Posted on 12/12/2019 11:02:09 AM PST by PPSman
A debate took place last month at the SoHo Forum.
The proposition before the debaters was "Socialism is preferable to capitalism as an economic system that promotes freedom, equality, and prosperity."
Arguing in the affirmative was Richard D. Wolff, the preeminent American Marxian economist. He is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University in New York. Opposing was Gene Epstein, the former economics editor of Barron's Magazine.
The debate itself wasn't that interesting. Wolff is a skilled communicator and drove the debate off in different directions he wanted it to go.
But what struck me is how much Wolff had to yield to defend his socialist/communist position.
(Excerpt) Read more at economicpolicyjournal.com ...
If only reality would conform itself to the vision of intellectuals.
:)
Any organization has those whose best work is in the work they know best how to do, not in judging the work (like management) they have no academic, professional or work experience in doing. Everyone cannot be everyone’s boss. It does not work.
If it did the kumbaya of the commune would already be the universally accepted preferred mode of life. It isn’t because it does not work.
Sorry, it the ideology that fails. Besides a strongman will always gain control and ensure its failure for all with he and his becoming the only "successes" to appear.
appears to be little more than worker-owned business co-operatives.
Workers in highly capital intensive industries would obtain ownership of far more capital than workers who happen to work in less capital intensive industries. Few workers are going to want to work in such industries as clothing or restaurants.
What if a worker owns part of a business decides to switch to a different industry? It will eventually become necessary in the long run to keep ownership and employment totally separate just as in capitalism.This will be necessary to permit free movement of labor and capital.
Or a bus driver who now is a multi-millionaire (after disarming the entire populace - for their own good!)
As with all things of the Left, this man is a true hypocrite, no different than the denizens of Hollywood, Wall St, Gore, DiCaprio, Congress, the Tech industry, and every other Limousine Liberal on the planet.
It’s real easy to be a Liberal if you’re loaded. It’s real easy to be a Marxist Economist if you’ve never held a real job, all of your theories are research based(because the places that practice this type of economics are doing it wrong), and you have a secure, tenured job where you can’t get fired. And you’ve never run a business.
Wolff probably tought a few lectures a week, has his grad assistants to most of his work, rest of the time he was figuring out what his next book is going to be about and flying all over the world on the Massachusetts taxpayer’s dime. He didn’t have a thing to worry about and he had an adoring student body.
I graduated from UMASS. It was bad enough when I was there, apparently it has only gotten worse.
There was a Democrat Senator Presidential candidate in the 70’s (forgot his name! it’s an age issue) that lost his Presidential bid and retired. He purchased a hotel/resort where he tried the ideals promoted by the communist author Wolfe. He went broke.
Later in an interview he stated that running a business and making payroll is a lot more difficult that first envisioned He said the co-op mentality was enjoyable but sometimes the boss has to be the boss.
Marxian economy is a contradiction in terms.
One of those oxy-moronic thingys.
The big problem is that even those who don’t think of themselves as Communists, or even Socialists, still accept the Marxian worldview of Class Struggle.
You should go to UMASS/Amherst. It’d blow your mind.
Or go with the Stalin model:
Have everyone who disagrees rounded up and shot, or sent to the camps for "re-education".
I have talked with Leftists who believe that modern IT technology, supply chain software and AI will allow them to FINALLY be successful in running a centrally managed economy.
I expect they’re gonna try.
George McGovern. The hotel went bankrupt
Sounds like the old Syndicalism.
That would make control even easier, not to mention exterminations more likely.
“I have talked with Leftists who believe that modern IT technology, supply chain software and AI will allow them to FINALLY be successful in running a centrally managed economy.”
This is a contemporary version of the premise of the argument for “market socialism” put forward in the Socialist Calculation Debate that began in the late 19th century and revved up again in the 1930s, pitting Oskar Lange and Abba Lerner against Ludwig von Mises and F. A. Hayek. The key articles (IMO) refuting the feasibility of the accurate simulation of market prices by a computerized model of the economy is Hayek’s “The Use of Knowledge in Society” and G. Warren Nutter’s “Markets without Property: A Grand Illusion.”
Wolfe is psych red. Dangerous to students and society.
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