Weekly Roundup: December 22, 2021

Check out the latest content from Democracy at Work.

New this week: Economic Update, Anti-Capitalist Chronicles, All Things Co-op, 10 Years Ago, Ask Prof Wolff & Wolff Responds...

Check out the latest content from Democracy at Work!

Economic Update: Anti-Mandate is NOT Anti-Vaccine

On this week's show, Prof. Wolff presents a critique of obscene wealth in the US and the economics of the rape crisis in th US and UK. The second half of the show features an interview with author Bob Hennelly, on the anti-mandate vs anti-vaccine confusion and the debate over Democratic Party losses and strategies.

Wolff: "We have 150 years of struggle in this country to get unions and to get workers a seat at the table. To work out how to deal with work problems, whether they are local in the factory, or the office, or they’re national like this crisis. And there's no reason to ask unions to simply step aside and give away what they fought so hard to achieve. And there's something sleazy about employers using a pandemic to to sneak in the ability to mandate something they should have negotiated”

Anti-Capitalist Chronicles: How Do We Break from Neo-Liberalism?

In this final episode of Season 3, Prof. Harvey talks about the history of Neo-Liberalism and how it relates to post-modernism. Trump's imposition of what is the truth, with his notion of alternative facts, is in many ways, a triumph of post-modernity. Harvey underscores the importance of exposing the activities of the ruling class, who are really behind Neo-liberal ideas and policies and conveniently remain dissociated from them in a concerted effort to protect their wealth and power.

Harvey: "And that inevitability, that kind of almost 'it is a fact of nature rather than a fact of politics and culture' and all the rest of it, it becomes terribly important. And this is when neoliberalism becomes embedded in our consciousness and embedded in our subconscious. And that makes it extremely difficult to get out of neoliberal ways of thinking, even though it's lost its political legitimacy."

All Things Co-op: Platform Cooperatives with Minsun Ji

In this episode of All Things Co-op, Cinar, Larry, and Kevin talk to Minsun Ji, a labor organizer and Co-op expert. They discuss what a platform cooperative is, how it differs from a corporate or capitalist platform, and its connection with the larger labor movement. Minsun also talks with the ATC guys about the growth of the social economy and cooperatives in Korea, and shares her take on the popular Netflix series Squid Game and what it reveals about the reality Korean workers are faced with today.

Kevin: "I love this idea of taking the platform that has been made into this way of hyper-exploiting by individualizing workers and instead, cooperatizing them in a way that has not been possible before.”

Ten Years Ago: Homelessness [10th Anniversary of Economic Update with Richard Wolff]

10 years ago, headlines across the United States covered the scandal of child homelessness. For many, this bleak reality was not compatible with their idea of our country’s economy. Prof Wolff shares a video that brings a difficult truth. “The problem isn't being solved, it is in fact getting worse.” Watch this video to hear more about this problem, and why we are so grateful for the 10th anniversary of Economic Update: a program that never shies away from the truth Americans need to hear.

Wolff: “2.5 million children homeless in the United States is a failure of American capitalism… This is a reality. Are we honest enough to face it? To admit it? To talk about the solutions? Well, that's one of the things Economic Update is all about.”

Ask Prof Wolff: Affordable Housing and Homelessness

A Patron of Economic Update asks: "Hi Professor, I was wondering if you could comment on an item popping up in numerous cities. The use of outdoor spaces where the city sanctions tent living and calling it a solution to the homeless issues in this country. I’m curious about your thoughts on these solutions and the underlying issue." This is Professor Richard Wolff's video response.

Wolff: “Capitalism is not an effective way of providing decent housing to the totality of your population. If you want to solve the housing problem, in Denver or anywhere else, you've got a problem with the system: the profit driven system that allows a very small minority employers to hold all the rest of us hostage to the profits they have to make… It's a strange system made stranger by the willingness of so many to accept it, to tolerate it, to resign themselves to it.”

Ask Prof Wolff: Hostage to Profit

A Patron of Economic Update asks: “Why not prohibit profit-making companies that do not pay taxes from having lobbyists? No representation without taxation.” This is Professor Richard Wolff's video response.

Wolff: “What are we doing? Making the lives of the majority employees and the impact on society for all of us depend on the decisions of a small minority, who's aiming to get their hands on the small portion of the revenue that's called profit. Suppose we had a different system…”

Wolff Responds: World Inequality Report 2022

In this Wolff Responds, Prof. Wolff shares his key takeaways from the 2022 World Inequality Report—a document detailing the most up-to-date data on global inequality. Prof. Wolff argues that this report further confirms that our capitalist system is the driver behind the stunning and ever-worsening inequality in our world today.

Wolff: “We live in an extraordinarily unequal society. If the phrase capitalism delivers is to have any substance, then one of the things it delivers- and oh does it deliver it- is inequality.”