A Marxist View From the Bottom

Capitalism Hits the Fan: A Marxian View from UVC-TV 19 on Vimeo.

Tired of the talking heads on TV, try this guy. Rick Wolf is an economics professor at UMass Amherst, where he analyzes economic events through a Marxist perspective. You don't have to change you mind, but you should open it. It doesn't hurt.

Here is a preview:

Most US economists are professors in colleges and universities. Their academic positions enable research and teaching that is supposed to be independent of corporate interests. They could, at least hypothetically, provide the critical insights into economic problems needed for their solution. Economists might help to propose, evaluate, and debate the wide range of possible solutions -- from those that minimally change the status quo to those that entail fundamental social change. However, history shows that most professional economists have been subservient to corporate interests rather than constructive critics. They celebrated capitalism, ignored or dismissed alternative economic systems, and only argued over how best to manage the huge social costs of capitalism's recurring instability. The economists' shameful corporate subservience has been the nation's loss.

The US professional economic establishment -- its members call themselves "mainstream" -- never leads. It always follows. Before the Great Depression, mainstream economists dutifully embraced what they called "neoclassical economics." This economic "science" showed, they said, that what profited business benefited the whole society. In this mainstream perspective, private enterprise and markets worked best for everyone when left free of government regulation or interference. Big business led and publicly promoted this celebration of capitalism. Colleges and universities sought financial contributions from businesses, their owners, and their leaders. They needed enrollments from these people's children (few others could afford the costs of higher education). Academic administrations neither wanted nor supported professors who criticized private business interests or otherwise displeased them (for example, by challenging mainstream economic science).

BTW, this is not an endorsement of his theories, but they are like sex - it only hurts if you do it wrong or are trying.