Google Talk | Dr. Richard Wolff presents Democracy at Work: Curing Capitalism, 28 JUN 2017.

Notes for future scholarship…

Your author holds a degree from the heterodox economics department at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). One of your author’s professors is gracious enough to invite him and other students over for Thanksgiving Dinner, as well as other professors, including on at lest one occasion, Dr. Richard Wolff, a personal friend of his. Our only contention with Dr. Wolff’s analysis and economic recommendations is his utter and complete avoidance of MMT, modern money theory, or modern monetary theory. At the time, Dr. Stephanie Kelton was the Chair of the Economics Department at UMKC. Today, she has a New York Times bestseller, called The Deficit Myth: Modern Money Theory and the Birth of the People’s Economy. And, to this day, as far as we know, Dr. Richard Wolff has never once mentioned MMT, not even to refute it as analytically valid, nor to refute its policy proposals, such as the job guarantee. We imagine the retort would be the usual boiler plate response: Oh, sit down. You’re just trying to save capitalism. Oh, really?

Transitioning to the Q&A (c. 55:30)

“To insist that you don’t have to think about it is […] a kind of self-imposed censorship […]”

(c. 56:25)  Question:  If democracy has been inefficient or dysfunctional, politically, why should we expect democracy to be any better at work?

Dr. Richard Wolff begins by stating that Dr. Marx, et al. have grappled with this question.  Then, he explained.

Second Question (c. 1:01:04)  ‘In Marxist analysis, you mentioned a labor theory of value. That idea has taken a lot criticism.  Will you please explain?  Then, Dr. Wolff explained.

Third Question (c. 1:08:00) Is there potential to get to solutions sooner, if we educate the public and young people, e.g., via YouTube? Dr. Richard Wolff said yes. We agree. We, Americans, have been catatonic, as a society, like a deer-in-headlights, ever since we heard Eisenhower’s Farewell Address.

(c. 1:11:25) “Now, you do the addition […]

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[7 FEB 2021]

[Last modified on 7 FEB 2021 at 16:41 PST]