Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff

Episode: Fighting Economic Justice
Date: July 14, 2015

Episode Overview

In this episode, Professor Richard D. Wolff examines current economic injustices and their impact on workers, focusing on issues such as wage stagnation, corporate exploitation through misclassification of workers, attacks on public education funding, and the mechanics of international trade agreements. The second half features an interview with Professor Kristin Ross, exploring the legacy and contemporary relevance of the Paris Commune as a model for egalitarian, participatory social organization.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Economic Updates and Corporate Exploitation

Falling Real Wages in a "Recovery" Economy

• Wolff discusses the contradiction between reports of economic recovery and actual wage stagnation.
  • "If you have a recovering economy, you don't typically see a month of not only not increase, but an actual decrease in the real wage per hour and the real wage per week of the average American worker.” (00:33)

Unpaid Internships and Corporate Practices at Goldman Sachs

• Corporations take advantage of young, unpaid interns—ostensibly for experience, but actually to exploit free labor.
• Wolff highlights Goldman Sachs’ new intern policy:
  • Interns are told not to leave before midnight and must return by 7am, leaving only a small window for rest.
  • Quote:
    • "You have to be interesting, you have to have interests away from the narrow thing of what you do ... you have to be somebody who somebody else wants to talk to." – Lloyd Blankfein, paraphrased by Wolff (03:44)
    • Wolff’s ironic commentary: “Mr. Blankfein is leaving you seven hours from midnight to seven in the morning to become an interesting person.” (04:35)

Worker Misclassification: FedEx and Uber Cases

• California court finds FedEx guilty of misclassifying employees as independent contractors to avoid legal and financial obligations, resulting in a $228 million fine.
  • Companies use classification to avoid paying overtime, benefits, and payroll taxes; shift business expenses onto workers.
  • “Corporations hire people to figure out how to do these kinds of things ... for years they've been able to make extra money ... by abusing their workers.” (11:10)
• Uber in California faces similar legal challenges for classifying drivers as independent contractors, mirroring FedEx’s tactics.
  • Broader significance: many companies use this “independent contractor gambit” to undercut costs and weaken worker protections.

Wisconsin’s Attack on Public Education Funding

• Governor Scott Walker and state Republicans cut the University of Wisconsin’s budget by $250 million despite its status as a top public university.
  • Context: Already spending below the national average per student, this further diminishes higher education quality and accessibility.
  • "If you diminish ... the quality and the quantity of education that you provide, you are undercutting the economic future of this country." (20:14)
  • Interlinked with corporate interests seeking to avoid funding public goods as they offshore jobs.

2. The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)

(Begins at 24:40)

• TPP negotiations are secretive and fast-tracked by the Obama administration, excluding labor and environmental groups.
• Wolff explains why many labor, environmental, and some corporate interests oppose the TPP:
  • Trade deals are designed primarily with corporate profit in mind, often sacrificing labor and environmental standards.
  • Disunity among businesses: Some expect to benefit, others fear losses.
  • The defeat of “fast track” authority was due to rare alignment between labor, environmentalists, and business sectors who saw risks in the deal.
  • "Every trade deal ever worked out by the United States and other countries ... involves ... corporations see enormous advantages if the deal is written this way." (25:45)
  • Wolff provides insight into the political horse-trading that might still see the TPP approved.

Interview Segment: Professor Kristin Ross on the Paris Commune

(Begins at 27:38)

Background of the Paris Commune

• After the failed Franco-Prussian war, Parisian workers briefly governed the city after government forces withdrew.
• For 72 days, workers experimented with new forms of social organization: "association, participation, cooperation."
  • "An incredible living, breathing example of what non-capitalist everyday life might look like." – Kristin Ross (28:46)
• The state violently suppressed the Commune; but the survivors continued to influence radical thought, e.g., Karl Marx, Peter Kropotkin, William Morris.

Relevance to Contemporary Society

• Ross draws parallels between 19th-century worker precarity and present-day conditions for young people, citing the rise of unpaid internships and unstable work.
  • "The incredible precariousness ... bears an enormous resemblance to the way that the artisans and workers who made the Commune lived in the 19th century." (31:02)
• The resurgence of occupation as a political tactic post-2011 recalls the spirit of the Commune (e.g., Occupy Wall Street, global protests).

Lessons (or Not) from the Commune

• Ross discourages seeking simple "lessons” from history, instead viewing the Commune as a resourceful archive for thinking about alternatives.
  • "I actually don't think that the past has a pedagogical relationship to the present. I think the past actually teaches us nothing." (33:59)
• Key feature: The dismantling (not smashing) of social hierarchies—gender, class, education.
  • "They dismantled it step by step. All of the hierarchies...the hierarchies that would privilege boys over girls in the education system." (36:03)

Spontaneity and Social Transformation

• Wolff: The Paris Commune shows how quickly people’s creativity can be unleashed when existing structures are swept aside.
  • "When it becomes believable to people that the change could actually happen...there's an outpouring of energy that carries everything before it..." (41:24)
• Ross describes the communal joy and competence ordinary people expressed in self-governance.
  • "The joy that came about when anybody, anywhere was performing a task that had been previously thought to be the task that only an elite or a specialized person could perform, and anybody, anywhere was performing it from ... a worker's salary." (39:11)

Violence: State vs. Popular Movements

• The violence perpetrated by the state in crushing the Commune far exceeded anything the Communards enacted.
  • "The violence at the beginning is tiny compared to the violence vented on the Commune by the returning state. That there's no comparison here." – Richard Wolff (44:16)
  • Significant for framing debates about revolutionary and state violence on the left.

The Commune’s Memory in France

• The Paris Commune is largely omitted from official school curricula, except for sanitized or tragic symbolism.
  • "If you didn't, and you were simply relying on the school system, nothing, nothing, nothing." – Kristin Ross (48:38)
• Among French activists, the Commune is influential—especially for radical ecological movements using occupation as protest.
  • "They very much see themselves in the lineage of the Paris Commune." (51:40)

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On Corporate Exploitation of Labor:
  "For years they've been able to make extra money ... by abusing their workers." – Richard D. Wolff, referencing FedEx and the business school graduates who design these schemes (11:10)

• On Education Funding Cuts:
  "If you diminish ... the quality and the quantity of education that you provide, you are undercutting the economic future of this country." – Richard D. Wolff (20:14)

• On Historical Relevance:
  "The past actually teaches us nothing ... I'm interested in history more, as I say, as a kind of usable archive." – Kristin Ross (33:59)

• On the Paris Commune’s Egalitarian Spirit:
  "They dismantled [the state] step by step. All of the hierarchies ... privilege a painter or a sculptor over an industrial designer ... privilege boys over girls in the education system..." – Kristin Ross (36:03)

• On Contemporary Echoes:
  "The incredible precariousness ... bears an enormous resemblance to the way that the artisans and workers who made the Commune lived in the 19th century." – Kristin Ross (31:02)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Falling Wages & Intern Exploitation (Goldman Sachs): 00:02–06:00
• FedEx Worker Misclassification and Court Ruling: 06:00–15:30
• Wisconsin University Budget Cuts: 15:30–22:45
• Uber and Ongoing Labor Manipulation: 22:45–24:40
• The Trans Pacific Partnership and Trade Politics: 24:40–27:37
• Interview: Paris Commune—History & Relevance (Prof. Kristin Ross): 27:38–52:01

Conclusion

This episode delivers a critical analysis of the systemic challenges facing workers—wage stagnation, employment misclassification, gutting of public education, and trade policies devised in secrecy for corporate benefit. The interview with Kristin Ross grounds contemporary struggles for workplace democracy and justice in the radical legacy of the Paris Commune, drawing sharp, relevant connections between historic and modern movements for economic justice.

To learn more: Visit rdwolff.com and democracyatwork.info for archives, resources, and opportunities for engagement.