Parallel between feudalism withthe bubonic plague and capitalism with the Coronavirus

[Milos Uzelac]

Marxist economist and profesor Richard Wolff gives brief parallels, between the social and economic state in European feudal society in the Middle ages at the time of the outbreak of the bubonic plague and the current Coronavirus pandemic outbreak impact on the contemporary capitalist society in the U. S. and the rest of world economy interconnected with it, from an economic and social state analysis POV. 

Note: I recomend for those who are struggling, like myself in certain instances of the video, with following up on and understanding his fast economic terminological speech and various descriptive analogies that are part of his narrative style, to turn on the auto-generated English captions at the at the settings bar below the video. 

Be well and stay safe all of you, especially in the U. S in the wake of these desperation and fear enforced and "pétrie dish" protests. 

Edited April 21, 2020 by Milos Uzelac

[Roy]

Don't know why he's bringing up feudalism other than to make a comparison that paints capitalism as barbaric. He's not really saying anything other than the obvious, "Pandemics are bad for human activity mmmkay?"

Of course there are problems with the current system. It's rampant, reckless, and disregards supporting many necessary structures in pursuit of greed. That's not quite just the system but more of a problem with poor leadership and American idealism of freedom that everyone should captain their own ship, which obviously fails on a macro scale 21st century for many people. It might have been ideal for nation building in the 1800's and early 1900's but not anymore.

Think of modern capitalism (in America mostly) as a work dog on a farm that isn't being tamed properly. If you don't discipline it or put it on a leash when there is food around, it will eat everything in the room and starve itself for the future. It just needs a stronger leash and a better owner (government) but it's still an effective work dog.

The virus is just showing capitalism's limits. The correct path is a post-capitalist socialism in countries like Denmark where they invest a reasonable amount of the excess back into the society democratically (That will never happen in the US for at least 25-35 years though, a lot more older generations needs to die for that kind of narrative progress).

The problem is we have is that there isn't really any other viable systems to generate the kind of wealth we would need to weather something like this. They are all weak dog breeds that can't work on a farm properly. The idea that we'd be better off under from this under an initially more interconnected social system, government run or not is a farce and naively goes against everything we know about human nature.

The Marxist and Anarchist conversation has been played out so much it's so dry and just fucking annoying at this point. It just doesn't map onto reality and is a waste of time discussing.

 

Edited April 21, 2020 by Roy

[Milos Uzelac]

@Roy Read all your points, thanks for setting time a part to write them out, here will articulate some of my viewpoints regarding this after I finish some of my procrastinated commitments. 

[Peter-Andre]

@Roy

On 4/21/2020 at 9:57 PM, Roy said:

The correct path is a post-capitalist socialism in countries like Denmark...

I'd just like to point out that Denmark is a capitalist country, not a socialist one. It might have elements of socialism here and there, but is no doubt still a capitalist country. Although it seems like we might have different notions of what the terms socialism and capitalism mean, so maybe that's why we disagree. I use them in the more traditional sense where socialism is a system based on social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to capitalism, which is based on private ownership of the means of production (which is what they have in Denmark).