Wolff Responds: The Curse of Billionaires
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2024
- In this Wolff Responds, Prof. Wolff comments on Jeff Bezos' space travels and on a broken capitalist system that rewards billionaires instead of all the people that are helped create the wealth.
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They know it's a garbage reason too. As evidence, look no further to teachers trying to get a small pay rise only to be told that "well, we don't want teachers to be into teaching for the money, we want teachers that love teaching." Then why don't we want CEOs to just love running companies?
100000000000000000%
@@bonchidude thanks. It's a pretty obvious grift.
LOL
A worker s wage will do
Because none of it makes any logical sense. None of it is about fairness, merit, honest compensation, etc... It is about pig people rigging the rules and twisting the system.
Oh, by the way...from bezos' mouth, "you paid for this.". Barf.
Billionaires don't care what happens to others. If they did they wouldn't be billionaires.
Reminds me of one of my favorite MLK quotes that I have memorized:
“Whenever the preferential treatment of the negro is brought up, some of our friends recoil in horror. That the negro should be granted equality, they agree, but he should ask nothing more. On the surface this appears reasonable, but it is not realistic. For if a man is entered into a race…400 years after another man…he would have to perform some impossible feat in order to catch up to his fellow runner.” - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Problem with that os that there are fewer, but still counts of white people with not a dime in their hand, who will, rightfully or not, resent you for having preferential treatment. Universal policies are the only ones that work because you do not win with only a minority in a democracy.
Thank you for advocating for democracy and justice in these hopeless times
Imagine playing a game of Monopoly where the winner of the game got to keep all their money and property for the next game, and you have no choice but to play.
If you are a history enthusiast you cannot help but discover the fact that inevitably the worst calamities to have smitten humanity were directly caused by extreme wealth.
Like always, eye opening information. Prof Wolff is right in a just society shouldn't coexist
super rich and super poor. While Mr. Brazos went out of this world to enjoy a vacation in space, people in the US are concerned about being evicted.
Thank you, Prof Wolff.
is it Bezos responsibility to pay someone's rent? NO!
Today's billionaires are yesterdays kings, feudal lords, and rulers by divine right.
The Relay Race comparison should be made over and over again until everyone knows it. #generalstrike #generalstrikeNOW
If it isn't made in MSM, only we will know it.
The insight that I got from hearing Mr. Wolf speak in this video is the understanding of how Mr.Bezos benefitted so much from the talent, skills, an effort of the people in his workforce. It seem unsustainable if Bezos doesn't give back to the community so the community is not in distress with rising homelessness, mental and physical health resources strained, and a professional level of police, fire, government services . Also what is needed is workers being paid enough so they can nurture their children's and instill good character. (A decent family life. )
Warehouse workers working for the they mean in the world wearing productivity monitor bracelets for $15 an hour is where our labor market has sunk to.
Employers want their poor workers to spend and spend and come back to them to beg for more work. So why bother spending from the beginning? We don't need to fall for all those USELESS PROMOTIONS and MARKETING TACTICS.
Beautiful analogy. Love it. Thanks Professor Wolf.
To reach billionerror status through earned income (income derived from one's labor), it would take 40 yrs of 50 hrs/week making $116,000/hr!
The end of humanity
Will be the best thing that ever happened to Humanity.
Those of us that understands compassion , empathy and cooperation, are the few , and we cannot overcome the most horrible among us because we are not that violent .
YET !
Totally agree
Can we bring back the phrase "Robber Barons"?
As long as the citizenry admires and supports these people, nothing is going to change.
Just out of curiosity has a socialist or Marxisteconomist ever won the Nobel prize for economics?
Sorry I don't know the exact answer, but I'm sure they haven't. A interesting start would be to research the prizes namesake. Alfred Noble inventor of TNT(dynamite)
if not they should do
On top of society without healthcare.
At the end of Squid Game’s first season the old man says poor people and people who have too much money have miserable lives. The latter, once they can afford anything and everything, get so bored that they look for exciting ways to spice up their lives, in legal or illegal ways, in moral or immoral ways. I added this last part, but once you watch the show you’ll see why and how.
Never mind shaming people. OUTLAW money, Make the billionaires powerless.
