Podcast Summary: Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff

Episode: Capitalism Equals Class Warfare

Date: November 18, 2025
Host: Richard D. Wolff (Democracy at Work)

Overview

In this episode, Richard D. Wolff explores the fundamental nature of capitalism as a system inherently defined by class conflict. By drawing both from current events and long-term historical trends, Wolff unpacks how class warfare is not only a feature of capitalism but a constant force shaping wages, jobs, social relations, prices, and government policy. The episode is structured around practical examples—strikes, workplace dynamics, tariffs, inflation, and unemployment—aimed at empowering listeners to recognize and critically analyze these ever-present conflicts.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Capitalism as Continuous Class Warfare

• Wolff sets out his thesis: Capitalism is a system that has always fostered class struggle, not just during visible moments like strikes, but also in less obvious, everyday ways.
• Quote [04:22]:

  "Capitalism as a system has always been, and I want to underscore the word always, has always been a place where classes struggle, where class warfare is going on." – Richard D. Wolff

2. Visible and Invisible Class Conflict

• Strikes as Open Class War:

  • Example: The 51,000 schoolteachers' strike in Alberta, Canada, which was forcibly ended by the government invoking a "notwithstanding clause."
  • Quote [06:10]:

    "Employers who don't want to pay taxes control the government, use it against it. That's class warfare. That's the kind you know, you recognize, you see it more and more." – Richard D. Wolff

• Workplace Dynamics as Everyday Class Conflict:

  • Employers are always seeking to "save on labor costs," leading to recurring conflicts.

  • Three main capitalist strategies:

    • Automation: Replacing workers with machines (now with AI as a new frontier).
    • Offshoring: Closing factories in higher-wage locations and moving them abroad for cheaper labor.
    • Labor Arbitrage: Hiring less expensive workers (children, women, immigrants) and resisting movements for equal pay or protections.

  • Quote [09:28]:

    "The whole history of capitalism is that... bringing cheaper workers, children, women, immigrants in, has been a plot and a ploy of the capitalist class struggle from day one." – Richard D. Wolff

3. Consequences of Capitalist Class War

• Social impacts of capitalist decisions—job loss, weakened communities, and social instability—are not the concern of employers, only the bottom line is.

• The system offers employers incentives to reduce wages and labor costs and punishes them if they do not comply.

• Quote [12:56]:

  "It brings into the life of all societies that have capitalism the concept of endless conflict. We are all working for an employer who's trying to figure out how to give us less for the work we do..." – Richard D. Wolff

Second Half: Systemic Class Struggle Beyond the Workplace

4. Tariffs as Class War by Other Means

• Debunking Political Narratives:

  • Tariffs are presented as attacking other nations, but in reality, they are taxes imposed on domestic businesses and, by extension, on consumers.
  • Example: Trump's tariffs, paired with recent corporate tax cuts, ultimately benefit business owners while shifting the burden to workers and consumers.

• Quote [21:41]:

  "Tariffs are not put by one country on another. That's not what a tariff is. A tariff is a tax... The tariffs are paid by the Americans, not by foreigners." – Richard D. Wolff

• Businesses simply offset tariffs either by raising prices for consumers or by laying off workers—classic examples of class war in operation.

• Quote [26:20]:

  "Don't tell me there isn't class struggle. Mr. Trump is doing exactly what the business community of this country wants. Don't burden us, burden the working class." – Richard D. Wolff

5. Inflation as Class Struggle

• Who Sets Prices? Only a small minority—the capitalist class—decides on prices and wages.
• Workers and consumers are on the receiving end, excluded from price-setting but forced to pay or accept lower wages.
• Quote [29:17]:

  "They set the prices, we take the prices. We pay, they collect." – Richard D. Wolff

6. Unemployment is a Structural Weapon

• Hiring and firing are dictated by the profit motives of employers alone. Large-scale unemployment is a business decision—not a societal responsibility in the eyes of the system.
• Quote [32:43]:

  "The employer hires you if it's profitable for the employer to do so. If it isn't, you're fired... It's a class war. Whether you admit it or not, whether you see it or not, that's a whole other question." – Richard D. Wolff

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (w/Timestamps)

• [04:22] Wolff on the inevitability of class struggle:

  "Capitalism... has always been a place where classes struggle, where class warfare is going on."

• [09:28] On labor cost strategies throughout capitalist history:

  "Bringing cheaper workers, children, women, immigrants in, has been a plot and a ploy of the capitalist class struggle from day one."

• [21:41] On who really pays tariffs:

  "Tariffs are not put by one country on another... The tariffs are paid by the Americans, not by foreigners."

• [29:17] Describing the power dynamic in price-setting:

  "They set the prices, we take the prices. We pay, they collect."

• [32:43] On profit as the sole guide for employment decisions:

  "The employer hires you if it's profitable for the employer to do so... It's a class war."

Key Segment Timestamps

• [04:22] – Capitalism’s "always-on" class struggle
• [06:10] – Alberta teachers’ strike: open class warfare
• [09:00] – Tactics: automation, offshoring, labor arbitrage
• [12:56] – Endless social conflict as a capitalist byproduct
• [21:41] – Tariffs as domestic class conflict
• [26:20] – Tariff burden shift: consumers and working class pay
• [29:17] – Pricing power: employers vs. workers
• [32:43] – Unemployment: profit over people

Closing Message

Wolff concludes by urging listeners to "see it when it’s all around you"—to recognize the omnipresence of class struggle under capitalism, not as an accident but as a feature of the system, and to believe that it is possible—and necessary—to imagine and build better, less conflict-ridden economic arrangements.

[34:15] Closing:

"We don't have to live like this... The problem is capitalism, which, if anything, is the message of this program... We can do better than that." – Richard D. Wolff