The empire is surely declining, as today one of Scandinavia’s biggest newspapers published an article and showcased it on the front page of their website, with the showcase quote” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine wasn’t unprovoked”!
Just a few months ago this article would have been refused publication and labelled “disinformation” by the so-called fact checkers. But I guess now that the New York Times has several times published the truth, the vassals in Scandinavia have allowed this to be published.
In case anyone doesn’t know, I’m referring to a column by Glenn Diesen, published today in Norway’s Aftenposten, which nonetheless remains otherwise a disgraceful war propaganda rag. And they are only publishing this AFTER they have successfully scared Norwegians into allowed their borders to be opened to Ukrainian mobsters and their national coffers to be fleeced for billions of crowns handed out to Zelensky’s media and to the Norwegian and US military and tech war profiteers.
An impressive 45 minutes, thank you! Let me add some factlet that also helps describing the US and its journey through the last decades: median age of the first home buyer in the US is now 38, in the UK 34. US historically: 2000 around 32, 1980s late 20s; in 1960 around 23.
And what would be even more stark is not the "Homebuyer" age, which is when someone stops renting from another owner and starts renting from a mortgage-provider instead; and instead measures when those 'mortgages' are fully paid off.
Yes it is in a slow decline but dont underestimate its power and wealth. The threatening and sacrificing of its allies is the final nail in the coffin for the corrupt empire.
Do you by any chance mean the billionaire president back by the billionaires, who just blindly attacked the last vestiges of the US middle class, the govt employees?
The one who will hand his billionaire mates massive tax cuts, and continue to cut the services and welfare that kept half of America afloat?
The one that has just blown 10x any "savings" from firing all the Fed employees by sending several carrier groups to bomb Yemen?
Trump is a symptom of uneducated anger, not careful thought out socio-political-economic analysis by a strong civil society with a plan in mind.
And the results will flow from that.
What the US NEEDS is the precise opposite polices: Control and tax the billionaires, rein in the financial sector and rentier-sectors (Such as realtor and insurance); slash the military and MIC to the bone; and use Govt investment to drive demand, and increase wages. Pump vast sums into education, not only making it free, but also high quality lead by the unions; nationalise the health, energy, and water suppliers so the monies raised to back into re-investment or lower bills (Rather than stock-buy-backs).
And drop all the "sanctions" on other countries, and tariffs, to lower inflation.
Pigs are more likely to grow wings and volunteer freely to drop Amazon goods.
It could all have been quite different, if the US was not infested with the Class system that wanted ever more wealth and privileges.
The government employees are not the middle class.
Fucksake.
"uneducated anger, not careful thought out socio-political-economic analysis by a strong civil society with a plan in mind"
How is that any worse than what went before him?
Fucksake.
"What the US NEEDS is the precise opposite polices: Control and tax the billionaires, rein in the financial sector and rentier-sectors (Such as realtor and insurance); slash the military and MIC to the bone; and use Govt investment to drive demand, and increase wages."
You forgot the ponies and rainbows. The money class are not going to volunteer to commit suicide, just as the monarchs didn't. A lot of heads had to be cut off to get to democracy, which the same class has been subverting ever since.
Who is going to do all this stuff that the US NEEDS?
The govt employees are the only ones outside of the MIC who can still afford to save pensions, and are unionised. They are the only ones who can still plan to save for a mortgage. They are the surviving fragments of the US middle classes.
Actually, the Danish ruling classes in the late 19th century did precisely that. To reverse the country's long decline, they instituted agricultural cooperatives (Handing the ownership of the agricultural land to the people who worked there), and various other measures broadly equivalent to what I listed above. Within 2 generations Denmark went from the poorest country in N Europe to one of the wealthiest.
With the threat of the USSR and "Socialism" after WW2, the other European countries also followed a similar tack, taxing the wealthy and giving services back to the actual workforce, lifting the general living standards. In short, you have to invest to reap a good harvest.
