Tag: Economics

This exhibit is a carefully curated collection of the best videos I’ve seen on the economy. We are living currently living through the slow & painful death of the market capitalist paradigm. Some of us can see this more clearly than others, and we are not helped by popular culture, that’s for sure. Over the past couple centuries, the ruling class has diligently monopolized the media narrative, through a vast & thorough propaganda complex that spans from cradle to grave to manufacture public consent to their private commercial paradigm. ♥

The Red Scare lives on today in every mind that still feels fear at the sound of Marx’s name. People literally speak of these impending waves of automation, & indeed the prospect of a fully automated economy, as a fearsome prospect rather than a liberatory one! When Keynes coined the term “technological unemployment,” he was correct to describe it as “man solving his economic problem.” We are living in the transition phase between the days of the exploitation of labor & the days of all humanity as a free people. ♥

While there is much despair in the economy overall in this time of neoliberal austerity, I have no doubt that the future is bright for the human family. Our problems lie not in production at this point–we have more than enough food, clothing, shelter, and most other things we want–what we have is a distribution problem. That “the future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed” is a brilliant way of describing our situation. It has been true since the beginning of surplus 12,000 years ago. ♥

Aristotle wrote, “Man begins to philosophize when the needs of life are provided.” This is the emancipation we are on the brink on achieving for the entire human family! The amount of wealth concentrated in the hands of a few men could provide all the needs of life to all the people in the world. Our current social system prevents the deployment of critical resources towards solving pressing human problems, because it is still structured around a scarcity mindset. The operating assumption is that there just isn’t enough for everybody to live well & prosper on this planet, so we must resign ourselves to meager incrementalist remediation of only the most outrageous sufferings. This kind of small thinking is insufficient, & will become only more so as we hit this asymptote in our exponential technological development. ♥

So get out your notebook and take some notes. The arguments articulated below comprise a forward-thinking enquiry into the current state of the socialist project, including the multitudinous indictments of the prevailing economic order. If you enjoy thinking deeply & critically–which you probably do if you’re here reading this–then feast your mind on these philosophical gems, & prepare to become optimistic about our real imminent emancipation from coercive labor. ♥

Rejoice in the collapse of capitalism–you don’t want to be exploited anyways.. The future belongs to us. ♥

This has got to be the most misunderstood document in the world. People talk so much shit without having any idea what they’re talking about. This isn’t even a book; it’s less than 50 pages long. Do yourself a favor & print it out & pin it up in your bathroom so you don’t forget. Be a part of history fam. Don’t sleep on this.

“The Communist Manifesto was conceived as an outline of the basic beliefs of the Communist movement. The authors believed that the European Powers were universally afraid of the nascent movement, and were condemning as “communist,” people or activities that did not actually conform to what the Communists believed. This Manifesto, then, became a manual for their beliefs. In it we find Marx and Engel’s rehearsal of the idea that Capital has stolen away the work of the artisan and peasant by building up factories to produce goods cheaply. The efficiency of Capital depends, then, on the wage laborers who staff the factories and how little they will accept in order to have work. This concentrates power and money in a Bourgeois class that profits from the disunity of workers (Proletarians), who only receive a subsistence wage. If workers unite in a class struggle against the bourgeois, using riot and strikes as weapons, they will eventually overthrow the bourgeois and replace them as a ruling class. Communists further believe in and lay out a system of reforms to transform into a classless, stateless society, thus distinguishing themselves from various flavors of Socialism, which would be content to have workers remain the ruling class after the revolution. The Manifesto caused a huge amount of discussion for its support for a forcible overthrow of the existing politics and society. (Summary by Mark F. Smith)”

“Between 1929 and 1941, the Communist Party organized and led a radical, militantly antiracist movement in Alabama — the center of Party activity in the Depression South. Hammer and Hoe documents the efforts of the Alabama Communist Party and its allies to secure racial, economic, and political reforms. Sensitive to the complexities of gender, race, culture and class without compromising the political narrative, Robin Kelley illustrates one of the most unique and least understood radical movements in American history.

