Send us a text

Featuring University of Massachusetts Amherst Sociologist Sanjiv Gupta and University of Massachusetts Amherst Economist David Kotz. 

This is episode 1 of a 4-part series on “What is Capitalism?” This series is accompanying the DSA National Political Education Committee’s curriculum packet, which can find our curriculum at https://education.dsausa.org/resources/.

This episode covers “But at Least Capitalism Is Free and Democratic, Right?” by Erik Olin Wright in which Olin Wright takes the common assumption that capitalism grants us freedom and lays out simply how that’s not the case. The working class has a “choice,” but only between working and starving — and that’s no choice at all. And, at work, workers are subject to the whims of their employers, giving over at least eight hours of the day to someone else’s control. He also succinctly lays out how governments steward the interests of capital, and how in turn capitalists control the political system. 

“But at Least Capitalism Is Free and Democratic, Right?” by Erik Olin Wright: https://jacobin.com/2016/04/democracy-capitalism-freedom-friedman-wright-socialism

Credits:
Producer: Elton LK
Host: Daphna Thier
Logo by Michaela Brangan
Sound Engineer & Opening Music by Casey Stikker

Become a member of Democratic Socialists of America.