A Critique of Government Spending
Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff
Democracy at Work
4.8 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 23 April 2024
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
[EU S14 E16] A Critique of Government Spending
This week's Economic Update Professor Richard Wolff devotes this program devoted to how to understand government spending. How it shapes the larger society. We will focus on two questions 1) What is the government spending on? and 2) How is that money going to be used, and who benefits? If government spending only flows to capitalist corporations, they will use it to reproduce capitalism including its inequalities and injustices. This is a crucial impact of government spending but rarely examined. The alternative - spending on worker coops - is explained and explored as a better alternative.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome, friends, to another edition of Economic Update, a weekly program devoted to the economic |
| 0:16.5 | dimensions of our lives and those of our children. I'm your host, Richard Wolfe. I want to remind you |
| 0:24.4 | that we have a volunteer, Charlie Fabian, who is standing by if you have suggestions for topics |
| 0:31.7 | you'd like to see us present here on this show. You've been doing that, we've been getting them, and they are very |
| 0:39.3 | valuable, and I want to thank you. But if you're of a mind to do that, here's the email. |
| 0:45.2 | Charlie. Info-338 at gmail.com. Charlie.com. For3.8 at gmail.com. |
| 0:57.7 | Today's program is going to be devoted to how to understand government spending. |
| 1:06.0 | I'm particularly interested in government spending on major projects. The defense of the country, if you like, |
| 1:14.6 | bridges, roads, highways, medical systems, all kinds of goods and services. I'll go over them. |
| 1:25.6 | I want to present an analysis of government spending along |
| 1:30.5 | the lines you probably haven't thought about, but should be part of our national discussion, |
| 1:36.2 | and there are fairly obvious reasons why that hasn't happened. And I think you'll see the relevance and the importance once I go through it. |
| 1:49.3 | One way to get into it is to say that when the government spends money, there are kind |
| 1:54.9 | of two things to think about. |
| 1:57.4 | What is it spending the money on? |
| 2:00.1 | Is it to repair our bridges? Is it to provide a kind of insurance |
| 2:05.6 | program for the elderly? Is it to support health in our hospitals? Is it for national |
| 2:14.6 | defense? And to answer those questions, these are questions about what the government is spending on. |
| 2:23.3 | But the next question is not asked, but ought to be. |
| 2:28.3 | How is that money going to be used? |
| 2:33.3 | How is the bridge going to be built? How are the bullets going to be made? |
| 2:39.2 | How is the healthcare services going to be supported? To make it dramatic, let me give you an example. |
... |
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