The Alabama Communist Party was built from scratch by working people who had no Euro-American radical political tradition. It was composed largely of poor blacks, most of whom were semiliterate and devoutly religious, but it also attracted a handful of whites, including unemployed industrial workers, iconoclastic youth, and renegade liberals. Kelley shows that the cultural identities of these people from Alabama’s farms, factories, mines, kitchens, and city streets shaped the development of the Party. The result was a remarkably resilient movement forged in a racist world that had little tolerance for radicals.

In the South race pervaded virtually every aspect of Communist activity. And because the Party’s call for voting rights, racial equality, equal wages for women, and land for landless farmers represented a fundamental challenge to the society and economy of the South, it is not surprising that Party organizers faced a constant wave of violence.

Kelley’s analysis ranges broadly, examining such topics as the Party’s challenge to black middle-class leadership; the social, ideological, and cultural roots of black working-class radicalism; Communist efforts to build alliances with Southern liberals; and the emergence of a left-wing, interracial youth movement. He closes with a discussion of the Alabama Communist Party’s demise and its legacy for future civil rights activism.”

“In the midst of loss and death and suffering, our charge is to figure out what freedom really means—and how we take steps to get there. Join Marc Lamont Hill, phillip agnew, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor for an urgent conversation about the ongoing struggle for freedom in the wake of the 2020 election. The uprising of 2020 marked a new phase in the unfolding Movement for Black Lives. The brutal killings of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor, and countless other injustices large and small, lit the spark of the largest protest movement in US history, a historic uprising against racism and the politics of disposability that the Covid-19 pandemic lays bare. In his urgent and incisive new book We Still Here: Pandemic, Policing, Protest, and Possibility, Marc Lamont Hill critically examines the “pre-existing conditions” that have led us to this moment of crisis and upheaval, guiding us through both the perils and possibilities, and helping us imagine an abolitionist future.”

“Fairness matters … to both people and primates. Sharing priceless footage of capuchin monkeys responding to perceived injustice, primatologist Sarah Brosnan explores why humans and monkeys evolved to care about equality — and emphasizes the connection between a healthy, cooperative society and everyone getting their fair share.”

Epic lecture on the false tenets of neoliberalism, summerized well by the book’s subtitle: “Why Greed is Not Good, Opportunity is Not Equal, & Fairness won’t Make Us Poor.” An absolutely brilliant dismantling of capitalist ideology, a must-see.. ♥ Neonn

“Pearlstein’s chronicle of the last few decades of democratic capitalism documents that the “greed is good” era has left out major tenets of Adam Smith’s vision. Instead of fostering the social capital ensuring that benefits reach all socio-economic strata, the system has suffered increasing income disparity, causing many to lose faith in the free market economy. Pearlstein, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post and the Robinson Professor of Public Affairs at George Mason University, gives a succinct and clear diagnosis of capitalism’s malaise and offers practical steps for healing it, including a guaranteed minimum income paired with universal national service, tax incentives for companies to share profits with workers, ending class segregation in public education, and restoring competition to markets.”

“Since the release of Unsafe at Any Speed in 1965, Nader has led the charge against destructive and exploitative corporate power. The co-founder of public interest groups including Public Citizen, Critical Mass, Commercial Alert, and the Center for the Study of Responsive Law, Nader continues to demonstrate the efficacy of grassroots activism for democratic change. His new book is a searing analysis of how Big Business, abetted by the flaws of recent presidential administrations, created the political climate that put Trump in the White House. As provocative as ever, Nader takes both Democrats and Republicans to task for their failures to curb corporate excesses and their abandonment of the poor and middle-classes.”

“About TZM: The Zeitgeist Movement is a global sustainability activist group working to bring the world together for the common goal of species sustainability before it is too late. Divisive notions such as nations, governments, races, political parties, religions, creeds or class are non-operational distinctions in the view of The Movement. Rather, we recognize the world as one system and the human species as a singular unit, sharing a common habitat.”

