Source:Laura Flanders talking to proud Democratic Socialist Richard Woolf. |
“Employment’s up, wealth’s up, but the benefits of both are increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few. Welcome to capitalism, says GRITtv regular, Richard Wolff who suggests some alternatives, including “worker self-directed enterprises” if we want to democratize the economy, and US society.
GRITtv regular, Richard Wolff is the author of Capitalism Hits the Fan (Olive Branch Press, 2009) and, most recently, Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism (Haymarket Books, 2012). Watch the entire conversation, about the state of capitalism, WSDEs (worker self directed enterprises) and democratizing the US economy at GRITtv.orgDistributed by OneLoad.com.”
From Laura Flanders
I think when most Americans (perhaps not most Europeans) when they think of a Socialist, they think of someone whose against private enterprise and wants the national government to be in complete control of the economy. But the fact is today in 2013, most Socialists, including Socialists in China and Cuba, believe in at least a certain amount of private enterprise, individual freedom and choice, as well as private ownership.
Richard Woolf has an excellent definition of a Socialist: “Someone who believe in socializing, believes in the community when it comes to the economy and economics.”
This basically means a Socialist believes that everyone in society has a right to live and be treated well and not to have to go without the basic necessities of life. And that it’s the job of the national government to see that everyone has what they need to live well in society.