Pre the neoliberal takeover in the late 70s and 80, the Western ruling elites understood this well. That old WW2 generation.
Now we have the MTV generations, with no understanding or grasp of where wealth comes from, how it is generated, or how to build for longterm prosperity.
FX, you clearly didn't bother to read that essay I linked you to.
China DOES understand those things, which is why the 21st Century will be China's, the US empire will be the shortest lived in history.
Amusingly, Americans ONCE knew and understood all this, which is why the US rose to become the dominant player in the early 20th. Excellent and affordable (Or free) education, strong unions, rising household incomes, a competitive economy, with strong anti-monopoly, anti-trust laws and a civil society that understood how important that was.
"The people it will impoverish?"
Instructive that you imagine that the multi-billionaires might lose some fraction of their wealth, and end up as poor as YOU or the homeless. That is not how it works.
Very few members of the elite end up "Impoverished", unless they are wildly foolish and end up with a cocaine habit while squandering money on never-ending parties.
Money comes to money. And money will look out for fellow money.
No American multimillionaire lost money when the top tax rates were over 90%.
They may not have accumulated as fast, but they didn't lose money.
Great. You found one example in all of recorded history.
So we now know it's not impossible, just extremely unlikely, which was my point.
As for federal employees ... they're part of the class you railed against in your first comment. They're parasites on the productive. Yes, they are highly unionised. As the left likes to shout at every opportunity, unions are necessary to protect employees from abusive employers. The one employer that has the highest percentage of unionised employees? The federal government.
In other words, you're protesting the reduction of, and defending the existence of, the most abusive and exploitative employer in the country.
Fucksake.
If you think I'm celebrating the suicide of the West you obviously haven't read any of my comments. not for comprehension, anyway.
Lets take a real world example for the sake of clarity.
Lets suppose some billionaire owns a huge private forest park. To maintain the park, he employs a large staff. Because he's a nice guy, he opens the park to the Public to enter for a fee.
When he coughs it, he wills the park to the Govt. The park still needs all those park employees to maintain the place, and to ensure the public who enter have some security, and some amenities such as toilets etc.
The Govt decides to drop the fee, so ALL the public can now visit whenever they want, because for some brief instant the Govt is also run by nice people.
The few cents annually the taxpayer pays for this Public park, maintains it for whenever they feel like dropping in for a day out, for a walk through Nature.
See any problems with this? It's how the Victorians left us all the Public spaces and parks, by and large.
The Park staff will never become billionaires or millionaires, but they are hard-working and conscientious Public servants, who maintain a vital service for the Public who are not wealthy enough to own their own vast forest parks.
A few years later, along comes a narcissistic and deeply flawed billionaire, lets call him Melon Tusk, who on a whim decides to fire all those park employees. Now the park cannot open to the Public, because there's no-one to open it, or maintain it, or provide safety in case something goes wrong.
And the few pennies a year saved goes towards dropping more bombs on Yemen, thousands of miles away.
Were those Park employees "Parasites"? Were they "Parasites" when they worked for the private employer? Or were they vital Public employees providing a necessary service?
Or lets take Nuclear engineers, that the Govt pays a salary to for them to go around and check to make sure the country's ageing nuclear reactors aren't about to do a Chernobyl, or leaking radiation into the Public. Are those people "Parasites"? Are you within 50 miles of a reactor?
SOME Federal employees, such as USAID, or NED - hell fuck yeah, not only fore them all, but investigate them for crimes and activities on foreign sovereign countries. Close most of the State Dept while you're at it - it's not like America does Diplomacy anymore.
But after 40 years of "Efficiency" measures, from Reagan onwards, there is an UNDERSTAFFING in most Fed depts, not bloating. People to check places like Flint have clean drinking water. People to check if the railway in Palestine is maintained enough not to cause a catastrophic failure with the toxic materials it carries. People to make sure Texan explosives plants are secure, and not overloaded with explosive materials in plywood containers with no sprinklers.
Such hard-working and overstretched people are not "Parasites", they are essential to making sure you are not poisoned, or blown to smithereens one night.