❝ Society is broken. We can design our way to a better one.

In our interconnected world, self-interest and social-interest are rapidly becoming indistinguishable. If current negative trajectories remain, including growing climate destabilization, biodiversity loss, and economic inequality, an impending future of ecological collapse and societal destabilization will make ‘personal success’ virtually meaningless. Yet our broken social system incentivizes behavior that will only make our problems worse. If true human rights progress is to be achieved today, it is time we dig deeper―rethinking the very foundation of our social system.

In this engaging, important work, Peter Joseph, founder of the world’s largest grassroots social movement―The Zeitgeist Movement―draws from economics, history, philosophy, and modern public-health research to present a bold case for rethinking activism in the 21st century.

Arguing against the long-standing narrative of universal scarcity and other pervasive myths that defend the current state of affairs, The New Human Rights Movement illuminates the structural causes of poverty, social oppression, and the ongoing degradation of public health, and ultimately presents the case for an updated economic approach. Joseph explores the potential of this grand shift and how we can design our way to a world where the human family has become truly sustainable.

The New Human Rights Movement reveals the critical importance of a unified activism working to overcome the inherent injustice of our system. This book warns against what is in store if we continue to ignore the flaws of our socioeconomic approach, while also revealing the bright and expansive future possible if we succeed.

Will you join the movement? ❞

“Revolutions come in waves and cycles. We are again riding the crest of a revolutionary epic, much like 1848 or 1917, from the Arab Spring to movements against austerity in Greece to the Occupy movement. In Wages of Rebellion, Chris Hedges—who has chronicled the malaise and sickness of a society in terminal moral decline in his books Empire of Illusion and Death of the Liberal Class—investigates what social and psychological factors cause revolution, rebellion, and resistance. Drawing on an ambitious overview of prominent philosophers, historians, and literary figures he shows not only the harbingers of a coming crisis but also the nascent seeds of rebellion. Hedges’ message is clear: popular uprisings in the United States and around the world are inevitable in the face of environmental destruction and wealth polarization.

Focusing on the stories of rebels from around the world and throughout history, Hedges investigates what it takes to be a rebel in modern times. Utilizing the work of Reinhold Niebuhr, Hedges describes the motivation that guides the actions of rebels as “sublime madness” — the state of passion that causes the rebel to engage in an unavailing fight against overwhelmingly powerful and oppressive forces. For Hedges, resistance is carried out not for its success, but as a moral imperative that affirms life. Those who rise up against the odds will be those endowed with this “sublime madness.”

From South African activists who dedicated their lives to ending apartheid, to contemporary anti-fracking protests in Alberta, Canada, to whistleblowers in pursuit of transparency, Wages of Rebellion shows the cost of a life committed to speaking the truth and demanding justice. Hedges has penned an indispensable guide to rebellion.”

“A few years ago, those who warned us about the risks of technological unemployment were labelled as luddites, crazy, or techno-pessimists. Now some of the greatest economists agree that automation poses a serious threat to the economy, with jobs disappearing & inequality on the rise. Today, those proposing radically new ideas to deal with this problem are being called crazy & idealistic. Old ideologies are outdated in the face of exponential change; we need to embrace a more holistic & adaptive system. I believe experiments with unconditional basic income, coupled with the utilization of crypto currencies & blockchain-based technologies, will help us find the answers.”

“In this presentation Peter discusses how the Market Economy has not only evolved/simplified into its most core function of blind gain and hence the arbitrary trading of the widget, using the Stock Market / Financialization as a point of focus, he also explains how any social progress that has occurred has happened by proxy – or incidental to the market game.