That would remove the Oligarchs from power, and free humanity from slavery.
Bezos isn’t the only person to profit from Amazon stock; there are untold thousands of smaller shareholders, including myself, who have benefitted from the meteoric rise of Amazon stock.
Tesla went from $200/share to $2000 in a few months. Then it did a 5:1 split and kept going up. Looks like it's about to break out again.
Amazon? Pfffft.
In defense, Has Bezos ever denied the contributions of all those you named? And if he's the last of a long line, why aren't I one too?
I bet you’re a real kick-ass professor.
He is 79... and should be long retired.
If you don't like billionaires, don't give them your money.
Bezos didn't even run tho
Lets give Jeff Bezos a small break here, he did come up with the concept and developed the software to make his rapid shipping possible because none existed. He does have a degree in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton which gave him many of the skills to do what he did and the ability to get fellow grads to work for him for future compensation. His building an amazingly successful system earned him more money than I can even comprehend. That being said, why can't he spend his money how he wants to. I understand that is more than a little excessive. I worked many 80 hour weeks and a lot of hours off the clock to gain the skills for future earnings and it paid off. Nope, I am not rich or anything close to it but I am retired rather comfortably with no pension (like most of us today).
Succint. I take it away and think about it.
I think the super rich are super disgusting. They have absolutely no idea what life is like for REAL people.
I love and admire Dr. Wolff's work.
It's pure comedy gold!
I love and admire your phallic characteristics ;)
@@gdi1093 Bezos can serve you well. Ask him for his favors.
It's a wake up for us thru reasoning. Thank you to Dr. Woolf, Chris Hedges , Dr. Paul and many more.
Wolff is just another lying Communist. You simply cannot trust a word he writes or says.
I buy as little as possible from Amazon. This entire level of greed has left me wondering when I'll be just collateral damage.
@James Cooper ok ...I'll look at it. Meanwhile, I'll respect everyone I meet and help where I can....unlike the savages around me.
Do not buy anything from them. I have spent one dime on amazon since 2005.
I don't need to worry about the ethical considerations of buying from Amazon simply because I'm always broke.
I buy from Amazon because I can get what I want because one of their vendors will have it in stock and I can get it really fast.
@@philipwood6384 Well.....you sound like the shallow majority....it's all about me. Who cares about the big picture!!
One of the developers that are ruining Nashville was interviewed a month or so ago about the harm they do and he said "We don't look at what we've lost; we look ahead to what we will gain!" We lost a neighborhood and he gained a fortune.
Typical privatize the gains, socialize the losses mentality. Of course he doesn't care about what losses he caused; the community will suffer them for him, thanks to the government, who is supposed to be looking out for the community.
@@ArchaeanDragon and guess who allows it? corrupt government officials who make the rules of the game, and who pick the winners and losers
Zoom zoom. No the capitalist oligarchs who own the politicians have them write the laws the way they want them. Follow the money that's where the truth lies.
@@earlviney5212 wrong. it's the corrupt politicians who are obeying the oligarchs then. Politicians are responsible for making the laws, the game, and rules of the game. They're elected to uphold the Constitution and the will of the people, since they fail to do both, they're responsible and should be held accountable.
We didn't elect the oligarchs, nothing wrong with them doing what's best for them.
Only the government can change what's happening, they don't and won't, because they're complicit and reaping the benefit of their corruption and malfeasance.
Then I assume that you would be in favor of overturning citizens united so that billionaires cant buy politicians? But we cant side with that socialist bernie sanders right?
Thank you Dr. Wolff, for calming my nerves by cutting through all the crap.
Pay working people decent wages to have a home and transportation and a family...and they will be good citizens and consumers....they also will get off subsidies which they probably paid for instead of billionaires.
Unlike billionaires who never seem to get off of subsidies....which they never pay into.
You're doing god's work Richard....
Will we live to see a world where the cultures learn to value equality, cooperation and a shared quality of life rather than the history to present which makes the accumulation of wealth by a few worthy of adulation.
Again, good topic Rick!
Will we live in that better world? Depends, are we going to wake up and reinvent the economy to eliminate money and markets, the very thing that poisons and corrupts so many people and companies, and actually intelligently use science, technology and the careful management of resources to create a high standard of living for all humans on this planet? That is the question.
