The economic crisis that we are now in did not happen overnight and is not caused by random events. It is the natural reaction to the dynamics of global changes and economic structure. In other words, it is the way it is because of the way things are. If we don’t like the results we need to change the way things are.
The economy is hitting home for more and more people. Even people with jobs and decent incomes are afraid of how things are going to be in the future.
Prof. Richard Wolff says that we are in societal trauma and need to adjust to living under changed conditions that will not change on there own. In this talk, given as a Sunday Platform at The Brooklyn Society For Ethical Culture Dr. Wolff tells a lively story of why we need to find a new capitalism for a new age.
Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University, New York City. He also teaches classes regularly at the Brecht Forum in Manhattan.
Earlier he taught economics at Yale University (1967-1969) and at the City College of the City University of New York (1969-1973). In 1994, he was a Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of Paris (France), I (Sorbonne).
Education
BA in History from Harvard College (1963);
MA in Economics from Stanford University (1964);
MA in History from Yale University (1967); and a
PhD in Economics from Yale University (1969)
To consume is to use up. What are all the things that you use up? Food, water, clothes, toothpaste, phone, fuel, furniture, all of it. The needs and the wants. It’s probably a long list, but even if it doesn’t seem like much, it’s a lot of stuff especially cobined with all of our stuff. In fact, it is so much stuff that consuming it is threatening our very existence. Annie Leonard made a fun and fast paced film that explains fascinating dynamics stuff. (This award winning film is 20 minutes long.)
Learn more at The Story of Stuff.
Here is a video on a new initiative, a pod cast.
We’re in a global economic change that has been brought about by a culture of consumerism. In this talk, noted economist Richard Wolff explains.
Richard Wolff has been a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts since 1981. Dr. Wolff’s major interests include the critical comparison of alternative economic theories (neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian), the application of advanced class analysis to contemporary global capitalism, and new developments in Marxian economics. He is a member of the editorial board of several academic journals including Rethinking Marxism. He also publishes regular analyses of current economic events on the websites www.globalmacroscope.com and www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine. He has co-authored several books with Stephen Resnick, including The Economics of Colonialism: Britain and Kenya; Rethinking Marxism: Struggles in Marxist Theory; Knowledge and Class: A Marxian Critique of Political Economy and Economics: Marxian versus Neoclassical. He also co-authored Bringing it all Back Home: Class and Gender in the Modern Household with Harriet Fraad and Stephen Resnick.
This is copied from the Media Education Foundation page that is marketing the DVD’s of this film.