He describes what all Free-Market proponents ignore: the true, measurable system consequences which are suffocating humanity – with Capitalism now the leading cause of death on Earth today. He also explains how an ethically respected, pure free market (even if it was possible – which it is not, as argued) would generate constant deprivation/ethical imbalance – due to the pressure-building externalities that the Market cannot solve due to its foundational mechanisms. Also, the idea of Crony-Capitalism vs. Free Market Capitalism is proven to be a Continuum Fallacy and a delusion via moral relativism. He finishes with two proposals for future TZM projects to help transition.”

“This program will consider the quality of our beliefs, actions and intents within the overarching context of what supports good public health, prosperity and sustainability and what does not. The subjects of Politics, Economics and Religious Philosophy will be broadly considered, with one basic question asked: Are the dominant views of reality today and the values that arise from them sustainable for the species’ survival?”

“Peter Joseph is the creator of the world famous, award winning Zeitgeist Film Series and founder of the controversial Zeitgeist Movement which seeks to shift our social system into a more sustainable paradigm, Peter continues to focus on media related expressions, including music composition, performance & film production, each with the focus on affecting society for the better. He has also lectured around the world on the topics of social sustainably and has been featured in the New York Times, Russia Today, TedX and many other outlets.”

“Peter Joseph is a director, writer, producer, editor, composer and creator of the Zeitgeist movies series. He is an independent filmmaker who has written, directed, narrated, scored and produced three non-commercial, self-produced and freely-distributed documentary films: Zeitgeist: The Movie, Zeitgeist: Addendum and Zeitgeist: Moving Forward. He is also the founder of “The Zeitgeist Movement”, which is a social sustainability organization with members now in nearly every country. His work with The Movement is now a large part of his daily activities — giving lectures and helping to produce relevant media/materials to spread the interest for a new social system. In this talk, Peter Joseph examines todays economy and reflects our environmental misalignment and the value war.”

❝ Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom: he shows that before there was money, there was debt. For more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods—that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era, Graeber argues, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors.

Graeber shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Italy to China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient works of law and religion (words like “guilt,” “sin,” and “redemption”) derive in large part from ancient debates about debt, and shape even our most basic ideas of right and wrong. We are still fighting these battles today without knowing it. ❞

❝ Wired magazine editor and bestselling author Chris Anderson takes you to the front lines of a new industrial revolution as today’s entrepreneurs, using open source design and 3-D printing, bring manufacturing to the desktop. In an age of custom-fabricated, do-it-yourself product design and creation, the collective potential of a million garage tinkerers and enthusiasts is about to be unleashed, driving a resurgence of American manufacturing. A generation of “Makers” using the Web’s innovation model will help drive the next big wave in the global economy, as the new technologies of digital design and rapid prototyping gives everyone the power to invent — creating “the long tail of things”. ❞

This is the greatest documentary of all time. This is the single most important item on this website. Please, please, please watch it. It fully articulates the true nature of our current global economic system, as well as the alternative system we must ultimately transition to in order to survive as a species. ♥Neonn

“Zeitgeist: Moving Forward (2011) focuses on “Monetary-Market Economics” and its repercussions. Chapter 1 is treatment on “Human Nature”, noting that our social traditions are out of line with what constitutes positive human development. Chapter 2 details the core flaws of our economic system and how it is destroying us and the planet. Chapter 3 begins a thought exercise where our modern scientific understanding is considered as the starting point for human decision-making and Chapter 4 sets predictions of what is to come as society becomes more destabilized due to our outdated practices.”

This is the real big picture y’all, a vision of the future & where all this technology is going & what humans need to do to become better role models for robots. He explores what’s really important in our lives & why our current approaches to technology might be insufficient to allow its full potential to come to fruition. ♥ Neonn

“In this talk, Pablos dares you to imagine the possibilities in what once seemed impossible: a harmonious co-existence of humans and robots: Robots taking over your jobs and why they should; how this can trigger fear in humans and why it shouldn’t; redefining happiness; solving world problems like eliminating disease; a personal narrative of parenting that will bring you to your knees; and the responsibility of humans in all of this.”