I very much appreciate this metaphor. I'm going to show this to a few family members, hopefully it will help change their conservative view points
It had to be the dumbest not related metaphor ever. It has nothing to do with the situation at hand. There was no one in the chain of people who helped launch that aircraft the was not hire into a job they asked for and agreed on a salary. I think an idiot knows that they bought their computers and didn’t rest them from the hands of the poor.
Wolff is a Marxist and will say anything to convince people that Marxism is a viable economic system. Well, there is that little inconvenient fact that Marxism is responsible for millions of deaths across the globe.
What an idiot; stop listening to him...
@@robertprice9052 Are you referring to the economic or political effects of Marxism fron history? I think we could easily point to numerous examples of capitalist economies that kill more in the same time period. And so peeps don't ignore this fact, what Bezos and whomever did...it's been done DECADES ago. Again he is using the break throughs of others before him to claim his prize. He is not a trailblazer. He is just wasting money.
@@robertprice9052 Wow, what happened to you?!? I hope you get better.
@@robertprice9052 you sound like a typical petrified white American. Your statement is absurdly false. The fact is, capitalism is responsible for the more death and suffering than system in human history
Eat the Rich.
Excellent metaphor Prof. Wolff.
This is a horrible metaphor. Dont let this guy rott your brain. This stupid metaphor could be used for anyone who has made a profit on anything not just billionaires. Its like saying the author of a book is an asshole because he didn't pay the guy who invented paper or the guy who invented pencils or glue or the printing press its a pathetic argument.
@James Cooper can u please explain how our current system doesn't operate on fair exchange. I believe Marxism requires way more force than capitalism ever could.
Yes, but it's just too bad that Richard Wolff "kinda forgot" to say that all the resources he uses to write his books ( Computers, electricity, Internet, etc) were invented or discovered by others. With that in mind why isn't he sharing the profits of the sales of his books with everybody else?
@@stuckinthemud4352 Yes, but he also lied about that because Bezos had to pay for every resource that he uses to run Amazon! Last time I checked, things were being gives away for free (and let alone to one of the richest guys on earth)!
@James Cooper But handouts have nothing to do with capitalism, and I’m totally against them! And who do you think that is mostly on favor of the government putting their filthy finger on the economy, instead of letting the free market alone? Liberals or conservatives?
Billionaires are ultra hoarders, none of us should permit such objectives within the system. Money is not an obstacle to happiness but neither does it make happiness inevitable. Society should shift focus onto general (common) wealth and well being.
I don't have a problem with businesses making profits. I do have a problem with businesses lobbying congress like they are people, with obscene wealth buying off politicians, and with ignorance and extreme conservative idealogies dominating popular opinion. The first thing requires a change of the supreme court, the second thing requires higher taxes for the super rich, and the third thing requires more and better civics education.
Yuri Gagarin went higher than either of those clowns
Cannot dispute the fact that billionaires cannot become one all by themselves without people. They are billionaires because the country is built by every citizens who made the country great. If the citizens do not get a fair share there will be a reckoning. Maybe there must be some form of UBI where billionaires pay via a VAT back to the people.
Put them in a space ship, give them a month of life support, send them up into space flying out in a straight line. Send along their attorneys and accountants too.
Thank you for this. An excellent way of describing this subject. This could, and should, be used to educate and inform those who either don't know, don't care, wilfully ignore, defend, support, or ARE billionaires.
In my opinion, this, and countless other talks of yours are deserved of awards.
Thank you for your work, and the sharing of it!
Three people would rather give all their money to Bezos!
13
14
Great analogy. I like the family one too : You have a family of 10 kids. One is very very talented - smart and athletic. One is disabled and the rest are average. Would you be happy to give all your money and love ONLY to your ONE most talented child? Would you leave your disabled child on the side of the road to die? Would you teach your whole family and especially your most talented child to not care about the wellbeing of their brothers and sisters? Would you not clothe, educate, feed and nurture your WHOLE family? Yet mainstream western society still teaches that some weird Darwinian outlook should be applied to sentient human beings. Ironically, modern researchers are now finding that many animal species display empathy and caring. So our modern western society is factually less humanitarian than the animal kingdom.
