Criticizing Pro-Capitalist Ideology
Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff
Democracy at Work
4.8 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2026
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on Economic Update, Professor Wolff discusses the flaws in the argument that profit is an appropriate, just return to the risk taken by a capitalist who invests. The critique focuses on (1) what it means that a capitalist can withhold means of production from production, and (2) how workers, their families, and communities also take risks in any productive enterprise yet get no profits, thereby invalidating the justification of profit as a reward for risk. In the second half, he shows that technical innovations such as AI do not cause unemployment; rather, the capitalist system does. An example is offered of how AI could be installed to advantage every enterprise's majority—its employees—rather than profit its employers (a minority in enterprises).
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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 |
| 0:26.4 | economic dimensions of our lives and those of our children. |
| 0:30.9 | I'm your host, Richard Wolfe. |
| 0:34.3 | Before we begin today's program, I want to remind you that we now have made available |
| 0:40.1 | recordings of the online course taught by Professor Sharam Azar and myself Marxian |
| 0:48.9 | class analysis. If you were unable to attend for any reason, each course session is available for a small |
| 0:58.5 | fee, and you can view them then however and whenever you wish. |
| 1:05.5 | If you're interested, there will also be a Q&A with Professor Azar and myself in a few weeks. |
| 1:15.0 | Please go to our website, Democracy at Work.info, where you can get our newsletter, plus |
| 1:21.5 | all the details about these classes, the availability of the recordings, the Q&A session, and all that. |
| 1:30.7 | Please remember to like, subscribe, and share this video with others. |
| 1:35.6 | That's why we make them. |
| 1:37.4 | For those of you who have not yet signed up for our members-only Patreon, by doing so, you can gain access to additional materials |
| 1:48.1 | that we make available there. Go to patreon.com slash democracy at work, or you can find |
| 1:57.0 | the link in the description below. |
| 2:03.0 | Today's program is divided into two parts. |
| 2:06.6 | The first half will be devoted to one standard justification of capitalism and the second |
| 2:15.3 | to a second justification. I'm going to show you how and why you need to |
| 2:22.7 | criticize these justifications and not accept them as if they were somehow necessary or logical |
| 2:33.3 | or unavoidable. |
| 2:37.4 | Capitalism is a system that has developed an elaborate ideological justification. |
| 2:44.5 | Many of you write to me at various times asking me to offer criticisms of those justifications because you've |
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