Once upon a time, the private sector too was unionised. They made sure that employers paid decent wages to maintain the American Dream and middle classes.
The Billionaire class spotted they could move production to China and other countries, and destroy the domestic unions.
You likely think that was a really smart move. Being a "Billionaire down on your luck", yourself.
Well, now Trump is resorting to his tariffs measures because of that, and it won't work. Those other countries now have their own middle classes, and can trade between themselves instead.
And the US Oligarchy still hate the domestic unions - the very force that built the middle classes and created the consumption economy, upon which American prosperity was built.
"Parasites"!!
The REAL parasites are the oligarchy, the billionaires and the rent-seekers. Those who charge sick Americans 10x the cost of what the healthcare costs and pocket the difference. The banksters who have pushed house prices astronomical, so they can charge the rent, "Interest", on high cost mortgages on the very same properties.
Not the Federal employees trying to keep YOU safe on modest wages.
Look up how much Norwegian primary school teachers earn, and how much disposable income they have after all the costs of living. And realise how you've been, and are being, bilked.
"Let's take a real world example for the sake of clarity ... "
... and then proceeds to describe a completely fictional scenario.
You're not really trying very hard to convince anyone, are you?
For the record, I despise the billionaire class as much as is possible. My position is that things are only going to improve for the middle and lower classes when they get together and remove another crop of elite heads from their shoulders.
I am also admittedly deeply cynical of anyone who touts the safety benefits of the federal government's tireless expansion. It reminds me of that old meme about the guy being asked when his radicalisation started:
"Well, it all started when a guy on a motorcycle gave me a ticket for not wearing a seatbelt."
Please invite Varis Faroufakis. He has an unusual perspective.
Smith, Mill....why not mention Marx?
The empire is surely declining, as today one of Scandinavia’s biggest newspapers published an article and showcased it on the front page of their website, with the showcase quote” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine wasn’t unprovoked”!
Just a few months ago this article would have been refused publication and labelled “disinformation” by the so-called fact checkers. But I guess now that the New York Times has several times published the truth, the vassals in Scandinavia have allowed this to be published.
In case anyone doesn’t know, I’m referring to a column by Glenn Diesen, published today in Norway’s Aftenposten, which nonetheless remains otherwise a disgraceful war propaganda rag. And they are only publishing this AFTER they have successfully scared Norwegians into allowed their borders to be opened to Ukrainian mobsters and their national coffers to be fleeced for billions of crowns handed out to Zelensky’s media and to the Norwegian and US military and tech war profiteers.
An impressive 45 minutes, thank you! Let me add some factlet that also helps describing the US and its journey through the last decades: median age of the first home buyer in the US is now 38, in the UK 34. US historically: 2000 around 32, 1980s late 20s; in 1960 around 23.
And what would be even more stark is not the "Homebuyer" age, which is when someone stops renting from another owner and starts renting from a mortgage-provider instead; and instead measures when those 'mortgages' are fully paid off.
that's a very interesting piece of information
I've always enjoyed very much listening Prof Richard Wolff, for his realism, clarity and outspokenness
Thank you both of you Gentlemen, excellent interview, an eye opener.
Yes it is in a slow decline but dont underestimate its power and wealth. The threatening and sacrificing of its allies is the final nail in the coffin for the corrupt empire.
Wolff fairly correctly diagnoses the decades-long deliberate destruction of the American middle class.
Then he complains tirelessly about the one president who has done anything at all to change the economic structures that destroyed the middle class.
Fucksake.
Do you by any chance mean the billionaire president back by the billionaires, who just blindly attacked the last vestiges of the US middle class, the govt employees?
The one who will hand his billionaire mates massive tax cuts, and continue to cut the services and welfare that kept half of America afloat?
The one that has just blown 10x any "savings" from firing all the Fed employees by sending several carrier groups to bomb Yemen?
Trump is a symptom of uneducated anger, not careful thought out socio-political-economic analysis by a strong civil society with a plan in mind.
