“War, Sanctions, Deepening Splits: Economic, Political, and Cultural”, [July 2022], ~~ Richard Wolff

 “War, Sanctions, Deepening Splits: Economic, Political, and Cultural”, [July 2022], Richard Wolff -- bi-monthly lecture series, duration of video is 1:16:43, Democracy @ Work, at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGVfTS489IY >

Introduction by dmorista:

This is a fine wide-ranging lecture by Dr. Richard Wolff, the Marxist Economics Professor Emeritus (that is a fancy word that just means retired used with academics only) who worked most of his career at the University of Massachussetts at Amherst. The lecture is in the Youtube format, there is not written transcipt available, but it is readily available to listen to. The Youtube site provides a short list that enumerates the subjects that Wolff covered, pointing out that:

“In this lecture, Prof. Wolff will discuss the following: 1. Global economic splits: US/UK/Japan/Australia vs BRICS+ 2. US political splits: inflation, interest rates, recession, stock market crash, deepening inequality, Democratic Party self destruction 3. Cultural splits: abortion, Miranda, church-state.”

I noted with some degree of satisfaction that about a year ago Professor Wolff began to talk about the rapid decline of the U.S. in the Global Capitalist Hierachy. While Wolff was born in Akron, Ohio he lived most of his life on the East Coast; and he took several years before he recognized the glaringly obvious decline of U.S. Capitalism, that was so stark and undeniable in the hollowed-out industrial regions. Other academics and authors noted the situation much earlier, for instance Barry Bluestone wrote a book in 1984 entitled The Deindustrialization of America. That was, of course, some 38 years ago. Even H. Ross Perot, a conservative Republican businessman, discussed the U.S.  deindustrialization situation at some length, with charts and graphs in his 1992 Presidential campaign. Of course Perot was an interesting character, for one thing when a bunch of his employees were taken prisoner in Iran he hired a bunch of commandos to free them, and they got the job done. Name one other American businessman who ever did anything like that to help their employees, I know of no other. But while he was over 3 decades late to the discussion, Wolff brings his formidable analytical prowess to his discussion of these issues.

Another issue that Wolff addresses is the potential break-up of the U.S. into two or more Rump States. Again he is late to the discussion of a potential U.S. break-up, but his comments are insightful and succinct. He notes that there are many Corporate Controlled Media pundits who have speculated about Russia getting broken up into 2 or more successor states. But he points out that the potential splits and fissures are far more likely to lead to some sort of break-up of the U.S.; as opposed to Russia where the splits and fissures are much shallower and less serious.  One aspect of the decline of U.S. power that Wolff discusses is the fact that, outside of Western and Eastern Europe, Japan and the other East Asian Capitalist States, plus Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, very very few countries have joined with the U.S. in the sanctions on Russia.  The trade situation, in fact, has been so favorable to Russia that they have increased their profits on oil and gas sales, while lowering the amount that they extract and sell.

One thing that Wolff does very well is to make people realize that the days of U.S. residents living in a special country, where the worst aspects of Capitalism are softened by a variety of governmental programs, are definitively over. The U.S. has degenerated into a Third World Country with a big military, a situation that cannot continue for very long. I heartily recommend this video lecture.