Capitalism GREED leaves the too many for dead. Unless you see it for yourself there is no clue of its being so. Competitors willingly destroy opponents by various meanery just to stay above in control. Thus it is said the world is ruled by psychopaths.
we should challenge these filthy billionaires to use their $ to help the people who put them where their at 🤔🤔
They got theirs, they dont care about the masses.
It's ez, I keep saying, just install a democracy then nationalize Amazon
Sounds like you are arguing for Kropotkin's "all is made by all", which I agree with.
Are there any other American Intellectuals as enlightened and honest as Richard Wolff. Times are dangerous and I need to know that there is another to hold the torch. God bless you Mr. Wolff, take care, we need guidance from men like you in these times.
Richard Wolf has determination and guts in his commitments to take on the established order. I learnt alot from him and are grateful
Bezos is a weasel's weasel.
Blessings Sir..to you and yours..keep telling the TRUTH
Just to think what these billionaires could do with their money in this pandemic, makes my blood boil; instead they waste all that economical power to travel to space. As always an amazing piece of information from professor Wolf. Keep the good work amigo, you are our compass in these terrible times. Greetings from Toronto.
This is disaster capitalism alive and kicking and only in America .
The idea that all that money wasted on a sub-space joyride was "their" money is the problem.
If everyone had as much contempt for these robber barons as they have for us, they would have never gotten so obscenely wealthy. The trouble is that either people admire, even worship them, and wish they could emulate them, and then there are the complacent, who really don't care about anything or anyone else but themselves, besos got his billions from those people, and they don't have a problem with that.
Love it, best video yet!
These two BILLIONAIRES could help the 7 to 10 million people who are facing eviction. 7 to 10 million people are in jeopardy of being HOMELESS. All of that money could have helped our communities during a PANDEMIC. These BILLIONAIRES and their families have enough money for multiple lifetimes. They will never have to face going without housing, utilities, food, etc; essentially the necessities to live. In addition, Amazon doesn't pay taxes because of unjust tax laws.
Not to mention that the fastest relay runners were probably on performance enhancing drugs.
Unethical Billionaires, Politicians, and Lobbyists.
Maybe we should start calling them what they are; Social Predators.
I guess the 15 people who put 👎 on the video were billionaires! Great video, as always!
I propose that 100 million be the absolute most money that any one individual can have.
We can thank Racist Ronnie Reagan for where America is now. Before RRR America, for all is faults, a country of We, now it is a country of Me.
We need to strip these malefactors of their wealth worldwide and fix our system to avoid concentrations of wealth ever again.
I think the billionaires are out of touch buffoons.
And those that invented truck transport and paved roads
The Super Rich Have a New Status Symbol ? MY ROCKET IS BIGGER THAN YOUR ROCKET !!!
thank you for sharing your wisdom!
America put in the hands of few people their future, but that few hands just belong to good captains of their invention and the democracy give them the guide of your live instead.
The notion that everyone gets a slice of the pie equally is not a reality and here's the reason why, as far back as the first civilization known to mankind there has always been a structure in which kings 🤴 and queens 👸 have ruled over the vast majority of their subjects. This is a sinister way to keep total control over the majority of the population in the land. America 🇺🇸 is the only country where it is possible to achieve great success without having to pay some higher monarchy, king or queen 90 percent of your earnings just to stay in business. So the way I see it... kudos for Jeffrey and for Richard!
Kings and queens, huh? Did you lose all of your money in Vegas, again?
Rockets consume two million times the rate at which fuel is burned by the average family car.
Their fuel usage is insignificant.
Wikipedia is the best example of people doing something for no money incentive
Is that why my teachers told me not to use it as a source?
@@3jacenwell Wikipedia is a good source of info to find but most teacher want primary source, and wikipdia is a 2nd or 3rd sometimes, but Wikipedai for the most part dose have the source for the most part sometimes it dose not but the mods will flag it with citation needed. they may even flag it to be remove, the thing is the people that work and mod it do so at no pay to them self and has to debate and will only allow it on the site, it is the best example Anarchy.
@@hugoCastellnaos "sometimes it dose not" thanks for agreeing with me.
