Richard Wolff: Replace Capitalism

by beeker • 14 years ago

14 5 14 years ago

VMG2• 14 years ago

This does not belong on hacker news. Read the guide lines.

In fact, this is antithetical to Startups, which can only exist in capitalism.

This is overtly political post to a full-hour video with no summary, but I guess it would be "we'll make communism work this time"

Karellen2• 14 years ago

Did you even watch to the end?

The alternative he proposes is not communism. At least, not in the top-down governmental-controlled sense of communism tried in Russia, China and the like. He's not suggesting the end of large companies, small companies, or companies with outside investors (shareholders). There is no reason why startups could not exist or flourish if organised along the lines he suggests. In fact, startups would probably be the best place to try implementing his ideas, to show if (that?) they can work.

Neither is it overly political. He has a go at Republicans and Democrats alike. Maybe a bit more so at Republicans, but they do make themselves easier targets w.r.t. rampant 1%-centricism.

VMG2• 14 years ago

No I don't have the time to watch a 90 minute video. I did however read his website and what he is proposing undermines the concepts of ownership and free trade in a free society.

This is extremely political, the fact that he is too extreme for democrats only underlines that.

I'm a libertarian and I don't spam HN with pro free-market links because it doesn't belong here.

paulhauggis• 14 years ago

Money is power. He conveniently leaves out the fact that unions are now just as powerful as any corporation. They use their clout to get special government treatment and vote people into power. When Obama was running for president, I got at least 10 calls a week from different local unions telling me to vote for him.

You can start your own company now and run it like a collective. If I sacrifice years of my life to start a company, I should get to decide how that company operates. We debate systems like healthcare because they are government run (or could be). Private companies shouldn't be completely organized and run by the government. We have the freedon to run a company in any way that we want. He is proposing taking away those freedoms.

If you look at history, terrible economies have led to terrible people like this getting into power. I still can't believe he's proposing a 94% tax rate over $200K or essentially capping max potential earnings. The world is a different place. If this were to ever happen, any intelligent person would start businesses elsewhere. The Internet has made this much easier.

The occupy movement isn't a good thing to get behind. It was a collection of hippy rich kids that wanted to smoke pot and get into drum circles. I never took it seriously and neither did 99% (yes this is intentional) of the population.

I might take him seriously if he started his own worker collective to prove that it's an actual working model. Talk is cheap.

Especially from someone that has been stuck in academia for the past 10+ years.

Richard Wolff: Replace Capitalism

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