Richard D. Wolff is 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.
Wolff’s weekly show, “Economic Update,” is syndicated by more than 100 radio stations and goes to 55 million TV receivers via Free Speech TV. His three recent books with Democracy at Work are The Sickness Is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us From Pandemics or Itself, Understanding Marxism, and Understanding Socialism.
A blend of history, analysis, and theory, “Understanding Socialism” is an honest and approachable text that knocks down false narratives, confronts failures and challenges of various socialist experiments throughout history, and offers a path to a new socialism based on workplace democracy.
Why should we pay attention to the great social critics like Marx? Americans, especially now, confront serious questions and evidences that our capitalist system is in trouble. It clearly serves the one percent far, far better than what it is doing to the vast mass of the people. Marx was a social critic for whom capitalism was not the end of human history. It was just the latest phase and badly needed the transition to something better. We offer this essay now because of the power and usefulness today of Marx's criticism of the capitalist economic system.
This bi-monthly YouTube lecture series is hosted by Prof. Richard D. Wolff. These programs begin with short updates on important economic events of the last month, then Wolff examines a larger topic. This series was designed to develop all participants’ understanding and ability to explain current economic events and trends to others.
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The 2020 coronavirus pandemic, the deepening economic crash, dangerously divisive political responses, and exploding social tensions have thrown an already declining American capitalist system into a tailspin. The consequences of these mounting and intertwined crises will shape our future. In this unique collection of over 50 essays, The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself, Richard D. Wolff argues clearly that “returning to normal” no longer responds adequately to the accumulated problems of U.S. capitalism. What is necessary, instead, is transition toward a new economic system that works for all of us.