Capitalism And Democracy

Last time I wrote about some American myths. One of those is the myth of the symbiotic relationship between capitalism and democracy. Most Americans have been fed this myth throughout their lives and most believe it. People really do (in general) believe what they are told. Critical thinking is rare and people are often ostracized for voicing unorthodox viewpoints. Yet without critical thinkers we would have no social evolution at all.

One of my favorite people is the economist Richard Wolff. Wolff is a critical thinker but, he is also completely comprehensible to the average person. Wolff is plain spoken. Perhaps this is because he is an economist and not a con man. Unlike people such as Alan Greenspan who spoke fluent gibberish, Wolff is not a flimflam man out to sell you a bogus economic system.

Richard Wolff is interested democracy. He knows that political democracy is not sustainable without economic democracy. Our ridiculously stratified economic system is clear evidence that we do not have a democracy in our economy. Our gridlocked and contemptible government is evidence that our political democracy is starting to fail. Democracy must be a part of every area of public life including our economic life.

Richard Wolff has a great solution which is practical and implementable. In fact it is being implemented already in various places around the world. Wolff calls this solution "Workers Cooperatives." The link below will open a new window where you can learn about Mondragon Corporation an extremely successful worker owned (cooperative) corporation based in Barcelona Spain. Mondragon now employs over 100,000 people in all different sorts of businesses. 

Mondragon Corporation - a worker's cooperative that is very successfu. 

Richard Wolff is great at explaining just how important it is for the work place to be democratic. I have one of his videos posted below, you will find it very enlightening and fun too. Richard Wolff is someone you should pay attention to his website democracy at work is really worth checking out.

Watch the video - next time I will write more about another American myth and the solution to that fable too.

Russell