Weekly Roundup: February 8, 2023

Check out the latest content from Democracy at Work.

New this week: 2023 World Economic Trends, Border Politics, Capitalism as a Religion, Personal Costs of Inflation

Check out the latest content from Democracy at Work!

Economic Update: 2023 World Economic Trends

Prof. Wolff identifies and examines the larger economic dimensions and trends of three key aspects of today's global economy: Russia/Ukraine war, Europe's quandary, and the decline of the US empire. Attention focuses on the immense direct and indirect costs of the war in Ukraine, on Europe's desperate position and choices caught between the US and China blocs in the world economy, and on how the US empire is responding to its decline in the world economy.

Wolff: “It's a system that can function at home but can't face that reality, pretending its problems are abroad and therefore causing its end to come sooner than it otherwise might.”

Capitalism Hits Home: What Are The Personal Costs of Inflation?

Dr. Fraad is joined by Prof. Wolff, host of Economic Update to discuss inflation and the collateral damage it has caused Americans. In the first part, Prof. Wolff explains what inflation is and the real reasons behind the rising prices. Dr. Fraad then explains what inflation means to the majority of people. She explores the personal, social and psychological effects the high cost of living has caused.

Fraad: "These are tragedies. They're a million little tragedies that are not publicized. They're not mentioned. This is the mass of American people who are collateral damage in our system."

Cities After... Neo-Imperialism & Neo-Fascism at the Border

Prof. Robles-Durán takes a closer look at the ever-growing migrant crisis along Mexico-US border cities and its critical socio-environmental implications. It is an issue of urgency, particularly given the humanitarian disaster, the heightened American security impositions, the neo-fascist retaliations from Texas and other Republican states, as well as the political ramifications at both sides of the border.

Robles-Durán: “Mexico has been told to use its military against the Latin American siblings that have also endured the imperialist and neoliberal impositions which have produced the economic and political crisis that most of the South is currently suffering- undoubtedly the primary reason that these waves of migrants are traveling north.”

Ask Prof Wolff: Capitalism is Unstable… and It’s Designed That Way

A supporter of Democracy at Work asks: "Are any complex systems eternally homeostatic? Cyclic behavior is a euphemism for millions of people will lose their jobs and homes, quit school, etc. I don't think that anyone imagines an economic system sans fluctuations. That would be truly Utopian. Or dystopian rather because fluctuations can be rightly considered a healthy feature of complex systems. But my overall impression in listening to professor Wolff is that these instabilities are borne in no small measure from the fundamental tensions that constitute the employer/ employee relationship." This is Professor Richard Wolff's video response. To learn how to ask your own questions to Prof Wolff, click here.

Wolff: “Every four to seven years, with or without a natural catastrophe, with or without a social catastrophe, we throw large numbers of people out of work. It is fundamentally irrational. It makes a joke, and a bad one, out of capitalism's claim to be efficient.”

Ask Prof Wolff: Is Capitalism a Religion?

A supporter of Democracy at Work asks: "Is capitalism a religion? Has it become the established religion of the United States?" This is Professor Richard Wolff's video response. To learn how to ask your own questions to Prof Wolff, click here.

Wolff: “The biggest intellectual movement of the 19th and 20th Century in Europe, and arguably here in the United States too, was a struggle between capitalism and all that it represented and the leftover of religion. That struggle resulted in the victory of capitalism and the defeat of existing religion, and by defeat, I mean the acceptance of traditional religion that the capitalists are going to rule the world and that all the religions can do is enact a kind of moderating force to make capitalism a little less harsh.”