Socialism or Capitalism: Millions of Unemployed Workers Lose their Benefits
The Socialist Program with Brian Becker
The Socialist Program
4.7 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 8 September 2021
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Brian and Prof. Wolff discuss the state of unemployment in America. Politicians and the media talk constantly about the post-COVID economic recovery, but last month’s weak jobs report suggests that workers are still in the midst of crisis. And despite this dire situation, the unemployment relief programs passed at the onset of the pandemic have now expired.
Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can check out his work at rdwolff.com.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today we discuss the state of unemployment in the United States. Politicians in the media |
| 0:07.2 | talk constantly about the post-COVID economic recovery, but last week's jobs report |
| 0:14.4 | suggests that workers are still in the midst of a crisis. Despite this dire situation, the unemployment relief programs passed at the onset |
| 0:24.5 | of the pandemic have now expired. We need a new system. We need a new society. We need to demand |
| 0:33.4 | that which may have sounded impossible even a few weeks ago, but is not only realizable, |
| 0:39.3 | but an imperative necessity. Deepening unemployment, a looming wave of evictions, massive and widening inequality. |
| 1:10.0 | There's no denying it. Capitalism is in crisis and |
| 1:13.9 | capitalism is the crisis. We are excited to have again, Professor Richard Wolfe, join us for |
| 1:20.8 | our regular segment where we talk about the biggest stories related to the economy, the state |
| 1:26.2 | of the working class, and the crimes of big business. |
| 1:29.8 | I'm your host, Brian Becker. |
| 1:32.3 | The Socialist Program brings you content three days a week. |
| 1:35.4 | Thanks to the support of our patrons at patreon.com forward slash the Socialist Program. |
| 1:42.0 | We appreciate all of your support and encourage you to become a patron today if you enjoy listening to this show. |
| 1:50.3 | Richard Wolfe is the co-founder of the Organization Democracy at Work. He's the author of many books. |
| 1:56.2 | The latest being the sickness is the system when capitalism fails to save us from pandemics or itself, |
| 2:03.6 | check out his work at r d.wolf.com. That's r d.wolff.com. Professor Wolfe, welcome back. |
| 2:13.0 | Thank you, Brian. Glad to be here. Thank you for joining us once again. Professor Wolf, in the last few weeks, we've been taking stories related to the economy, in other words, contemporary relevant stories, but applying basic Marxist ideas and concepts to these stories. So it's been, in a way, a Marxism 101 course with you for |
| 2:37.0 | the past weeks. This week, not that we want to depart from that perspective, that's the perspective |
| 2:43.1 | we embrace, but there are specific new stories out in information related to the economy |
| 2:50.3 | as the Delta variant of COVID-19 rampages |
| 2:54.9 | through big parts of the country where students are coming back to school, students are getting |
... |
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