Bezos had the trillion dollar idea of selling stuff on the internet… genius?
at the time it was, few did it, even fewer did it successfully and expanded successfully.
if it was so easy, why didn't others do it too, contemporary with Bezos creating Amazon?
@@zoomzoom3950 How much of this goes to the people who developed the internet?
But, hey you think it’s perfectly fine for someone to sit on their @$$ and let others develop the means for them to put something on and enrich themselves for. You think people SHOULD let people stand on their shoulders to reach the fruit and eat it themselves. No future for your thinking on this planet, I assure you.
@@zoomzoom3950 uh huh. everyone in the world has the same opportunities like bezos did: parents who will send them to princeton and give them $300,000.00 to fund their ideas. and if they don't that's fine because we all know poor people don't have good ideas or a work ethic.
@@need-to-know- did those who develop the internet patent their inventions? did they enforce their IP? did they monetize their IP? Again, people made their own choices; so people create open source software and give it away; others create software to monetize and sell; it's their choice to do what they want with their IP
@@zoomzoom3950 Damn bro if you trust this system so much, why don't you just go pull yourself up by your bootstraps, become rich and stop arguing with strangers online lmao.
Oh..wonderful analogy Doctor Wolff! Thank you.
One of the unhappy byproducts of late capitalism (embodied by Jeff Bezos) is the birth
of the verb "to incentivize." * As a retired music professor, I will NOT miss students who
ask, "What incentivized Beethoven to write his 'Moonlight' Sonata?"
* ranks among the 100 ugliest words in modern English!
"You didn't build that." -Barack Obama
Like the doorbell cam, Bezos's gigantic robotic left-eye sees all. Be very careful.
I've been saying it for years now, there should be hard maximum limits on everything. Max net worth limits, max yearly income limits, max size to a corporatization or business, etc. Along with strong minimum standards would go a long way to fixing the crimes of greed-alism. Not entirely, but it's a good place to start.
No foundation of civilization has EVER come from the mind of an European!
When I make that statement, people always fail to understand exactly what you're saying here, with a bigger twist.
You can't make a better anything, if that thing hadn't already existed. Europeans make something better and think they invented it, when they haven't.
Science, Mathematics, architecture, medicine, Religion, flight, the list is endless, Europeans have come up with none of this!
Never mind shaming people. OUTLAWING money ending the power of the stinking rich.
In a perfect world we would not have billionaires but because we are dealing with human and human nature are inherently flaw and selfish this is what we get. Injustice and unfairness is just part of human existence. Mr. Wolf live in one of the most privilege country in the world of which he benefits. Now would he rescind his position of privilege to decrease inquality or injustice? P.s. some of those privilege come at the expense at the exploitation of other people and countries.
If you really believe this stuff then why don’t you give away your money, house, and university pensions? Right..you have to pass the buck to someone else. Go after the billionaire to hide your comfortable upper middle class lifestyle. You’re just a hypocrite.
brilliant
Great video. Thank you. I really enjoy your content.
Root of English is here walking out here in Richard Wolff professor teaching. Thank you.
If good deeds are done in this country follow the money trail. Unless it’s working class people helping eachother during hard times other than that there’s always a money trail or hidden agenda for anything good done in this country. 💰💰💰💰💰💰💰
His grandfather is Preston Gise- he thinks he owns all of DARPA
So capitalism has its faults. What happened in Venezuela? Success?
big thanks
Income/wealth cap. Direct democracy. People want solutions... these are your solutions.
here's another analogy Richard- all wealth is from the planets natural resources including the climate- which i consider owned by the people and the other species that we rely upon. and nature is not a renewable resource. BUT with our currently designed capitalism those with the power can funnel all that wealth to themselves! its also like irrigation (water policy in most places) from our river/streams, why should those that got the water first and farmed the land at the headwaters get to continue doing that when those downstream get nothing?
I have never bought from Amazon or similar, no drive an EV that runs on 80-90% Coal power
Bezos’ needs that kind of money to do (awful things). Is not somebody to indulge
Why can't we build a competitive alternative to Amazon? One that pays union wages and the like?
Who had a bigger rocket
I agree in general, however, comparing $1m to $20billion is just not a good one.
Money is the religion of the USA.