that Marx viewed the reserve army of labor as applicable not just to developed countries like the United States, but also to labor throughout the globe.…"

Monthly Review, An Independent Socialist Magazine

The UMass Economics Department back in the 70's was about as liberal as they come. If you dared to speak up and argue that capitalism wasn't a failed system, you would be summarily ridiculed and you could kiss a high grade goodbye. I took 3 Economics classes in college and they were all taught by left wing radicals who literally loathed capitalism.

Do you think US capitalism is no longer capable of providing enough jobs to keep US unemployment beneath 9%?

Has the age of mass affluence passed?

Is it possible for capitalists to thrive in a global marketplace consisting of the richest 20% of humanity?

 

[Unkotare]

Do you think US capitalism is no longer capable of providing enough jobs to keep US unemployment beneath 9%??

Wouldn't obama just love to pass that little fiction around like some political herpes? If the clay-brains could be made to buy into that notion he could claim his failures are not really his fault (a basic notion that lies at the heart of liberal thinking).

 

[Oldstyle]

You obviously have some views of Wolf the rest of us don't.
Did he encourage debate on contested issues, or was it his way of the highway?

Has anything you learned about Marx during that time proved prophetic?

"Marx predicted that companies would need fewer workers as they improved productivity, creating an 'industrial reserve army' of the unemployed whose existence would keep downward pressure on wages for the employed….

"It’s hard to argue with that these days…. The condition of blue collar workers in the U.S. is still a far cry from the subsistence wage and ‘accumulation of misery’ that Marx conjured. But it’s not morning in America, either.'

"Bloomberg Businessweek seems unaware that Marx viewed the reserve army of labor as applicable not just to developed countries like the United States, but also to labor throughout the globe.…"

Monthly Review, An Independent Socialist Magazine

The UMass Economics Department back in the 70's was about as liberal as they come. If you dared to speak up and argue that capitalism wasn't a failed system, you would be summarily ridiculed and you could kiss a high grade goodbye. I took 3 Economics classes in college and they were all taught by left wing radicals who literally loathed capitalism.

Do you think US capitalism is no longer capable of providing enough jobs to keep US unemployment beneath 9%?

Has the age of mass affluence passed?

Is it possible for capitalists to thrive in a global marketplace consisting of the richest 20% of humanity?

Of course US capitalism is capable of providing jobs to keep unemployment beneath 9%. The only reason unemployment hasn't gone down is we have an Administration who views the Private Sector as an ATM for entitlement programs and has spent the past two and a half years scapegoating business leaders for his own policy failures rather than working with them to improve our economy.

Capitalism works. You just have to let it...

 

[Annie]

LOL!

Space Occupants » Blog Archive » Day 3: 2 photographers, 2 cops, 0 occupants

Day 3: 2 photographers, 2 cops, 0 occupants
Posted by: Major Tom, in Uncategorized

For the past couple of days I’ve seen reports about the “Occupy” movement reaching Harvard — how hundreds of protesters stormed the gates of Harvard Yard Wednesday night, how they were rebuffed by security forces who sealed off the Yard to everyone not possessing a Harvard i.d., but how the protesters with Harvard i.d.s eventually managed to erect a “tent city” next to the John Harvard statue in the Yard...

 

[georgephillip]

"A week earlier some 70 students walked out in protest of Harvard's large lecture course in introductory economics. ."

You didn't finish the story (of course). A group of students and alumni then walked INTO that same lecture in support of the professor and the course, and received a warm round of applause by those students (you know, the ones who were there to learn) remained.

Thanks.

Professor Wolf seems to have left that part out.

Any idea how many total students were in that auditorium?

 

[Unkotare]

"A week earlier some 70 students walked out in protest of Harvard's large lecture course in introductory economics. ."

You didn't finish the story (of course). A group of students and alumni then walked INTO that same lecture in support of the professor and the course, and received a warm round of applause by those students (you know, the ones who were there to learn) remained.

Thanks.

Professor Wolf seems to have left that part out.

Any idea how many total students were in that auditorium?

Several hundred at least. It's huge.

 

[georgephillip]

The UMass Economics Department back in the 70's was about as liberal as they come. If you dared to speak up and argue that capitalism wasn't a failed system, you would be summarily ridiculed and you could kiss a high grade goodbye. I took 3 Economics classes in college and they were all taught by left wing radicals who literally loathed capitalism.

Do you think US capitalism is no longer capable of providing enough jobs to keep US unemployment beneath 9%?

Has the age of mass affluence passed?

Is it possible for capitalists to thrive in a global marketplace consisting of the richest 20% of humanity?

Of course US capitalism is capable of providing jobs to keep unemployment beneath 9%. The only reason unemployment hasn't gone down is we have an Administration who views the Private Sector as an ATM for entitlement programs and has spent the past two and a half years scapegoating business leaders for his own policy failures rather than working with them to improve our economy.

Capitalism works. You just have to let it...

Are you saying the 1% and US corporations are paying too much in taxes?
The share of wealth and income are at all time highs for the richest 1% of individual taxpayers.
Corporations are sitting on $2 trillion while making near-record profits.
The ratio of profits to wages is higher than any time since the Great Depression.
Meanwhile Bloomberg reporters claim $12.8 trillion has been "lent, spent or guaranteed" helping Wall Street recover from its policy failures.

Capitalism seems to work best for those who already have the most.

The true cost of the bank bailout | Need to Know | PBS

 

[Oldstyle]

You didn't finish the story (of course). A group of students and alumni then walked INTO that same lecture in support of the professor and the course, and received a warm round of applause by those students (you know, the ones who were there to learn) remained.

Thanks.

Professor Wolf seems to have left that part out.

Any idea how many total students were in that auditorium?

Several hundred at least. It's huge.

Professor Wolf has his agenda. I'd be curious to know how many of the 70 "walk-outs" were actually in the class in the first place. In a huge survey class like that it's not like anyone would know who was in and who was there to make a political statement.

 

[Mr.Nick]

The future 1% are protesting against the alleged 1%..

It's funny........

Why the **** are they at Harvard if they're against the 1%?

They're either stupid or liars...

If they were so allegedly humble they would have went to community college not HAAAAVARD... I bet their peers are laughing at them...

 

[Gallagher]

Yeah, and they profile the 99% out...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHGRfdVI5S8]Occupy Wall Street - Harvard Profiles The 99% Protesters - YouTube[/ame]

 

[georgephillip]

The future 1% are protesting against the alleged 1%..

It's funny........

Why the **** are they at Harvard if they're against the 1%?

They're either stupid or liars...

If they were so allegedly humble they would have went to community college not HAAAAVARD... I bet their peers are laughing at them...

"Nader graduated from The Gilbert School in 1951, followed by Princeton University four years later and then Harvard Law School..."

Ralph Nader may be among the 1% of earners, but I doubt if that was the reason he choose Harvard Law.
Anyone looking to compete against the top 1% of academic achievers might also be drawn to schools like Harvard.

Ralph Nader - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia