Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff

Episode: Economic Change and Personal Life Crises

Date: May 11, 2015
Host: Richard D. Wolff
Guest: Dr. Harriet Fraad (from 28:53)

Overview

This episode explores how macroeconomic changes since the 1970s—globalization, technological advancement, and the hollowing out of traditional working-class jobs—have deeply affected personal lives, especially family relationships and gender roles. Prof. Richard Wolff delivers his regular news updates on current economic events before turning to an extended interview with Dr. Harriet Fraad, a mental health counselor, on the intersection between economics and personal life crises, focusing on how the decline of stable, well-paying jobs and shifts in gender roles contribute to psychological and social distress.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Economic Updates from Richard Wolff

Airline Industry Oligopoly and Profits

• [02:55] The airline industry has consolidated into four companies (Delta, United, Southwest, and American/US Airways), allowing oligopolistic control.
  • Despite fuel prices dropping over 50%, ticket prices have not decreased, reflecting market control and prioritizing shareholder profits over consumer benefit.
  • Quote:

    "So the next time someone says to you how private capitalist enterprise is a way to get you the best possible service at the lowest possible price, smirk." — Richard Wolff [06:41]

Labor Issues in Berry Farming

• [09:00] Mexican farmworkers picking berries for Driscoll are striking due to "unspeakable" working conditions and extremely low wages ($7–8/day).
  • The supply chain involves Driscoll, Berrymex, and US Reiter.
  • Wolff urges consumers to be aware their consumption is tied to these exploitation chains.
  • Quote:

    "If you eat Driscoll berries, please understand that you are a beneficiary of unspeakable, inhumane treatment of tens of thousands of poor Mexican workers." — Richard Wolff [11:11]

"Recovery" in the Car Industry

• [13:36] Although more cars are being sold, a higher proportion of parts are produced abroad; workers' wages are lower ($10/hr, similar to Walmart/fast food jobs).
  • "Recovery" in profits does not mean recovery for workers.
  • Quote:

    "The days in which manufacturing could command an enormous premium over service kinds of jobs is over." — Richard Wolff [16:15]

Uber, Regulation, and Capitalist Cycles

• [17:15] Uber represents a return to unregulated capitalism, undermining regulated taxi industries and safety.
  • Reference to German courts blocking Uber over insurance concerns.
  • Quote:

    "That's all Uber is. It's got nothing to do about sharing economy. It's got nothing to do about new technology. ... Uber is simply going back to the wild west of capitalism." — Richard Wolff [18:41]

Sanctions on Russia

• [20:40] Sanctions claimed as effective have not worked; Russia's economy rebounded by turning inward.
  • Quote:

    "It's a long lesson of world politics that sanctions very rarely work. And they did not work in the case of Russia." — Richard Wolff [22:35]

Graduate School and the Humanities

• [23:32] Job prospects for humanities PhDs have collapsed: English PhD job openings halved from 2001 to 2013. No recovery post-2008.
  • New graduates are still enrolling, unaware of the job market collapse.
  • Quote:

    "Thousands and thousands of very upset young people who have spent years training for jobs that this system cannot and will not provide. That is an element of fundamental social dysfunction." — Richard Wolff [27:25]

Currency Manipulation and Worker Co-ops

• [28:00] Currency "manipulation" is universal among powerful states; not an issue for workers but for capitalists competing for export markets.
• [29:27] Even with worker-owned co-ops, he argues unions may play an important role as representative bodies.

2. Special Segment: Economics and Personal Life with Dr. Harriet Fraad

The Impact of Economic Change on Personal and Family Life

• [31:06] Dr. Fraad outlines the "personal fallout" from outsourcing and automation:
  • Until 1970, American (white) men had "family wages” allowing single breadwinner homes.
  • Since then, wages stopped rising; the traditional family model becomes unworkable.
  • Quote:

    "For 150 years, from 1820 to 1970, wages and profits rose together. White male workers got extra bonuses ... and got higher wages, in fact, called family wages, wages that could support a family. Well, that ended in the 1970s." — Dr. Harriet Fraad [31:57]

Collapse of the "Traditional American Family"

• [33:03] The family structure built on the male breadwinner collapses when stagnant wages mean women must work outside the home.
  • This transition is made more difficult by the lack of supportive policies: childcare, family leave, after-school activities.
  • Quote:

    "There's less child care, federally supported, quality childcare provided by our government now than was during World War II..." — Dr. Harriet Fraad [35:49]

Gender, Class, and Employment Shifts

• [37:50] "Mancession": 2008’s recession devastated male-dominated sectors (manufacturing, construction), while growth was in "female" jobs (healthcare, services).
  • Educational attainment now skews female; men are increasingly left behind in higher ed.

