“The impoverished families of the long-term unemployed strained to the point of dysfunction, communities deprived of viable economies, interrupted educations, lost skills: these and many more results of capitalism’s crisis will put difficult demands on governments for years."

-Richard Wolff, Democracy at Work

Richard Wolff is an economist and political theorist associated with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the New Left. In this discussion, Wolff provides an unauthorized history of capitalism, discusses how corporate damages to society (or 'externalities' in the vernacular of the economics profession) are transferred to the population, how capitalist ideology drives zero-sum competition, and suggests practical policies that could lead to a more equitable distribution to wealth.

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The original video can be found here, my thanks to the ACLU of Southern California for providing and maintaining this recording, which first aired on February 2015.

As always these talks are syndicated for educational and nonprofit purposes in accordance with Fair Use. They are produced ad-free, because I listen to my own stuff on here and like you, I hate ads.

These recordings have been remastered for clarity, ease of listening, and concision and have been downmixed to mono so that they are lighter and easier to stream, wherever you are. 

Furthermore my historical and philosophical writing, which is also entirely free is available at my blog, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Hemlock⁠⁠⁠⁠, on Substack.

The music of the intro and outro (Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major) is licensed under non-commercial attribution, and can be ⁠⁠⁠⁠found here⁠⁠⁠⁠ and has been remixed by me.

Enjoy.