Taboo: Questioning the Merits of Capitalism Richard D. Wolff is a Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University in New York. His focus is outside of conventional economic thought inside America, but he is well known and well respected internationally. Wolff taught economics at Yale University, City University of New York, University of Utah, University of Paris I (Sorbonne), and The Brecht Forum in New York City. He is also the author of several books. His article, “Capitalism Becomes Questionable “, boldly crosses the line of conventional thought into the taboo when he questions the system of capitalism by providing readers with a concise historically relevant and forthright criticism related to the fallout associated with the global economic crisis of 2007. He begins his blistering article with a brief statistical overview of how the 2007 economic meltdown continues to wreck havoc upon average Americans as corporations and top wage earners have been “blessed” through government relief. Wolff emphasizes the disparity in this statistical affirmation: This year of austerity began with an increase in the payroll tax rate for over 150 million wage-and-salary earners from 4.2 to 6.2 per cent (a 48% increase from 2012) -- a far more significant tax event than the trivial -- but wildly hyped -- increase of taxes on those earning over $450,000 annually from 35 to 39.6 per cent (a 13% increase from 2012).” While some people might find his writing style unethical because Dr. Wolff uses some inflammatory language in his article, his penetrating and insightful analysis hits all the relevant points generally ignored in the corporate owned media and mainstream academia. His opening insights about the lingering after effects of the crisis, as a consequence of the capitalistic system, are punctuated when he asserts, “Those who retain jobs suffer declining real wages, fewer benefits, reduced job security, and more work.” With the precision and dexterity of a brain surgeon, Wolf draws the reader in with contrast and compare by pointing out how austerity measures used by the government to counteract the downside of economic cycles inherent with capitalism have taken a different turn under the Bush and Obama administrations than those Franklin D. Roosevelt took in the aftermath of the Great Depression. With deadly precision he argues current austerity policies bailed out large corporations in a manner contrasting what the majority of working people saw by cutting spending on social programs helping working individuals and disproportionately raising taxes on the same group. Accentuating the contrast, Wolff taps the social conscience of the average American when he shows how under Roosevelt government austerity expanded social programs like unemployment and social security, cut taxes on working people, and created jobs by building the infrastructure of the country. He skillfully charges, “Now austerity policies shift onto the general population major portions of the costs of the crisis and the bailouts. The situation is so bad and US government complicity with capitalists at the people’s expense so exposed that the capitalist system is becoming questionable.” These types of penetrating observations arise to expose previously unexplored aspects of the American economic structure throughout Wolff’s article. Consequently, Wolff derides decade’s long held assertions another disastrous fiscal downturn like the Great Depression was not probable or even possible. He responds rather, “Capitalism’s inherent instability overwhelmed and thus proved the futility of efforts to prevent its crisis.” Note the emphasis on “its crisis” referring to the crisis as a natural byproduct of the system. Furthermore, Wolff continues his exposure of the political causes behind why the system was not questioned before and why it is now. His uses deep historical and scholarly knowledge of Economics to expose how “old ideological mechanisms”, employed by the right, representing the capitalist powers to be, for many years placed the blame for economic suffering on the individual via alleged personal failures and poor decision making as well as using scapegoats such as the poor, minorities, foreign powers, and so on used to “deflect systemic criticism”, and how those tactics do not work as well as they once did. Wolff observes, ‘In their place, notion is rising that today’s economic problems are systemic, that capitalism itself is the problem.” The reader is reminded how the recent Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement was a result of this emerging thought in America. In addition, educating the casual observer without extensive knowledge of Economics, Wolff carefully introduces another issue revealing why the crisis “put capitalism into question” with regards to capital’s mobility. He expresses the idea using facts of how capital is relocating to areas in Asia, Latin America, and other emerging markets where wages are lower to increase corporate profits and the wealth at the top of the economic scale while evading the social costs. Wolff’s tone is unapologetic when he notes, “The costs of capital mobility were socialized and dumped on the US public sector, and when taxpayers resisted covering the costs, the affected cities were devastated. Capitalism’s mobility of capital of delivers shock and awe; it terrorizes whole populations.” He points to cities like New Jersey and Detroit who have suffered decades of decay as a result of capital mobility. Also, Wolff’s muscular ability to set subject matter in a special light is highlighted in the area of technical innovation due to its ability to save work. We have been conditioned to believe this is a net positive for society as a whole, but Wolff counters, “… in capitalism its adoption often benefits the few, while fewer workers labor longer and for less real income.” His views force the reader to question what technical innovation’s advantages for society as a whole are? Wolff continues to show how the capitalism model proves an advantage for few as the majority suffers loses. In the end, Dr. Wolff capably calls into question many practices within the current capitalist system. His powerful insight reminds us where the blame for the huge increase in economic disparity between the upper 1% and the other 99% belongs and lifts the veil previously kept from the masses with vivid detail. Poignantly, Dr. Wolff reaffirms the title of his article by proclaiming, “Capitalism…is a system that one could and should question.” By Ed Smith
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 17:28:38 +0000
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