And the results will flow from that.
What the US NEEDS is the precise opposite polices: Control and tax the billionaires, rein in the financial sector and rentier-sectors (Such as realtor and insurance); slash the military and MIC to the bone; and use Govt investment to drive demand, and increase wages. Pump vast sums into education, not only making it free, but also high quality lead by the unions; nationalise the health, energy, and water suppliers so the monies raised to back into re-investment or lower bills (Rather than stock-buy-backs).
And drop all the "sanctions" on other countries, and tariffs, to lower inflation.
Pigs are more likely to grow wings and volunteer freely to drop Amazon goods.
It could all have been quite different, if the US was not infested with the Class system that wanted ever more wealth and privileges.
https://warwickpowell.substack.com/p/chinas-economic-model-revisited
The government employees are not the middle class.
Fucksake.
"uneducated anger, not careful thought out socio-political-economic analysis by a strong civil society with a plan in mind"
How is that any worse than what went before him?
Fucksake.
"What the US NEEDS is the precise opposite polices: Control and tax the billionaires, rein in the financial sector and rentier-sectors (Such as realtor and insurance); slash the military and MIC to the bone; and use Govt investment to drive demand, and increase wages."
You forgot the ponies and rainbows. The money class are not going to volunteer to commit suicide, just as the monarchs didn't. A lot of heads had to be cut off to get to democracy, which the same class has been subverting ever since.
Who is going to do all this stuff that the US NEEDS?
The people it will impoverish?
Fucksake.
The govt employees are the only ones outside of the MIC who can still afford to save pensions, and are unionised. They are the only ones who can still plan to save for a mortgage. They are the surviving fragments of the US middle classes.
Actually, the Danish ruling classes in the late 19th century did precisely that. To reverse the country's long decline, they instituted agricultural cooperatives (Handing the ownership of the agricultural land to the people who worked there), and various other measures broadly equivalent to what I listed above. Within 2 generations Denmark went from the poorest country in N Europe to one of the wealthiest.
With the threat of the USSR and "Socialism" after WW2, the other European countries also followed a similar tack, taxing the wealthy and giving services back to the actual workforce, lifting the general living standards. In short, you have to invest to reap a good harvest.
Pre the neoliberal takeover in the late 70s and 80, the Western ruling elites understood this well. That old WW2 generation.
Now we have the MTV generations, with no understanding or grasp of where wealth comes from, how it is generated, or how to build for longterm prosperity.
FX, you clearly didn't bother to read that essay I linked you to.
China DOES understand those things, which is why the 21st Century will be China's, the US empire will be the shortest lived in history.
Amusingly, Americans ONCE knew and understood all this, which is why the US rose to become the dominant player in the early 20th. Excellent and affordable (Or free) education, strong unions, rising household incomes, a competitive economy, with strong anti-monopoly, anti-trust laws and a civil society that understood how important that was.
"The people it will impoverish?"
Instructive that you imagine that the multi-billionaires might lose some fraction of their wealth, and end up as poor as YOU or the homeless. That is not how it works.
Very few members of the elite end up "Impoverished", unless they are wildly foolish and end up with a cocaine habit while squandering money on never-ending parties.
Money comes to money. And money will look out for fellow money.
No American multimillionaire lost money when the top tax rates were over 90%.
They may not have accumulated as fast, but they didn't lose money.
Great. You found one example in all of recorded history.
So we now know it's not impossible, just extremely unlikely, which was my point.
As for federal employees ... they're part of the class you railed against in your first comment. They're parasites on the productive. Yes, they are highly unionised. As the left likes to shout at every opportunity, unions are necessary to protect employees from abusive employers. The one employer that has the highest percentage of unionised employees? The federal government.
In other words, you're protesting the reduction of, and defending the existence of, the most abusive and exploitative employer in the country.
Fucksake.
If you think I'm celebrating the suicide of the West you obviously haven't read any of my comments. not for comprehension, anyway.