Social & Psychological Impacts on Men

• [39:51] Loss of provider role leads to crisis in masculine identity.
  • Divorce rates rise, especially where traditional roles are most strongly held.
  • Quote:

    "'I don't feel like a man at all. And now you have to go out and work at a job that you don't like. I feel like a failure.' … all over the United States, this has happened." — Dr. Harriet Fraad (paraphrasing a film) [39:51]

The Rise of Reactionary Social Movements

• [41:39] Scapegoating and denial of capitalism’s role; reactionary media (e.g., Limbaugh, O'Reilly) blame women, immigrants, minorities.
  • Traditional religion and organizations like the NRA offer men a refuge of "asserted dominance."
  • Quote:

    "Men found their way into these kinds of movements ... who want to assert their dominance and deny that capitalism has removed it gravitate towards these places." — Dr. Harriet Fraad [45:02]

"Men's Rights" and Misogynist Movements

• [45:34] Differentiating "men's rights" groups—which often resist new social roles from "father's rights" groups (who seek nurturing roles).
  • Economic emasculation sometimes expresses itself in violence; mass shooters are almost always men recently abandoned or fired.
  • Quote:

    "One thing about all those mass killers is they're men. They're very angry. … they've been denied a living wage and the ability to feel like providers..." — Dr. Harriet Fraad [47:09]

New Models and Coping Strategies

• [48:53] Economic hardship fuels new social arrangements:
  • Young adults remain single longer; marriage becomes a "luxury good" for the top 5%.
  • More people are cohabiting, forming communal homes, or co-housing arrangements.
• Policies in places like Sweden create supportive environments for these new structures, like collective apartments and social spaces.
  • Quote:

    "Only the top 5% have increased their marriage rates. The rest of the 95% haven't. So that these right wingers who push family values are pushing the destruction of the family they ostensibly espouse." — Dr. Harriet Fraad [49:33]

  • America's "family values" right-wingers ironically promote the very destruction they decry, by not addressing the economic drivers undermining families.

The Policy Gap and the Way Forward

• [53:59] The American right only pushes to restrict abortion, block gay marriage, and attack birth control, not to address economic family stressors.
  • Lack of paid maternity/paternity leave, universal childcare, and communal supports worsen the situation.
  • Quote:

    "The irony is all that the right wing really proposes is to abolish abortion. Have you go to church and block gay people from getting married. Things that don't go to any of the fundamental forces that are disrupting personal and family life..." — Richard Wolff [53:59]

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• Airline Oligopoly:

  "They are using their market control, these four mega corporations, to take for themselves as higher profits for their shareholders. ... Not the consumer, not the air traveler, not you." — Richard Wolff [06:00]

• Driscoll Berries Strike:

  "If it makes it taste a little less, well, good, that will be a lesson in remembering that an economy isn’t only about consumption. It's also about work and the conditions of work..." — Richard Wolff [12:30]

• Uber as Capitalist Recurrence:

  "It's simply going back to the wild west of capitalism." — Richard Wolff [18:41]

• On the Collapse of Humanities PhD Market:

  "Thousands and thousands of very upset young people who have spent years training for jobs that this system cannot and will not provide. That is an element of fundamental social dysfunction." — Richard Wolff [27:25]

• On Changing Gender Roles:

  "Men were unmanned in their own eyes. And this was a terrible blow." — Dr. Harriet Fraad [39:53]

• On Marriage as a 'Luxury Good':

  "Marriage is a luxury good for the mass of Americans. Only the top 5% have increased their marriage rates." — Dr. Harriet Fraad [48:53]

• On Reactionary Family Policy:

  "All the right wing really proposes is to abolish abortion … and block gay people from getting married. Things that don't go to any of the fundamental forces that are disrupting personal and family life..." — Richard Wolff [53:59]

Important Segment Timestamps

| Time | Segment | |-----------|----------------------------------------------| | 00:00 | Opening remarks and local event plug | | 02:55 | Update: US airline industry oligopoly | | 09:00 | Update: Mexican berry pickers' strike | | 13:36 | Update: Car industry "recovery" | | 17:15 | Update: Uber, taxis, and capitalism | | 20:40 | Update: Russian sanctions effectiveness | | 23:32 | Update: Graduate school, humanities jobs | | 28:00 | Update: Currency manipulation, worker coops | | 28:53 | Dr. Harriet Fraad segment begins | | 31:06 | Fraad on economic change and personal fallout| | 35:49 | Lack of family supports in the US | | 37:50 | Gendered impact of the 2008 recession | | 39:51 | Masculinity crisis and family breakdown | | 41:39 | Rise of scapegoating and social reaction | | 45:34 | "Men's Rights" movement and social violence | | 48:53 | New models of family and coping | | 53:59 | Critique of right-wing policy responses | | 55:05 | Closing remarks and sign-off |

Summary & Takeaway

This episode powerfully connects economic structures to personal crises:

• The broad economic shift since the 1970s has dismantled the traditional American family, especially for working-class whites.
• Economic insecurity has altered gender roles, creating psychological distress, identity crises for men, and new social tensions.
• Reactionary responses blame immigrants, women, and minorities instead of focusing on the underlying profit-driven, capitalist decisions.
• The right wing champions "family values" while blocking the kinds of economic reforms (childcare, leave, communal supports) that would actually strengthen families.
• Despite the negativity, Dr. Fraad notes positive adaptations: new models of communal living, gender equality, and the potential for supportive policy based on best practices from other countries.

In Dr. Fraad’s words:

"What we have to see is that ... capitalism has destroyed the family and also prevents money to be given that would help support the alternatives people are creating to cope with the precarity of their situation, not only economically but personally, with great suffering around that." [53:10]

A call to action:

• Understand the true economic roots of family and psychological distress.
• Advocate for policies that support adaptation—universal childcare, maternity/paternity leave, communal spaces.

For more resources and details on upcoming events, visit Prof. Wolff’s websites: rdwolff.com and democracyatwork.info