Our friends at Sustainable Human recently created a short video featuring Professor Wolff, where he compares capitalism to feudalism and slavery, and explains how a more democratic economic system is possible.

Unmistakable signs point to the fact that the mass of US citizens are economically, socially, and psychologically in bad shape. Dr. Harriet Fraad breaks down the economic, social and emotional conditions, and how they relate to each other. 

What most of us have long believed about how the economy works is based on a set of fundamental myths, supported by a series of inappropriate and misleading metaphors, from which it is difficult to escape. The emotional investment we have made in these myths has allowed for levels of unemployment, underemployment, inequality and relative poverty which would have seemed incredible a generation ago.

Instead of constantly focusing on the symptom, i.e. Trump and his cabal, we need to ask ourselves as philosopher Henry Giroux does, “What kind of society produces Donald Trump?” or more specifically, ‘What kind of person embraces this kind of budget?’ 

Since Governor Alejandro García Padilla of Puerto Rico announced that its debts were not payable, mainstream media has shown a great interest in the archipelago. Combine a government debt between $70 and $73 billion, a shrinking population of about 3.5 million American citizens, and a subordinate political status, this US territory is at an unprecedented moment in its history. With all the attention Puerto Rico is receiving, most people are left scratching their heads, wondering how this economic crisis came about.

This article originally appeared at Truthout.org.

The two-major-party arrangement both allows for disagreements yet also keeps dissent bounded by common commitments to reproduce capitalism. 

This article originally appeared at Truthout.org

Like all human institutions, markets have strengths and weaknesses. Born in particular historical conditions, they alter over time as conditions change, and eventually die. Just as other institutions - monarchy, slavery, empire, feudalism, tribal society...

This article originally appeared at Truthout.org

Capitalism, like a speeding train, barreled into a stone wall in 2008. Shocked and dazed, its leaders have been trying to "recover." By that, they mean to fix the mangled tracks, reposition the locomotive and cars on those tracks and resume forward motion. No basic economic change...

This article originally appeared at Truth-out.org

Volkswagen (VW), we now know, systematically evaded pollution control regulations. Over the last decade it defrauded 11 million buyers of its diesel-engine vehicles, fouled the planet's environment and...

Sometimes public debates focus on important social issues; at other times, debates distract from them. Disputes over whether the Federal Reserve System should raise interest rates illustrate that second sort. Yes, "serious people" take...