U.S. Inequality Can’t Be Propped Up By Force Alone w/ Prof. Richard Wolff
The Socialist Program with Brian Becker
The Socialist Program
4.7 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 20 May 2026
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Americans are increasingly struggling to make ends meet, while the rich get even richer. Professor Richard Wolff and producer Nicole Roussell debunk corporate media justifications for this inequality.
Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can find his work at rdwolff.com.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The dollar doesn't buy what it used to, and between child care, housing, food, education, medical care, and of course, far more, the majority of Americans are profoundly stretched financially. |
| 0:12.0 | We need a new system. We need a new society. We need to demand that which may have sounded impossible even a few weeks ago, but is not only realizable, |
| 0:23.4 | but an imperative necessity. We are happy to have Professor Richard Wolf join us for a regular weekly segment where we discuss the biggest stories relating to the economy, |
| 0:58.9 | the state of the working class, and the crimes of big business. I'm Nicole Roussel. I'm your host today sitting in for Brian Becker, who's traveling this week. The Socialist Program brings you |
| 1:03.2 | content several days a week thanks to the support of our patrons at patreon.com slash the Socialist |
| 1:07.9 | program. We appreciate all of your support and encourage you to become a patron |
| 1:12.8 | today if you enjoy listening to the show. Richard Wolfe is the co-founder of the organization, |
| 1:18.0 | Democracy at Work, and the author of many books, including Understanding Capitalism, which is |
| 1:22.2 | available at Democracy at Work.Info. Richard, welcome back to the show. Thank you, Nicole. I'm glad to be here. |
| 1:29.5 | Well, we're always glad to have you. So the New York Times, Richard, recently profiled a family |
| 1:34.2 | in Manhattan, making $500,000 a year, considering themselves middle class. And of course, many people, |
| 1:41.7 | people all over the internet, people of all types of people in real life, |
| 1:45.0 | reacted like, oh my God, none of us make anything near this. This is deeply out of touch. |
| 1:50.2 | But let's go deeper into this. I mean, you and I were looking at a response in the Wall Street |
| 1:53.7 | journal and the op-eds criticizing that reaction of people, which, of course, this op-ed is also |
| 2:00.2 | missing much of the point, right? |
| 2:01.4 | Like, everything is more expensive and does feel more expensive. |
| 2:05.7 | But $500,000 is way more than the vast majority of Americans make, which is why people |
| 2:10.7 | reacted so strongly. |
| 2:11.8 | And that is, you know, like objectively true. |
| 2:14.4 | Like, you can't argue that. |
| 2:15.2 | It's inarguable. |
... |
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