Richard D. Wolff is Founder of Democracy at Work and host of the show Economic Update. 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.

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). Wolff was also regular lecturer at the Brecht Forum in New York City. He is the author of The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself.

RICHARD WOLFF

You can criticize many things in the United States, but there are taboos and the number one taboo is that you cannot criticize Capitalism. That is equated with disloyalty.

The first project of Democracy at Work is to reopen the critical analysis of capitalism and the second is to offer a critique of traditional Socialism with its emphasis on the government coming in and doing things that offset the failure of the private system.

We cannot it’s This story about Capitalism being wonderful. This story is fading. You can’t do that anymore. The Right Wing cannot rally its troops around Capitalism. That’s why it doesn’t do it anymore. It rallies the troops around being hateful towards immigrants. It rallies the troops around “fake elections”, around the right to buy a gun, around White Supremacists. Those issues can get some support, but “Let’s get together for Capitalism!” That is bad. They can’t do anything with that. They have to sneak the Capitalism in behind those other issues because otherwise, they have no mass political support.

This interview was conducted by Mia Funk & Alexander Taub with the participation of collaborating universities and students. Associate Interviews Producer on this podcast was Alexander Taub. Digital Media Coordinator is Phoebe Brous.

Mia Funk is an artist, interviewer and founder of The Creative Process & One Planet Podcast (Conversations about Climate Change & Environmental Solutions).