
Richard Wolff: Replace Capitalism - beeker
http://youtu.be/_-KqeU8nzn4
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VMG
This does not belong on hacker news. Read the guide lines.

In fact, this is antithetical to Startups, which can only exist in capitalism.

This is overtly political post to a full-hour video with no summary, but I
guess it would be "we'll make communism work this time"

~~~
Karellen
Did you even watch to the end?

The alternative he proposes is not communism. At least, not in the top-down
governmental-controlled sense of communism tried in Russia, China and the
like. He's not suggesting the end of large companies, small companies, or
companies with outside investors (shareholders). There is no reason why
startups could not exist or flourish if organised along the lines he suggests.
In fact, startups would probably be the best place to try implementing his
ideas, to show if (that?) they can work.

Neither is it overly political. He has a go at Republicans and Democrats
alike. Maybe a bit more so at Republicans, but they do make themselves easier
targets w.r.t. rampant 1%-centricism.

~~~
VMG
No I don't have the time to watch a 90 minute video. I did however read his
website and what he is proposing undermines the concepts of ownership and free
trade in a free society.

This is _extremely_ political, the fact that he is too extreme for democrats
only underlines that.

I'm a libertarian and I don't spam HN with pro free-market links because it
doesn't belong here.

~~~
Karellen
No, he's not proposing a change in ownership of companies or corporations, or
free trade.

He's proposing a change in the way that they are governed, such that the
employees democratically decide the direction of the company, rather than have
that dictactorially imposed by the ruling class^W^Wboard of directors. Giving
the workers more control over the direction of a company is certainly
something that adherents of "pure" non-state-controlled communism would be
aligned with, but using democracy to achieve his ends is something that will
confuse many who find it hard to separate political and economic worldviews.

His points about how capitalism /as we currently practice it/ seems to be
inherently unstable - 11 significant downturns in the 70-odd years between the
Great Depression and our current major crisis - seem valid. Rather than throw
capitalism out entirely, he seems to be trying to find a clever hack that
would make it less volatile.

FWIW, I don't think his proposal is right. I'm not sure exactly what I think
is wrong with it yet, but I think he's got an interesting idea which is worthy
of discussion. And his insight into the 180 year history of how and why we got
to where we are now is incredibly thought-provoking.

So, I thought, rebut rather than downvote.

(It appears not many other people agree. That's fair enough. Meh.)

------
paulhauggis
Money is power. He conveniently leaves out the fact that unions are now just
as powerful as any corporation. They use their clout to get special government
treatment and vote people into power. When Obama was running for president, I
got at least 10 calls a week from different local unions telling me to vote
for him.

You can start your own company now and run it like a collective. If I
sacrifice years of my life to start a company, I should get to decide how that
company operates. We debate systems like healthcare because they are
government run (or could be). Private companies shouldn't be completely
organized and run by the government. We have the freedon to run a company in
any way that we want. He is proposing taking away those freedoms.

If you look at history, terrible economies have led to terrible people like
this getting into power. I still can't believe he's proposing a 94% tax rate
over $200K or essentially capping max potential earnings. The world is a
different place. If this were to ever happen, any intelligent person would
start businesses elsewhere. The Internet has made this much easier.

The occupy movement isn't a good thing to get behind. It was a collection of
hippy rich kids that wanted to smoke pot and get into drum circles. I never
took it seriously and neither did 99% (yes this is intentional) of the
population.

I might take him seriously if he started his own worker collective to prove
that it's an actual working model. Talk is cheap.

Especially from someone that has been stuck in academia for the past 10+
years.

