On this week's show, Prof. Richard D. Wolff discusses privatized probation, how New Zealand is rejecting austerity, how the rise in electricity service disconnections prove there is no "recovery," why more and more Americans are going without medical insurance, recent attacks on neo-liberalism and why big donors are funding fake public interest groups.
SPECIAL GUEST: Dr. Umberto Lorenzo and Dr. Richard McIntyre on how and why Cuba's socialist economy is moving toward worker co-ops.
No disrespect to professor Wolff. I love that guy. He's enlightened me in so many ways. Thank you. I appreciate what you're doing.
Self governing production for use not exchange with no currency is the the only way to undo the current system. Worker owned cooperatives will not work because it is implicit in the structure is unlimited growth. How do you know if the organization is doing well? Sold 8 last year and goal is to sell 9 this year and 10 the next. Moreover, whoever controls currency wins. Walmart home Depot etc sacked local producers because favorable currency terms that allowed them to sell for less long enough to kill local producers monopolize the industry then raise prices plus implement design obsolescence across the board to increase consumption.
Fascinating and very informative discussion. I was a little disappointed that you "danced" around calling the Cuban economy what it is. You referred to it as a command economy. This is a term used by private capitalist to obfuscate the fact that Cuba's economy is state capitalism (i.e. as handful of people, chosen by the state, who make all the decisions for the enterprise). Private capitalist don't want to refer to Communist countries as state capitalist because they don't want the public to see the similarities between both and start asking how we can do better. Just as private capitalist fight to protect their privileged position, so to, interestingly, do state capitalist.
I was glad to see you raise the issue of political democracy. I've always believed that state capitalist countries had to be autocratic because, given the chance, private capitalist forces would tenaciously work on the political system to abolish state capitalism and reinstate private capitalism. In fact, I predict that China's experiment with the controlled reintroduction of private capitalism will lead to private capitalist taking over the political system there. The only question is how will they achieve this? I also believe, as do you, that democratization of the workplace will create a political mindset in the workers that will be able to resist and politically defeat private and state capitalist. Once private and state capitalists are politically defeated, an actual democracy can be created.