Lets take a real world example for the sake of clarity.
Lets suppose some billionaire owns a huge private forest park. To maintain the park, he employs a large staff. Because he's a nice guy, he opens the park to the Public to enter for a fee.
When he coughs it, he wills the park to the Govt. The park still needs all those park employees to maintain the place, and to ensure the public who enter have some security, and some amenities such as toilets etc.
The Govt decides to drop the fee, so ALL the public can now visit whenever they want, because for some brief instant the Govt is also run by nice people.
The few cents annually the taxpayer pays for this Public park, maintains it for whenever they feel like dropping in for a day out, for a walk through Nature.
See any problems with this? It's how the Victorians left us all the Public spaces and parks, by and large.
The Park staff will never become billionaires or millionaires, but they are hard-working and conscientious Public servants, who maintain a vital service for the Public who are not wealthy enough to own their own vast forest parks.
A few years later, along comes a narcissistic and deeply flawed billionaire, lets call him Melon Tusk, who on a whim decides to fire all those park employees. Now the park cannot open to the Public, because there's no-one to open it, or maintain it, or provide safety in case something goes wrong.
And the few pennies a year saved goes towards dropping more bombs on Yemen, thousands of miles away.
Were those Park employees "Parasites"? Were they "Parasites" when they worked for the private employer? Or were they vital Public employees providing a necessary service?
Or lets take Nuclear engineers, that the Govt pays a salary to for them to go around and check to make sure the country's ageing nuclear reactors aren't about to do a Chernobyl, or leaking radiation into the Public. Are those people "Parasites"? Are you within 50 miles of a reactor?
SOME Federal employees, such as USAID, or NED - hell fuck yeah, not only fore them all, but investigate them for crimes and activities on foreign sovereign countries. Close most of the State Dept while you're at it - it's not like America does Diplomacy anymore.
But after 40 years of "Efficiency" measures, from Reagan onwards, there is an UNDERSTAFFING in most Fed depts, not bloating. People to check places like Flint have clean drinking water. People to check if the railway in Palestine is maintained enough not to cause a catastrophic failure with the toxic materials it carries. People to make sure Texan explosives plants are secure, and not overloaded with explosive materials in plywood containers with no sprinklers.
Such hard-working and overstretched people are not "Parasites", they are essential to making sure you are not poisoned, or blown to smithereens one night.
Once upon a time, the private sector too was unionised. They made sure that employers paid decent wages to maintain the American Dream and middle classes.
The Billionaire class spotted they could move production to China and other countries, and destroy the domestic unions.
You likely think that was a really smart move. Being a "Billionaire down on your luck", yourself.
Well, now Trump is resorting to his tariffs measures because of that, and it won't work. Those other countries now have their own middle classes, and can trade between themselves instead.
And the US Oligarchy still hate the domestic unions - the very force that built the middle classes and created the consumption economy, upon which American prosperity was built.
"Parasites"!!
The REAL parasites are the oligarchy, the billionaires and the rent-seekers. Those who charge sick Americans 10x the cost of what the healthcare costs and pocket the difference. The banksters who have pushed house prices astronomical, so they can charge the rent, "Interest", on high cost mortgages on the very same properties.
Not the Federal employees trying to keep YOU safe on modest wages.
Look up how much Norwegian primary school teachers earn, and how much disposable income they have after all the costs of living. And realise how you've been, and are being, bilked.
"Let's take a real world example for the sake of clarity ... "
... and then proceeds to describe a completely fictional scenario.
You're not really trying very hard to convince anyone, are you?
For the record, I despise the billionaire class as much as is possible. My position is that things are only going to improve for the middle and lower classes when they get together and remove another crop of elite heads from their shoulders.
I am also admittedly deeply cynical of anyone who touts the safety benefits of the federal government's tireless expansion. It reminds me of that old meme about the guy being asked when his radicalisation started:
"Well, it all started when a guy on a motorcycle gave me a ticket for not wearing a seatbelt."